‘Alive and Wriggling’: 8 Centimetre Worm Extracted From Woman’s Brain

Believed to be a world-first case of human infection by any Ophidascaris species.

(A) MRI scan of patient's brain, (B) worm removed from patient's right frontal lobe, (C) parasitic worm seen under a microscope at 10x zoom. Canberra Health Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

An eight-centimetre (3-inch) parasitic worm was found live and wriggling after shocked surgeons extracted it from an Australian woman’s brain in June 2022.

The 64-year-old woman from New South Wales experienced three weeks of abdominal pain and diarrhea, followed by a dry cough and night sweats before she was admitted to her local hospital in January 2021.