A 33-year-old woman suffered a fatal rupture of her liver after a worm laid eggs inside her abdomen.
The farmer, from Tunisia, was infected with a parasite similar to the one believed to have infected the brain of US presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
His case was revealed this week in an American medical journal by doctors who want to raise awareness about the infection that has been dubbed a silent killer.
The alarming symptoms that led the woman to visit the emergency room were severe stomach cramps, fever, and yellowing of the eyes and skin that persisted for three days.
Scans performed by an anonymous 33-year-old woman in Tunisia show the patient’s liver. The arrow points to a small cyst and blocked bile duct, caused by a tapeworm.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in 2012 that he experienced short-term memory loss and mental confusion after a worm ate part of his brain and then died.
Blood tests revealed that inflammatory markers called C-reactive proteins were more than 20 times the normal level, suggesting possible liver damage.
Doctors discovered that a cyst had ruptured in the bile duct, which transports fluids to and from the liver.
It was later discovered that the organ damage had been caused by a gruesome growth called Echinococcus granulosus, a two to seven millimeter tapeworm.
The nasty parasite triggers a life-threatening infection, hydatid disease, also known as cystic echinococcosis.
Worms usually live in animals such as sheep, cows, goats, pigs and dogs. They most often infect people in poor rural countries who work with livestock, which could explain how the patient, a farmer, came into contact with the worm.
It is not clear when the patient was infected, although symptoms may take several years to appear.
Between two and three million people become infected with hydatid disease, and up to 90 percent of patients can die 10 to 15 years after infection if they do not receive treatment.
Two days after being admitted to the hospital, doctors performed surgery to remove the cyst and drain excess bile.
The patient spent 15 days in the hospital receiving fluids and antibiotics before being discharged.
He also received three courses of take-home antibiotics and had no problems at six-month follow-up.
Although the disease is rare in North America, doctors who treated the Tunisian patient warned that hydatid disease “poses a significant public health problem” in rural Africa, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Central and South America. .
The case is similar to that of RFK Jr, who experienced short-term memory loss and mental confusion in 2010, according to a recent study. New York Times investigation.
The presidential hopeful, now 70, feared he had cancer, but scans revealed a dead parasite had eaten away part of his brain.
RFK Jr has not confirmed which parasite he had, although some experts suggest he had neurocysticercosis, caused by the pig tapeworm Taenia solium.
This condition hospitalizes approximately 2,000 Americans.
He said he probably came into contact with the worm during a trip to South America.
The Tunisian case was published in the American Journal of Case Reports.