A worm has been found living inside a woman’s brain, in a horror-movie-style world first. Doctors in Canberra, Australia, were left stunned after they pulled the 8cm (3in) parasite from the patient’s damaged frontal lobe tissue during surgery last year. "Everyone [in] that operating theatre got the shock of their life when [the surgeon] took some forceps to pick up an abnormality and the abnormality turned out to be a wriggling, live 8cm light red worm," said infectious diseases doctor Sanjaya Senanayake, according to the BBC. "Even if you take away the yuck factor, this is a new infection never documented before in a human being." Senanayake and his colleagues believe the parasite could have been in there for up to two months. The patient, a 64-year-old woman from New South Wales, was first admitted to her local hospital in late January 2021 after suffering three weeks of abdominal pain and diarrhoea, followed by a constant dry cough, fever and night sweats, The Guardian reports. By 2022, her symptoms extended to forgetfulness and depression, and she was referred to Canberra Hospital, where an MRI scan of her brain revealed “abnormalities” that required surgery. “The neurosurgeon certainly didn’t go in there thinking they would find a wriggling worm,” Senanayake told the paper. “Neurosurgeons regularly deal with infections in the brain, but this was a once-in-a-career finding. No one was expecting to find that.” The team at the hospital sent the worm to an experienced parasite researcher who identified it as an Ophidascaris robertsi. This type of roundworm is commonly found in carpet pythons – non-venomous snakes that are ubiquitous across much of Australia. Writing in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, Mehrab Hossain, a parasitologist, said she suspected that the patient became an "accidental host" to the worm after cooking with foraged plants. The 64-year-old was known to have often collected native grasses from around her lakeside home, Senanayake told The Guardian. He and his co-workers have concluded that the woman was probably infected after a python shed eggs from the parasite via its faeces into the grass. By touching the plants, she may then have transferred the eggs into her own food or kitchen utensils. Fortunately, the unlucky and unique patient is said to be making a good recovery. However, Senanayake told the BBC that her case should serve as an important warning to society more broadly. "It just shows as a human population burgeons, we move closer and encroach on animal habitats. This is an issue we see again and again, whether it's Nipah virus that's gone from wild bats to domestic pigs and then into people, whether its a coronavirus like Sars or Mers that has jumped from bats into possibly a secondary animal and then into humans,” he said. "Even though Covid is now slowly petering away, it is really important for epidemiologists… and governments to make sure they've got good infectious diseases surveillance around." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

By Sakura Murakami TOKYO Japanese Emperor Naruhito on Thursday said working with developing countries will be key to

Two North Carolina state House Republicans have lost their caucus leadership positions after recent comments directed at Democratic colleagues questioning their religion and educational attainment

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 12, 2023--

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will speak on Oct. 19 before the Economic Club of New York, just

Looking at the US Open weather forecast at LACC where sunny skies are in order with beautiful temperatures, but wind might play a big role.The 2023 US Open promises to bring a welcomed respite from all of the merger drama ongoing in the golf world with the excitement of a major championship week...

By David Shepardson (Reuters) -Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution will boost their joint investment in a Georgia battery

SHANGHAI China kept its benchmark lending rates unchanged at the monthly fixing on Friday, matching market expectations, as

'American Idol' Season 15 winner Trent Harmon announced his wife Kathleen's pregnacy with a slew of romantic sun-soaked pictures of the couple posing in a field

Film producer Jason Blum and his new producing partner James Wan won't to convert a number of video games into movies.

By Jonathan Stempel Wells Fargo won the dismissal of a lawsuit accusing the fourth-largest U.S. bank of defrauding

By Blake Brittain Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and other record labels on Friday sued the nonprofit