The Scientific Research Notes Of S. Sunkavally (years: 2002-2011).

A man in China reported seizures and other CNS related symptoms for years before doctors could figure out this weird cause that a rare parasite was living in his brain for years.

About the case:

The man from China reported that he began to feel numbness on the left side of his body since 2007.

In the following years, he started developing more worrying symptoms, such as blackouts and seizures.

Doctors failed to find the exact cause of his illness. It was in 2018 the doctors finally discovered a 5-inch-long tapeworm in the patient's brain.

The condition was diagnosed to be sparganosis, an infection caused by a type of tapeworm larvae known as Spirometra. According to the CDC, humans are rarely infected with Spirometra, they are accidental hosts, and the parasite can live for almost 20 years in humans.

The Spirometra larvae can migrate anywhere in the body, which includes eyes, urinary tract, lungs, abdomen, and, also, the central nervous system.

Brain infections can cause a variety of symptoms such as weakness, headache, seizures, and numbness or tingling.

In a 2- hour long surgery, the doctors removed the tapeworm from the man's brain.

The surgery was risky as the live tapeworm was moving in his brain, and the surgeons had to remove all of it; otherwise, the leftover part could grow again.