Not For The Faint Of Heart: Ultrasound Shows Parasitic Roundworms Wriggling Inside Man's Stomach

When a 20-year-old man from New Delhi approached doctors and complained about abdominal pain, diarrhoea and nausea, no one in the room was expecting to find a bunch of parasitic roundworms using the man's stomach for a swimming pool.

This nightmare came to life after the doctors ordered an ultrasound of the inferior vena cava near the abdomen. Scroll down only if you've not lost your lunch yet.

The New England Journal of Medicine

AIIMS doctors Vivek Chaurasia, M.B., B.S., and Sanjeev Bhoi, M.B., B.S., M.D., whose findings were published in The New England Journal of Medicine, spoke of a 'tubular' echogenic structure that moved with a 'curling motion' inside the man's tummy. A stool sample confirmed the presence of eggs from Ascaris lumbricoides, a large roundworm that can grow up to 14 inches in length and is usually found in the intestines.

Also read: Tongue-Eating Parasite Doubles Up As A Live Tongue On Fish To Feed Off Them

The New England Journal of Medicine

But these doctors probably didn't have it as bad as the Chinese medics who had to remove 20 live worms from a 60-year-old man's eye. The man identified as Wan, found himself in Suzhou Hospital complaining of pain in his eye. A quick look at things under the hood, in this case the right eye, revealed roundworms, parasites that are usually found in animals and plants.

Also Read: Chinese Man¡¯s Lungs Filled Up With Worms After Eating Raw Snake

Representational image/Wikimedia

In a slightly disturbing example of anthropomorphism, a 2006 New York Times article spoke of researchers at the University of Michigan¡¯s Life Sciences Institute having discovered that C. elegans (Caenorhabditis elegans), a transparent nematode, could 'feel' the craving of the human host they were renting space from. More clearly, C. elegans are probably as addicted to nicotine as you, and that includes the withdrawal symptoms they feel when deprived of the chemical stimulation.

Sweet dreams...