https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/09/worm-that-jumps-from-rats-to-slugs-to-human-brains-has-invaded-southeast-us/
Multiple rats in Atlanta test positive for calamitous, rapidly spreading parasite.
Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross.
When a rat lungworm finds itself in a human, it does what it usually does in rats—it heads to the central nervous system and brain. Sometimes the migration of the worms to the central nervous system is asymptomatic or only causes mild transient symptoms. But, sometimes, they cause severe neurological dysfunction. This can start with nonspecific symptoms like headache, light sensitivity, and insomnia and develop into neck stiffness and pain, tingling or burning of the skin, double vision, bowel or bladder difficulties, and seizures. In severe cases, it can cause nerve damage, paralysis, coma, and even death.
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It's often thought that the worm can't complete its life cycle in humans and that it ends up idly wandering around the brain for a month or two before it's eventually killed off by immune responses. However, there has been some evidence of adult worms reaching the human lungs.
Day after day I receive confirmation that never eating leafy veggies is the right choice after all.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The infected animals were spread throughout the study's time frame, all in different months, with one in 2019, three in 2021, and three in 2022, indicating sustained transmission.
The finding is concerning given the calamitous infection the rat lungworm, aka Angiostrongylus cantonensis, can cause in humans.
This can happen if the gastropods eat the rat poop or if the ravenous larvae just bore into their soft bodies.
Infected snails and slugs can also be eaten by other animals first, like frogs, prawns, shrimp, or freshwater crabs.
When a rat lungworm finds itself in a human, it does what it usually does in rats—it heads to the central nervous system and brain.
This can start with nonspecific symptoms like headache, light sensitivity, and insomnia and develop into neck stiffness and pain, tingling or burning of the skin, double vision, bowel or bladder difficulties, and seizures.
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