Neurosurgeon stunned by brain worm - 9th October 2023

What seemed like an ordinary day in a Canberra hospital, turned out to be an extraordinary one, when a neurosurgeon made an alarming discovery while operating. She cried, "You wouldn't believe what I just found in this lady's brain – and it's alive and wriggling."

The neurosurgeon, Dr Hari Priya Bandi, plucked the moving eight-centimetre worm from the brain of a patient, a definite first for the entire team.

Before undergoing surgery, the 64 year old Australian patient had been struggling healthwise, having been plagued by a cough, gastric problems and night sweats for nearly a year. This had led to more debilitating symptoms, such as forgetfulness and depression. Surgery was deemed essential when, in 2022, a magnetic, resonance imaging scan (MRI) revealed brain abnormalities.

Following the find, the string-like worm was dispatched to a parasite laboratory, where a scientist instantly declared it to be Ophidiscaris robertsi, commonly found in carpet pythons. The parasite was not known to have invaded humans previously. Experts hypothesise that the woman became an accidental host after contact with python faeces containing worm eggs, while hunting for edible grasses.

Expert Mehrab Hossain said "larvae in the human host is notable, given that previous experimental studies have not demonstrated larval development in domesticated animals, such as sheep, dogs, and cats."

Although it's the first documented case of its kind, there are more common organisms which are similar. The leading cause of epilepsy worldwide, neurocysticercosis, occurs when pork tapeworms infect patients' brains. Naegleria fowleri, a freshwater amoeba, travels into swimmers' nostrils and then wrecks their hosts' brain tissues, almost always resulting in death.

30 new kinds of infections have emerged over the last three decades, reports the Australian National University, with 75 percent being ‘zoonotic' – crossing from animals to humans. For specialist Dr Sanjaya Senanayake, the brain worm rings alarm bells in a Covid-19 era.

"It's really important for epidemiologists… and governments to make sure they've got good infectious diseases surveillance around."