A man in Brazil, who visited a doctor at a hospital complaining of cough, was shocked after the test results showed remains of dozens of tapeworm larvae. Dr Vitor Borin P de Souza, a practitioner at the Hospital das Clinicas Botucat in Sao Paulo, shared the X-ray images of the horrifying diagnosis on Twitter where it generated a lot of debate. The doctor later deleted the Twitter thread, but it had already gone viral and reported by several news outlets.
According to UK-based Metro, the doctor said the man was suffering from cysticerosis, a condition where tapeworm larvae usually found in people's intestines wriggle elsewhere.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that the condition is called taeniasis and can be caused by different tapeworms. But only Taenia solium, also called the pork tapeworm, causes major health problems, WHO further said.
The main reason for humans getting infected by cysticerosis is if they consume undercooked food, such as pork with eggs of the tapeworms inside.
"Cysticercosis is acquired from ingestion of tapeworm eggs (present in the faeces of humans with tapeworms). Don't want to (catch) it? Wash your food well before consuming," Dr de Souza said about the diagnosis.
According to experts, cysts sometimes take months or even years to develop after a person eats tapeworm eggs.
But ingestion of tapeworms is not considered very harmful, as the cysts can be removed easily though surgery or through medicines.
