Eating undercooked meat is never a good idea - it can give you a nasty case of food poisoning within 24 hours. And there are other, longer-term risks to be wary of too.
Author
- Adam Taylor
Professor of Anatomy, Lancaster University
Spare a thought for the patient who attended a Florida hospital to be X-rayed following a fall - only to discover he was riddled with parasitic eggs that had turned into thousands of cysts inside his body.
Sam Ghali , an urgent care doctor from the University of Florida, recently shared an image of the X-ray on social media, explaining that the patient had developed the condition after eating undercooked pork infected with tapeworm larvae.
Pork can carry taenia solium larvae, a parasitic tapeworm. After eating infected pork, the larvae get into body tissues where they form cysts - a condition called cysticercosis. The larvae can travel anywhere in the body including muscles , liver , lungs and kidneys before decaying, which can lead to infections.
While in many tissues the larvae may develop undetected, in the skin or muscles noticeable bulges may appear.
Cysticercosis can be diagnosed through a variety of tests, including imaging , blood tests and potentially a lumbar puncture to look at cerebrospinal fluid.
Parasites on the brain
If you're particularly unlucky, larvae cysts could travel to the brain, leading to neurocysticercosis - a main cause of acquired epilepsy worldwide .
On entry to the body, the parasite is in "immunologic equilibrium" with its host - meaning that it suppresses the body's various immune responses and causes only minimal, if any, tissue inflammation. Eventually, though, neurocysticercosis can cause worrying symptoms including severe headaches , blindness , convulsions and epileptic seizures .
In the final stage of the disease, the cysts degenerate and die, leaving a small calcified scar behind. This remnant often invokes an immune response in the body which can further increase calcification - the buildup of calcium deposits in body tissues. Calcified brain scars can contribute to symptoms including seizures long after the cyst has degenerated.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr's claim in his 2012 divorce deposition that previous health issues were "caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died" is a now notorious example of possible neurocysticercosis.
RFK Jr. also described the effects of the parasite in his deposition: "I have cognitive problems, clearly. I have short-term memory loss, and I have longer-term memory loss that affects me."
Wash your hands
Intestinal infection by an adult tapeworm is called taeniasis. In humans, although the tapeworm can cause an upset stomach, it can also be asymptomatic - apart from rice grain-sized eggs in the faeces.
There are three tapeworms that can lead to taeniasis: taenia saginata, taenia solium and taenia asiatica . Taenia saginata is transmitted by cattle whereas taenia solium and taenia asiatica are transmitted by pigs. Once in the intestines, these tapeworms continue to grow. After approximately four months, they release hundreds of proglottids (fertilised eggs) into the host's gastrointestinal tract. These proglottids are expelled from body in faeces but are instantly infectious.
As well as eating infected meat, humans can be infected by drinking contaminated water - or by infected people not washing hands their after going to the toilet and then preparing food.
How to kill a tapeworm
Anthelmintic drugs, including praziquantel and niclosamide , either kill or paralyse the tapeworm, making it easier for the body to expel it through faeces.
But some studies report that approximately 38% of cysts calcify after taking anthelmintic drugs, worsening symptoms. Anti-inflammatory drugs may be used to treat neurocysticercosis cases, to prevent additional calcification occurring as part of the inflammatory response.
In developing regions of the world, or where some of these drugs are not licensed or less accessible, more traditional remedies may be used to kill tapeworms or expel them from the body, while preventing infectious proglottids from being released. Studies show that eating a combination of pumpkin seeds and areca nuts allowed almost 80% of people with intestinal tapeworms to pass them whole.
To avoid contracting a tapeworm or cysticercosis, observe basic hygiene measures such as regular hand washing. Also wash and peel your vegetables in clean water before eating them.
If seeing the effects of cysticercosis hasn't put you off pork for good, avoid the risk of infection by ensuring your pork is properly cooked to at least 80°C for ten minutes to kill all tapeworm eggs. Lower temperatures work too, but require longer cooking times. Of course, cooking meat thoroughly like this should also help you avoid any nasty cases of food poisoning.
Adam Taylor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
