FRESNO, CA. (KMJ) – A Fresno man pulls a 5 1/2 foot long tapeworm out of his body – he says it came from eating sushi.
UCSF Fresno Doctor Kenny Banh says the man came in to Community Regional Medical Center complaining of bloody diarrhea, then he said he wanted to be tested for worms.
He opened up a grocery bag and inside was a giant tapeworm, wrapped around a toilet paper roll.
The man told Dr. Banh when he sat down on the toilet, he had felt something wiggle… down under.
He thought it was his intestines coming out but started to pull on it and wrap it around an empty toilet paper roll.
Staff at CRMC measured the tapeworm to be 5-1/2 feet long.
The man told Dr. Banh that he hadn’t traveled or drank any questionable water, but he did mention that he ate raw salmon almost every day.
Dr. Banh said that the sushi might have been the culprit.
Part of the worm may still be inside the man, but Dr. Banh says the same pill to kill tapeworms in dogs can be given to humans.
Dr. Banh originally told the story of the tapeworm on the podcast, “This Won’t Hurt A Bit.” Click below to listen to the podcast:
http://www.wonthurtabit.com/episodes/6-parasites
Before you rush to stop eating sushi, KMJ News asked if people should be concerned about this happening to them.
Dr. Banh said; “Tapeworms like any parasitic infection while not usually life threatening is concerning. Certainly more common in non-industrialized countries where water sources may not be as clean, feces is used as fertilizer and proper washing, cooking and temperature storage process in food handling are not as commonly held to. There was a warning by the CDC in 1/17 of large amounts of tapeworms found in wild caught Alaskan Salmon and this is likely his source, but if it was properly flash frozen it would have killed the worm, so making sure your restaurant does a good handling their food.”
KMJ asked how long the worm could have been inside the man.
Dr. Banh responded; “As far as how old the tapeworm is, that is a little unclear. The tapeworm grows anywhere from 2-22cm/day depending on their environment so a 5 1/2 foot (168cm) long tapeworm could be as young as a week or as old as 3 months.”
