Spanish Man's Brain Cancer Was Really Infestation of the Pork Tapeworm

DOCORS THOUGH SPANISH MAN HAD BRAIN CANCER, BUT REALLY IT WAS THE PORK TAPEWORM

I’m no Spring chicken, which means that I’ve lived long enough to think that I’m already thoroughly inundated with an awareness of horrors that exist in the world. In this case, I’m talking about random sicknesses or infections that just knowing about will keep you up at night. If you’re narcoleptic, you should be sure to keep reading! But somehow, despite all the disturbing trivia I already have stored in my far too lean brain, I had never heard of something called the pork tapeworm. And yes, that’s a thing. The way I know it’s a thing is the recent news of a Spanish man who doctors assumed had brain cancer, with plenty of evidence to satisfy their reasoning. But it turns out they were totally, absolutely wrong. Instead, the Spanish man had an infestation of the pork tapeworm.

THE FIRST MRI CONFIRMED SUSPICIONS OF CANCER, THE SECOND WAS A SHOCKING REVELATION

Yes, in his brain. The man had sought treatment from all the chronic and worsening headaches he was suffering. Doctors quickly ordered a scan of his brain, which showed quite a few poorly-defined lesions. Since that imagery was par for the course for cancer that spread to the brain from somewhere else in a patient’s body, doctors were confident in their assessment. But fortunately for the Spanish man, these doctors were thorough, and wanted to know more before they proceeded with a treatment strategy. So they ordered another MRI, but one with higher resolution. That’s how they discovered that there weren’t any tumors in the Spanish man’s brain, but instead the larvae of the pork tapeworm.

Woman Shot in Ass With Own Gun Getting MRI Scan

LITERALLY ANYONE COULD GET INFESTED WITH THE PORK TAPEWORM, EVEN IN THEIR BRAINS

Now to be fair, this freaks me out because I’m already freaked out in general when it comes to the many and myriad types of parasitic infections people can get. So to learn about a new one that I didn’t know existed, in a first world country, totally freaks me out. But the doctors in this case made sure of their disturbing discovery, and confirmed their finding with a blood test specifically for Taenia solium, or the pork tapeworm. The pork tapeworm lives in human intestines and sheds eggs in feces (that’s poo, to you who don’t know fecal from fiscal). But if you swallow those eggs, from contaminated water or somewhere, they hatch, burrow through your body and create fluid filled cysts.

When the pork tapeworm finds their way to your brain, it’s called neurocysticercosis. So in this Spanish man’s case, his treatment was simple with antiparisitic drugs like albendazole and praziquantel and then he simply went home. But you should know something even more disturbing; neurocysticercosis is the number one cause of acquired epilepsy in the world! Yes, you can acquire epilepsy! From pork tapeworms in your brain!