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‘Oh my god’: live worm found in Australian woman’s brain in world-first discovery
(www.theguardian.com)
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I wish this article talked about how they are treating it? They just said she is doing well
With the actual worm they pulled it out and presumably cleaned up the bit of her brain where it resided.
For the rest I guess they made her take something that kills nematode parasites, and some strong anti inflammatories?
Yeah I just wish they had gone into detail since this was a groundbreaking medical discovery
I got you fam. From the case write up:
And this bit from the conclusion:
It’s always dexamethasone.
I sure hope we don’t get a bunch of stuff developing immunity to that.
But how are they treating the worm though?
Just talk therapy for all the headache it went through
Probably something like this. There is an entire class of drug rarely needed that does exactly this thing, but won't kill a fully formed spawn of an egg that wandered into the bloodstream. Antiparasitic drugs are rough, but save thousands of lives per years where this type of parasite is an issue. This case is exactly why doctors may ask if you've traveled recently, and to where.
You’re probably speaking about roundworms more generally but this particular parasite has never been observed in humans before.