A New England woman who thought she was merely jetlagged after vacationing overseas and later felt her feet burning learned from doctors that she had contracted a brain worm infection, a case study showed.
The woman, 30, returned from a three-week travel to Thailand, Japan and Hawaii feeling fatigued and then developing a burning sensation in her feet after she ignored the fatigue, FOX 8 News reported, citing a study published Feb. 12 in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
The burning sensation spread to her legs within two days and “worsened with light touch,” Massachusetts General Hospital’s Dr. Carlos A. Portales Castillo reported in the study, according to the outlet.
The woman reportedly went to the emergency room (ER) and her test results were normal except for a high eosinophil — a type of white blood cell — count.
The symptoms worsened within days after she was discharged and instructed to check in with a primary care doctor. The burning sensation had spread to her arms and she suffered a headache that persisted despite medication, the outlet reported.
Tests from another trip to a different ER were also normal except for the high eosinophil count.
She exhibited signs of mental confusion the next day, intending to go on vacation despite having just already returned, the outlet reported. Her roommate took her to the Massachusetts General Hospital, where doctors diagnosed her with eosinophilic meningitis resulting from rat lungworm infection, according to the outlet.
Doctors found out that the woman ate raw foods such as sushi and salad while in Tokyo and Hawaii. She received a six-day antiparasitic treatment and was discharged, the outlet reported. (RELATED: REPORT: Michigan Police Say Dispute Over ‘Subpar Sushi’ Leads To ‘Sword Fight’ Assault, Feces-Throwing)
Case Record of the Massachusetts General Hospital (@MassGeneralNews): A 30-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital because of headache and dysesthesia. She had recently traveled to Asia and Hawaii. A diagnosis was made. Read the full case details: https://t.co/7IgzeyXlEh pic.twitter.com/zGIdh8Gmyv
— NEJM (@NEJM) February 13, 2025
People can contract rat lungworm disease by eating raw or undercooked infected seafood or snails or vegetables contaminated by slime from infected snails, according to an infographic by the NEJM.
The disease is endemic in Southeast Asia and tropical Pacific islands but is increasingly reported in Africa, the Caribbean and the United States, according to the CDC
Rats are the only hosts of the worms, the CDC revealed.
Rat lungworm (male), Angiostrongylus cantonensis. Photo dated 1 April 2005, 15:06:31. (Wikimedia Commons/Public/By Punlop Anusonpornperm – Own work, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64661771)
The rat coughs up and swallows the eggs — which the adult worms had laid in the rat’s lungs, according to the NEJM infographic. The ingested eggs then hatch into larvae in the rat’s intestines. The rat excretes them, a snail becomes infected with them and they reach intermediate stages in the snail after which a rat eats the snail with the larvae. The worms then travel to the rat’s brain, where they mature, according to the infographic.
The worm dies over time in most people who get infected and they recover without treatment, the CDC said.
This article was originally published at dailycaller.com
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