Horrifying X-ray images show a man’s body riddled with tapeworm eggs after a vital kitchen mistake led to an invasion of parasites.
Dr. Sam Ghali, an emergency medicine physician at the University of Florida, took to social media to share an image of a patient with telltale signs of a parasitic infection called cysticercosis.
Cysticercosis occurs when the larvae of a species of tapeworm enter tissues such as muscle or even the brain.
The tapeworm responsible for the infection enters the human body by consuming its eggs.
These eggs can be found in undercooked pork and Dr. Ghali says this x-ray serves as a great lesson to “always do your best to stay clean, wash your hands and never, under any circumstances, eat meat.” raw or undercooked pork.
Once ingested, tapeworms form hard calcified cysts or dead “zombie” eggs, which may feel like lumps under the skin and appear like white, oval “rice grain” nodules on medical scans.
In the image shared by Dr. Ghali, a man’s pelvis can be seen speckled with hundreds of these calcified cysts.
In a running commentary, the medical expert notes: “They are everywhere and they are countless, you can’t even begin to count them all.”
‘Now these cysts can travel to any part of the body. In this patient, they have traveled far to the soft tissues of the hips and legs.
Dr. Sam Ghali, an emergency medicine physician at the University of Florida, took to social media to share an image of a patient with telltale signs of a parasitic infection called cysticercosis.
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While unpleasant, Dr. Ghali notes that the larvae are generally harmless, as they do not survive outside the intestine.
However, cysts can cause problems if they develop in the brain.
In fact, Dr. Ghali says the unnamed patient didn’t know he had tapeworm cysts in his body and that the x-ray was taken after he fell and complained of hip pain.
Once in the body, tapeworm eggs can develop into adult tapeworms in a person’s intestine, but this does not directly result in cysticercosis.
Instead, cysticercosis occurs when infected people transmit tapeworm eggs to other people through their feces.
Writing previously in
This transmission occurs primarily through infected people who do not properly wash their hands after using the bathroom, although eggs can also be passed through water contaminated with fecal matter.

The tapeworm responsible for the infection enters the human body by consuming its eggs. These eggs can be found in undercooked pork.
Once ingested in this way, the eggs release larvae that can pass into the bloodstream and end up in places such as muscles or other organs.
Here they are destroyed by the body’s immune system and form hard cysts.
Headaches and even seizures are common when cysts enter the brain, as well as confusion, dizziness, and a potentially fatal condition called hydrocephalus, an excess of fluid in the brain.
In these cases, surgery is usually required to remove the cysts.
Cysts can also cause problems if they reach the eyes, causing blurred or altered vision and potentially triggering an infection.
The cysts themselves may develop only months or years after initial infection with tapeworm eggs.
The tapeworm that can cause cysticercosis is a species called Taenia solium, also known as the pig tapeworm.
The World Health Organization estimates that Taenia solium larval cysts that develop in the brain are responsible for up to 70 percent of epilepsy cases in some parts of the world.

Even more extraordinary infections have been recorded in the past; here is an example from a patient from Brazil
About 2.5 million people are thought to be infected with Taenia solium each year, most often in the poorer regions of Asia, South America and Eastern Europe.
Dr Ghali said: “The prognosis for cysticercosis is generally good, but unfortunately some cases are fatal.
‘It is estimated that around 50 million people worldwide are infected each year, resulting in around 50,000 deaths.
“So the moral of the story here is do your best to stay clean, always wash your hands and never eat raw or undercooked pork.”
While the scan shared by Dr. Ghali is shocking, many similar cases have been recorded around the world.
This includes a serious infestation shared by a doctor in Brazil in 2023.
Like Dr. Ghali, the Brazilian doctor warned people: “Don’t you want to get infected?” Wash your food well before consuming it.’