Also based on the picture it was in the right pre frontal cortex. Interesting because most people won't have much in terms of neurologic symptoms with a lesion here, outside of some subtle mood and executive dysfunction issues maybe. You won't get like language problems, weakness, numbness, vision loss etc or more obvious symptoms like you would with brain damage other places. Worm found a stealthy spot in the brain to hide in.
Human induced. Habitat destruction drives more species into more human populated regions
animals many people wouldn't get into contact with (be it with animal waste or any other way) happens way more often > chances of diseases formerly only present in certain animals adapting to have human hosts increases
For the bit about brain worms being plot important? If so, yep! It’s pretty much the premise of the intro; you’re kidnapped by Lovecraftian-esque beings called “mind flayers” who take you aboard their organic spaceship and have one of their tadpoles wriggle into your brain. Hijinks ensue, and can include tough choices such as “do you resist your violent urges or cut off the funny magic man’s hand?”, “should you condemn a child to death because they committed petty larceny?”, and “do you want to have fuck with the bear?”
Unironically this; it really doesn't belong in this sub (not the first file time I've seen something like this). I'm guessing the poster saw the word 'Australian' and thought that was enough.
It was a fairly regular day on the ward for Canberra hospital infectious diseases physician Dr Sanjaya Senanayake, until a neurosurgeon colleague called him and said: “Oh my god, you wouldn’t believe what I just found in this lady’s brain – and it’s alive and wriggling.”
The neurosurgeon, Dr Hari Priya Bandi, had pulled an 8cm-long parasitic roundworm from her patient, prompting her to call on Senanayake and other hospital colleagues for advice about what to do next.
The patient, a 64-year-old woman from south-eastern New South Wales, was first admitted to her local hospital in late January 2021 after suffering three weeks of abdominal pain and diarrhoea, followed by a constant dry cough, fever and night sweats.
The surprising discovery prompted a team at the hospital to quickly come together to uncover what kind of roundworm it was and, most importantly, decide on any further treatment the patient might require.
Senanayake, who is also an infectious diseases expert based at the Australian National University, said the patient needed to be treated for other larvae that might have invaded other parts of her body, such as the liver.
The patient is recovering well and is still being regularly monitored, Senanayake said, and researchers are exploring whether a pre-existing medical condition that caused her to be immunocompromised could have led to the larvae taking hold.
The original article contains 803 words, the summary contains 224 words. Saved 72%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
So we got covid, Canada and Hawaii burning, a hurricane in southern California, a right wing insurrection in the US, and microplastics in everything. What's next? Brainworms, of course!
What's truly horrifying is the caliber of shit that didn't make it to your list. We've already forgotten crazy shit from only like 2 years ago. Does anybody even remember murder hornets or that polar vortex arctic freeze thing?
Is the news fucking insane nowadays or was I just not really paying attention until ten years ago?
With the actual worm they pulled it out and presumably cleaned up the bit of her brain where it resided.
For the rest I guess they made her take something that kills nematode parasites, and some strong anti inflammatories?
said the patient needed to be treated for other larvae that might have invaded other parts of her body, such as the liver. But given no patient had ever been treated for the parasite before, care was taken. Some medications for example could trigger inflammation as the larvae died off. Inflammation can be harmful to organs such as the brain, so they also needed to administer medications to counteract any dangerous side-effects.
Probably something like this. There is an entire class of drug rarely needed that does exactly this thing, but won't kill a fully formed spawn of an egg that wandered into the bloodstream. Antiparasitic drugs are rough, but save thousands of lives per years where this type of parasite is an issue. This case is exactly why doctors may ask if you've traveled recently, and to where.
The article doesn't really get into it, but the paper they linked to goes into further detail to answer your question.
The patient received 2 days of ivermectin (200 µg/kg/d) and 4 weeks of albendazole (400 mg 2×/d). She was given a weaning course of dexamethasone (starting 4 mg 2×/d) over 10 weeks, while all other immunosuppression was discontinued. Six months after surgery (3 months after ceasing dexamethasone), the patient’s PBEC remained normal. Neuropsychiatric symptoms had improved but persisted.
JESUS FUCKING CHRIST I HATE CAPITALISM AND CORPO SPEAK FOR FUCKS SAKE CAN WE TALK ABOUT HUMAN BEINGS OUTSIDE OF THE WORK THEY DO FOR A LIVING FOR FUCKS SAKE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Oh my god, even you are missing the fucking point if you are distracted by this. Aaaaaa
Can we stop making our reactions about this kind of thing about the big "corporate" we are telling others to stop making it about?
I mean come on guys a fucking worm was eating a woman's brain and you are pissed someone said, "this is probably only something I will find once in my career." As if a researcher themselves can't be intrigued, excited, and any other human emotion about their fucking work?