Tapeworms found inside man’s brain after mysterious seizures, Massachusetts study shows
Tapeworms were found living inside a man’s brain for years after his mysterious onset of seizures, a Massachusetts case study revealed.
A 38-year-old man was in a “usual state of health” before his wife said one night he fell out of bed and was “shaking” on the floor while “speaking gibberish,” prompting her to call emergency services, according to a case study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Nov. 11.
The Boston man, whose name was not mentioned, was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital where he suffered a two-minute-long grand mal seizure despite never having had a history of seizures before, the case study noted based on information provided by his family.
McClatchy News has reached out to the hospital for comment and the journal referred a request for comment to two editors involved in the study.
He also had no known family history of a seizure disorder.
Additionally, the man had not been recently ill and had zero history of “cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, or neurologic disorders,” the study stated.
Doctors learned that he immigrated from a rural area of Guatemala roughly 20 years ago and now lives in the state, where he works in environmental maintenance at a local business, with his wife, daughter and son.
Eventually, after an analysis of the man that included imaging studies of his brain and blood testing, a diagnosis was made.
It turns out, doctors discovered the man had neurocysticercosis, the study said, meaning he had tapeworms inside his brain.
“Cysticercosis is a parasitic tissue infection caused by larval cysts of the tapeworm,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It is “the most common cause of acquired epilepsy worldwide,” the case study noted, and is a result of ingesting eggs of the tapeworm taenia solium.
Taenia solium is a pork tapeworm, and humans can be infected with them by eating raw or undercooked beef and pork, according to the CDC.
Having the disease within one’s brain can often be fatal and is the disease’s most severe form, the CDC explains.
“On the basis of the features of the patient’s presentation, the fact that he had been healthy the day before the seizure, and his history of living in a rural area of Guatemala, neurocysticercosis is the most likely diagnosis in this case,” the case study noted.
Most people diagnosed with neurocysticercosis living in the U.S. are those “who come from regions where the disease is common, including Latin America,” the CDC explains.
Luckily, the disease is preventable with good hand-washing as well as thorough washing of fruits and vegetables before cooking, the CDC said.
Also, when people travel to developing countries, good food and water safety practices, such as drinking only bottled or boiled water and beverages from a can, are key.
Additionally, “filter unsafe water through an ’absolute 1 micron or less’ filter AND dissolve iodine tablets in the filtered water,” according to the CDC.
At Massachusetts General Hospital, the man was “admitted to the neurosciences intensive care unit” and was given treatment to control his seizures, the study said.
After 12 hours, he “started treatment with 2 weeks of albendazole and praziquantel, along with 4 weeks of high-dose prednisone, followed by a 4-week tapering course.”
Albendazole is an anti-parasitic medicine used to treat neurocysticercosis, according to MedlinePlus.
Praziquantel is also used to treat parasitic infections, according to WebMD.
The man was eventually discharged from the hospital “with normal results on a neurologic examination and no further seizure activity.”
He had MRs conducted on his head in the several months following, according to the study.
Three years after his first seizure, the case study said he has been seizure-free and continues to take levetiracetam, which is used to treat seizures, according to epilepsy.com.
This story was originally published November 16, 2021 at 12:37 PM with the headline "Tapeworms found inside man’s brain after mysterious seizures, Massachusetts study shows."
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