A man was left in horror after an X-ray revealed his body was riddled with tapeworm eggs.
The image shows hundreds of ‘rice grain’ nodules that turned out to be cysts caused by the parasitic infection.
Dr Sam Ghali, an urgent care doctor in Florida, shared the photo on social media describing it as one of the ‘most insane X-rays’ he’d ever seen.
He explained that the unnamed patient developed the condition after eating raw or undercooked pig which contained tapeworm larvae.
The larvae – newly hatched worms – get into body tissues and form cysts there. These cysts can then decay and cause infections.
Dr Ghali said the case serves as reminder to ‘always do your best to keep clean, wash your hands, and never, ever, under any circumstances eat raw or undercooked pork’.
Incredibly, the patient was completely unaware he was suffering from the condition and had gone to hospital for an X-ray following an unrelated fall.
In a video that has went viral, a shocked Dr Ghali says: ‘They’re everywhere [the cysts] and they’re innumerable, you can’t even begin to count them all.
Dr Sam Ghali, an urgent care doctor from the University of Florida , took to social media to share an image of a patient with telltale signs of a parasitic infection called cysticercosis
‘Now these cysts can travel anywhere throughout the entire body. In this patient, they’ve traveled heavily to the soft tissues of the hips and the legs.’
A Taenia solium infection, taeniasis, happens after someone eats tapeworm eggs in contaminated or uncooked pork.
Tissue cysts cause the infection cysticercosis, which are particularly dangerous when they occur in the brain or nervous system, an infection known as neurocysticercosis.
The eggs may also mature into adults in around two months.
This can happen in various organs of the human body, as well as the muscles, skin, eyes and the central nervous system.
Cysticercosis and neurocysticercosis – when the cysts form in the brain – are most common in farming communities in developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Transmission occurs mainly through infected people not washing their hands properly after using the toilet, though the eggs can also be passed through water contaminated with fecal matter.
The tapeworm responsible for the infection enters the human body through consumption of its eggs. These eggs can be found in undercooked pork
Have you ever fallen ill from dodgy pork?YesNo
Dr Ghali says the unnamed patient was actually unaware the tapeworm cysts were in his body.
The X-ray was taken after an unrelated fall that was causing him hip pain.
The case study emerged in 2021 and it was investigated by a team of researchers at the University Hospital of Sao Joao in Porto, Portugal.
Dr Ghali noted: ‘The prognosis for cysticercosis is generally good but unfortunately some cases are fatal.
‘It’s estimated that around 50 million people worldwide are infected each year resulting in around 50,000 deaths.
‘So the moral of the story here is do your best to keep clean, always wash your hands, and never, ever eat raw or undercooked pork.’
While the scan shared by Dr Ghali is shocking, there have been many similar cases recorded around the world.
This includes one severe infestation shared by a doctor in Brazil in 2023.
Like Dr Ghali, the Brazilian medic warned people: ‘Don’t want to [catch] it? Wash your food well before consuming.’
