Tapeworms Found In Brain of US Man Who Ate Undercooked Bacon

The Guardian, March 13, 2024. - Parasitic larvae discovered after unexplained weekly migraines failed to respond to medication

Parasitic tapeworm larvae have been found in a man’s brain following weeks of worsening migraines, which researchers believe were caused by his consumption of undercooked bacon. In a report released last week, the American Journal of Case Reports documented an unidentified 52-year-old American man who was experiencing weekly migraines that were unresponsive to medication.

The man denied traveling to “high-risk areas [for] food security and lived at home with his wife and cat in a modern home”, according to the report. Upon further questioning, the man revealed that he did have a preference for “lightly cooked, non-crispy bacon” which he ate for most of his life.

Following a CT scan on the man, Florida researchers found numerous fluid-filled sacs, or cystic foci, in his brain. With no mass effects of a possible tumor growing on his brain or hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluids in brain cavities, researchers were suspicious for congenital neuroglial cysts. After being admitted to the hospital, the man tested positive for cysticercosis cyst antibodies.

He was then diagnosed with neurocysticercosis, a preventable parasitic infection caused by larval systems from the pork tapeworm Taenia solium. “It can only be speculated, but given our patient’s predilection for undercooked pork and benign exposure history, we favor that his cysticercosis was transmitted via autoinfection after improper handwashing after he had contracted taeniasis himself from his eating habits,” researchers said...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/13/brain-tapeworms-undercooked-bacon

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