
Hawaii warns tourists of parasitic worm that can burrow into human brains - Ultramanoid
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/05/hawaii-warns-tourists-of-parasitic-worm-that-can-burrow-into-human-brains/
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SenHeng
_the wandering worm primarily takes up residence in rats’ lungs, where female
worms lay their eggs. Young worms leave the nest early to find their own windy
homes, though. Larvae get coughed up into rats’ throats then swallowed. The
hosting rat eventually poops out the young parasites, which then get gobbled
up by feces-feasting snails and slugs (intermediate hosts). When other rodents
come along and eat those infected mollusks, the prepubescent parasites migrate
to the rats’ brains to mature before settling into the lungs and reproducing.
The cycle then starts again_

    
    
      1. rat lung
      2. rat throat
      3. rat stomach
      4. rat poop
      5. slugs
      6. rat brains
      7. rat lung
      8. GOTO 1
    

It never ceases to amaze me, the life cycle of a parasite. So that's 7 steps
with wildly varying probabilities of success. That it actually works is mind
blowing.

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oceanghost
You've got one line extra in your little program :)

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b_tterc_p
I want to highlight that the symptoms section was subtitled “All in your
head”.

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Ultramanoid
This article is written by Ars Technica's Beth Mole. Her writing style is
well-known by now. ( And much appreciated. )

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qually
@Katzenjammer, I have to think it's a combination of signaling, timing and
specific available nutrients (mammals and mollusks only) and biomass.

It's even weirder, because the lungs cough up, eat, swallow, poop the eggs.
Snails eat rat poop, and then hatch the eggs and poop larva in their slime.
Rats eat the snails and the larva infest and follow the nerves up the spine.
Once sexual maturity is reach they go to the lungs to spawn and die. The
distance is too far in humans, so they actually only have enough time as
sexually mature adults to cross the distance of a rat's body. When they die
inside a human, they've spent too much time and traveled the distance of
longer than more than one rat's body.

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budhajeewa
Who else read the title "Huawei", and wondered why they'd warn about such
thing?

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bradleyhb
Yep, interesting phenomenon.

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Fjolsvith
Dyslexics of the world, untie!

~~~
budhajeewa
Can dyslexia be occurring only once in a while?

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Fjolsvith
Yes, mine is infrequent but usually hits with numbers.

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Mbaqanga
I remember watching one of those emergency room shows years back. Three guys
go in for swelling in the brain, due to the rat worm. Their conditions got
worse, until they administered immunosuppressants, as the doctors assumed that
their immune system was reacting to the dead worms. Apparently when they die
in a hosts brain, they release antigens. Toxic I think.

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ilaksh
It seems like this could be prevented by cooking fruits and vegetables.

I always knew salads weren't really healthy!

On a serious note, I may actually avoid salads and try to find a way to cook
fruit quickly instead of eating it raw.

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Ultramanoid
_Officials noted that a person in one of the latest confirmed cases became
infected in December of 2018 after purposely swallowing a slug on a dare._

Leave it to human stupidity to always find a way.

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CRUDite
There was a widely reported and tragic story of a young man doing the same
thing in Australia some years ago (Sam Ballard). I would have to assume his
fate was unknown to the current patient.

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nkrisc
I never heard of him nor these specific parasites but I remember learning in
school that snails and slugs are hosts for many kinds of parasites. Which is
why I would nor eat one, especially uncooked.

