A 28 year old boy in Changshan County, Quzhou, Zhejiang Province began to have symptoms of epilepsy and dizziness 16 years ago. After diagnosis, part of his brain tissue has been 'eaten' by the parasite sparganum mansoni, causing irreversible damage.
The cause of parasitic infection is that his father, who hunts all year round, has fed him raw wubu snake gall for five years since he was 7 years old. The boy's father is a famous hunter in Changshan County, Quzhou. He catches snakes all year round. In order to strengthen his children's health, he specially catches the highly toxic Agkistrodon acutus (five step snake), and immediately cuts out the snake gall to his son to eat raw.
On September 10, the reporter learned from the Department of infectious diseases of the First Affiliated Hospital of the Medical College of Zhejiang University that since the parasite is located in the brain functional area, it is impossible to operate on the boy and can only be treated conservatively with drugs. Now the epilepsy has improved, but the headache will continue due to brain tissue injury.
Eat snake gall raw for years
The boy has recurrent headache and epilepsy
Recently, Professor Sheng Jifang, director of the Department of infectious diseases of the First Affiliated Hospital of the Medical College of Zhejiang University ('the First Hospital of Zhejiang University ') received a 28 year old young man. He began to have symptoms such as epilepsy and dizziness 16 years ago. He has been treated with' epilepsy 'for many times. However, the anti epileptic effect is not ideal. Unable to cope with repeated headaches and seizures, he found the infection department of the first hospital of Zhejiang University.
After questioning the medical history in detail, Professor Sheng Jifang learned that the young man's father was a famous hunter in Changshan County, Quzhou. He hunted snakes all year round. In order to strengthen the children's health, he specially caught the highly toxic Agkistrodon acutus (five legged snake), and immediately cut out the snake gall for his son to eat raw.
"Snake gall is a precious medicinal material with high nutritional value." The young man said that there was a habit of eating raw snake bile or washing with Baijiu in the local area. It was believed that it could clear away heat and detoxify, brighten eyesight, relieve cough and expectorant. The 'art expert bold' guy has eaten snake gall raw for 5 years under his father's' care 'since the age of 7.
With many years of medical experience, Professor Sheng Jifang has formed a preliminary diagnosis in his brain - it is most likely a parasitic infection! Subsequently, her judgment was confirmed by parasite antibody test: metacercaria antibody was positive. The patient is' sparganosis mansoni infection '!
Sparganosis mansoni, multiple routes of infection
So what is' sparganosis mansoni '? Next, I'll give you a brief introduction.
Growth history of metacercaria:
Egg stage: in water.
Infant stage (protocercariae): mainly lives in Cyclops.
Adolescence (sparganum): it mainly lives in snakes and frogs, but also in birds, pigs, etc.
Adulthood (adult): mainly lives in cats, but also in dogs, tigers, leopards and other animals.
In fact, Taenia mansoni (that is, adults) is not a threat to people, and the main harm to people is sparganum.
It can be seen from the above figure that sparganum is a developmental stage of Taenia mansoni. If it does not enter the human body, sparganum can circulate and pass on generations. However, when sparganum enters the human body, it usually cannot continue to grow and develop. If it does not grow, it always has to do something. As a result, it flows and destroys in four places in the human body.
Snakes are one of the animals with the most parasites. Because they like to eat frogs and mice, snakes are also a common host of metacercaria. Some researchers have dissected snakes in the field and slowly peeled off the snake skin. Under the skin, small white insects fell like raindrops, as well as in muscles and internal organs.
How did sparganum enter the human body?
Infection route
1. Eat raw or immature frogs, snakes, chickens or pork containing sparganae
People have the bad habit of swallowing live frogs or tadpoles to treat scabies and pain. Swallowing snake gall, drinking snake blood and eating immature snake meat and frog meat are the main ways to infect metacercaria. If you eat meat that is not fully cooked (steamed or roasted) (fried pheasant, American frog hot pot, cold snake skin, etc., you often can't cook the food completely).
2. Covered with raw frog meat or raw snake meat
In southern rural areas, there has always been the custom of using frog meat mallets to apply raw materials to the affected parts of skin wounds to treat local ulcers and other diseases. It is said that raw frog meat and snake meat can clear away heat and detoxify. This folk prescription often leads to sparganosis mansoni infection.
3. Drank raw water containing Cyclops
Drinking raw water or swallowing pond water by mistake, infected Cyclops have the opportunity to enter the human body.
Or reproduce
Or destroy it everywhere
Where sparganae go and destroy in the human body.
It should be noted that once sparganosis enters the human brain, it will swim in the human brain, absorb the nutrition of brain cells and grow up. Not only will its metabolites cause damage to the brain, but what is more terrible is that as it keeps swimming, the brain will be irreparably damaged. In particular, it can grow and reproduce in the brain. After the adult dies, the larvae can continue to reproduce.
The Changshan boy, the initial focus was on the left brain, and later reexamination found that a new focus also appeared on the right brain. MRI images showed that the larvae migrated in the brain tissue.