6 ms·
Worm that jumps from rats to slugs to human brains has invaded Southeast US
- gmuslera 3y agoI've seen a documentary about this: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091630/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091630/ Reality is stranger than fiction.
- bhaney 3y ago> This can start with nonspecific symptoms like headache, light sensitivity, and insomnia and develop into neck stiffness and pain Oh good, now I can be worried that every symptom of "getting old" is actually a brain parasite.
- HeyLaughingBoy 3y agoThink of it as an excuse.
- tux3 3y agoNote, those are generally meningitis symptoms, so that was already pretty solid anxiety fuel if you wanted something to worry about whenever your neck is stiff!
- __loam 3y agoThey're also anxiety symptoms haha. The rule of thumb for me meningitis I've heard is that if you're experiencing the worst headache of your like, get to a doctor.
- flir 3y agoI think it might actually be meningitis: "Although some people show no symptoms when infected, sometimes it causes a rare type of meningitis (eosinophilic meningitis). However, in most cases, the parasite will die over time - humans are not its preferred host."
- bikelang 3y agoIt’s just worms; not my dying youth.
- clumsysmurf 3y ago> They may eat undercooked snails or inadvertently eat an infected slug or snail hiding in their unwashed salad. Should we be worrying about salad? I always do my best to wash stuff like broccoli, etc but I always assume things "slip through".
- emodendroket 3y agoTry preparing leeks and if you can do it without biting sand your vegetable washing strategy is probably pretty good.
- OvbiousError 3y agoLeeks are easier than salad though. The part with the roots is "closed" so just cut off the tip and rinse a bit. For the end with the leaves you make a 3-4 cm lengthwise cut where the stem ends, then you can hold this part open and rinse under running water.
- emodendroket 3y agoIn either case I chop the vegetable up and go through three rounds of submerging, agitating, and straining. Seems to do the job.
- tmpX7dMeXU 3y agoHah! I’ve got a long way to go.
- harrisi 3y agoYes, if they're not already washed. https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/communication/leafy-greens.html https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/communication/leafy-greens.ht...
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- jeffbee 3y agoI found a snail, only about 3mm long, in a thoroughly-washed arugula salad I made at home. They can be small enough to be easily overlooked and at the same time large enough to not wash through the holes of a colander, and they may be stuck on the leaves instead of falling out like stones.
- h2odragon 3y ago"Susceptibility of Angiostrongylus cantonensis Larvae to Anthelmintic Drugs" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9255552/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9255552/ > The macrocyclic lactones (ivermectin, salamectin, moxidectin) and the imidazothiazole levamisole, were the most effective drugs, with IC50 ranging from 2.2 to 2.9 µM and a rapid onset of action. Albendazole, the most widely used anthelmintic in humans, had a slower onset of action, but an IC50 of 11.3 µM was achieved within 24 h. Also mentions "pyrantel pamoate," which i think may be available in pet dewormer formulas.
- dividedbyzero 3y agoDo these cross the blood-brain barrier? I suppose if the worm has made it into the brain they would have to?
- smarmgoblin 3y agoalbendazole will
- dgs_sgd 3y agoAre there theories for how it proliferated in this area? The article didn't mention anything.
- emodendroket 3y agoRats hitch a ride on transcontinental shipping all the time.
- RetroTechie 3y agoGiant snails kept as pets (and traded / poached from the wild) could be another way to spread between countries.
- civilitty 3y agoI have so many questions! Can anyone comment on the significance of doing this research in a zoo? I'm guessing it was a crime of opportunity since that's where zoologists work and can easily collect dead animals, but what does that mean for the research? Is it likely to be a representative sample of animals in the wild, despite the exposure to exotic animals from all over the world? If they were exposed there and a population established itself among zoo rats, how likely is it to spread from there? What's up with that life cycle? Rat to snail seems like a weird combo. Usually parasites' lifecycle is a little more obvious like Leucochloridium paradoxum which infects snails that are then eaten by birds, who spread the eggs via droppings, or Toxoplasma gondii which gives rats a hankering for cat pee. What's the deal with the snails? Did the parasite just evolve in a field somewhere, where snails frequently came into contact with field rat droppings? I wonder how many more pathogens are just waiting for some lucky exposure to break into the human population. Even before COVID brought that idea front and center, I remember going down a wikipedia rabbit hole during the Ebola outbreak and there is some terrifying stuff out there like hendra and nipah viruses with >50% mortality rates.
- yyyk 3y ago>some terrifying stuff out there like hendra and nipah viruses with >50% mortality rates. These viruses are fortunately self-limiting. We should be terrified when a less deadly variant comes up.
- b112 3y agoNot if it gets some covid genes. What makes covid a pita, is you can spread it for weeks, without apparent symptoms. Other viruses exist with long incubation times, and transmissabilty, too. Imagine 70% mortality with that.
- Modified3019 3y agoFinally, something that fixes the housing market.
- b112 3y ago
- hn_throwaway_99 3y agoThere was a famous and tragic case of an Australian teenager who ate a slug on a dare, suffered a horrible illness, and eventually died from rat lungworm. https://time.com/5445715/australia-slug-dare-sam-ballard/ https://time.com/5445715/australia-slug-dare-sam-ballard/
- drt5b7j 3y agoWhen I was a kid, I don't remember that my parents ever thought me that I shouldn't eat slugs. Somehow I figured it out on my own.
- hn_throwaway_99 3y agoResponses like this are so shitty, and you should feel bad for making it. A lot of people do risky or silly things when they're teenagers - very few of them pay the price with their lives. I don't eat slugs either, but "dying a horribly painful death due to a worm in my brain" wouldn't be high up on the things I would have been concerned about (until I read about that story, that is). But congrats on showing the world what a superiorly smart guy you are.
- Ancapistani 3y agoWhen I was six or so, I ate a leaf of poison ivy on a dare. Made $5! I should add that I was already quite sure that I wasn’t allergic to poison ivy, at least via skin contact. I didn’t notice any ill effects.
- jimmydddd 3y agoWhen I was six or so, my neighbors would burn a pile of leaves during autumn leaf raking season (this was apparently common back in the '70's). That year they included poinson ivy in the pile and the resulting smoke left the whole family with external (skin) and internal (lungs) poison ivy rashes.
- drt5b7j 3y ago
- ng12 3y agoThis has been an issue on Hawaii's Big Island for some time, to the point where they warn tourists not to prepare any local vegetation themselves.
- autoexec 3y agoI think I'd trust myself more than an overworked minimum wage restaurant worker to properly clean veggies.