A worm-like parasite lived in a woman’s eye for two years, and doctors believe it entered her body after she ate crocodile meat.....CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
The infected 28-year-old woman, from the town of Basankusu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, went to the doctor after developing a mass in the corner of her left eye. It turned out to be a living bug, which is related to a shrimp, nearly half an inch long.
According to a paper in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology, the parasite had grown to around 0.4 inches, and had embedded itself behind the eyelid. The woman’s condition is known as ocular pentastomiasis, named after the parasite, known as a pentastomid or tongue worm. And scientists linked it to the woman’s diet, which included crocodile meat.
“Pentastomids look worm-like, but are actually modified crustaceans, so they are related to shrimps,” study author Dennis Tappe told Newsweek. “They are associated with reptiles (most often snakes, but also lizards and crocodiles), less so with amphibians, which all form their natural hosts.”
“They live in the upper respiratory tract of these animals. Humans get infected by orally taking up ova from the parasites which are shed by reptiles into the environment by feces and oral secretions,” added Tappe, a parasite researcher at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Germany….CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
