WHAT’S BEING CLAIMED:
- An unidentified Russian woman planned to see an eye doctor after an itchy lump appeared under her left eye.
- After five days, she noticed that the lump disappeared, however, a new lump appeared just above her left eyelid.
- Ten days after, the moving lump, which turned out to be a parasitic worm, moved to her upper lip, making a big bump.
A 32-year-old Russian woman, her name withheld, went to see an eye doctor when she noticed the lump on her face she first saw under her left eye moved to her upper left eyelid.
The New England Journal of Medicine reported the ordeal the woman who had a thread-like worm crawling under the skin of her face.
It first appeared as a lump under her left eye then it moved above her eye. After ten days, the worm crawled down to her lips. The woman kept track of the movement of the worm by taking selfies, which she shared with her doctor.
After some tests, a parasitic worm that naturally infects dogs, cats, foxes and other wild mammals, was discovered. Although not common, this phenomenon actually happens. Dr. Vladimir Kartashev, a professor of medicine at the Rostov State Medical University in Rostov-na-Donu, Russia, reported that between January 1997 and June 2013, there were 1,272 cases like this.
Daily Star wrote: “The worms lay eggs inside a biting insect such as a mosquito, and they may then be passed onto a mammal and grow into a worm inside its body.”
The woman recalled that she was recently bitten by mosquitoes when she had a trip to Moscow. Fortunately, once the worm is under the human skin, it can no longer breed and that this condition has no other symptoms aside from itching and burning. The woman made a full recovery after the worm was removed through surgery with the use of special forceps.
Infections caught from these worms are known collectively as filariasis – the World Health Organisation says 856 million people around the world are at risk of the infection, according to the Daily Star.
Source: Daily Star
