Researchers in Guangzhou have tied the consumption of raw centipedes (yup, that’s a thing) to a nasty food-borne parasite known as ‘rat lungworm,’ according to a recently published report by the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
The incident that led to the discovery dates back to November 2012, when two Guangzhou residents consumed raw centipedes purchased from a local wet market and ended up hospitalized with “headaches and other neurological symptoms,” according to CNN. The patients, a 78-year-old woman and her 46-year-old son, had been under the belief that consuming the creepy crawlers is beneficial to one’s health.
"We don't typically hear of people eating raw centipedes, but apparently these two patients believed that raw centipedes would be good for their health," said Zhujiang Hospital’s Lu Lingli, one of the report’s co-authors, according to CGTN.
Image via Wikimedia
The senior patient arrived at the hospital complaining of “a headache, sleepiness and cognitive impairment,” according to CNN. Her son visited the hospital weeks later, complaining of a 20-day headache. Both suffered from neck stiffness.
Upon examination, spots were noted on the woman’s brain while her son had a node on his right lung. Further testing revealed that both patients were suffering meningitis caused by rat lungworm (Angiostrongylus cantonensis).
While centipedes have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for hundreds of years, they are generally consumed dried and/or powdered. According to CGTN, centipedes that have been dehydrated and crushed do not transmit rat lungworm.
Researchers paid a visit to the wet market in Guangzhou where the sick duo had obtained the bugs. There, they purchased 20 centipedes – seven of which were found to host rat lungworm larvae.
Rat lungworm is a parasitic worm that, as its name suggests, infects rodents. According to CNN:
“The parasitic worm, after being ingested by rats, makes its way from the intestine to the bloodstream, and then to the brain. They molt and mature in the brain and migrate back down to the lung's arteries, where adult worms are found. An adult female may lay 15,000 eggs per day.”
Rats (and occasionally other creatures like frogs) are generally infected with the parasite after consuming mollusks, according to the study. Over 140 mollusk species, includes snails and slugs, are known to be possible “intermediate hosts.”
Image via Wikimedia
CGTN reports that people suffering from a mild case of rat lungworm will generally get better on their own, as the parasite does not have a long life expectancy in a human host. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does note, though, that serious cases can result in neurological dysfunction and even death.
Luckily for the mother-son duo infected back in 2012, both made a full recovery after 21 days of treatment with an antiparasitic drug and two weeks of steroid treatment, according to CGTN.
Interestingly, the discovery that rat lungworm larva can infect people via raw centipedes happened in the same city where the parasite was discovered: Angiostrongylus cantonensis was first described in Guangzhou in 1935 by parasitologist Hsin-Tao Chen.
[Top image via Wikimedia]
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