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An ultrasound of a man’s stomach caught some unwelcome inhabitants – a tangle of parasitic nematodes wiggling around, according to a new report.
The 20-year-old, who lives in New Delhi, went to the emergency room after experiencing abdominal pain, diarrhea and vomiting for a day, according to the report, published on Saturday (Nov.21) in The New England Journal of Medicine. The man had previously been in good health with no known medical conditions.
Tests showed the man had high levels of white blood cells, which can indicate an infection. He also had high levels of hemoglobin, a protein in the blood that carries oxygen. The latter finding may indicate a number of conditions, from dehydration to blood cancer, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Doctors performed an ultrasound of the inferior vena cava, a large vein near the abdomen, to check the fluid levels in her blood vessels. But during this process, they observed a “tubular structure … moving in a curving motion” inside his stomach, the authors wrote.
Related: 8 terrible parasite infections that will make your skin crawl
The doctors then asked the man for a stool sample, which they examined for parasites. They found that his feces contained nematode eggs Ascaris lumbricoides, a type of intestinal parasite.
A. lumbricoides is one of the most common human parasitic worms in the world. Between 800 million and 1.2 billion people are estimated to have done so A. lumbricoides in their intestinal tracts, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These worms can grow up to 14 inches (35 centimeters) in length. Although relatively rare in the United States, the worm is most often found in tropical and subtropical areas with poor sanitation systems and a lack of access to sanitation supplies, the CDC says. The worm is extremely common in India, Live Science previously reported.
People become infected with the worm when they ingest the parasite’s eggs and this can happen when people eat fruit or vegetables that have been grown in contaminated soil, According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Soil can be contaminated if human feces are used as fertilizer or if infected people defecate outside. People can also get infected if their hands become contaminated with this soil and they don’t wash their hands.
The disease can be treated with antiparasitic drugs. In this case, the man received an anti-parasite drug called albendazole and was discharged from the hospital after one day. On a follow-up visit two weeks later, the man said he felt fine and passed the worms in his stool.
In areas where this worm is common, ways to prevent infection include washing hands with soap and water before handling food; wash, peel or cook raw vegetables before eating them; and avoid contact with soil that can be contaminated with human feces, the CDC says.
Originally published in Live Science.
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