You do not require to get infected by rat lungworm . It ’s a tight little sodomite that can impact your spinal cord and brain , give you meningitis , and evenleave you quadriplegic .
Usually , the parasite is establish in slug , snails , and – as you might have opine from the name – the lungs of rats . But for the first prison term , scientists in Guangzhou , China have establish that rat lungworm – orAngiostrongylus cantonensis , if you ’re being formal – can live in centipedes .
And how did they make this grim discovery ?
Like so many of civilization ’s more gruesome improvement , it ’s all thanks to mankind ’s endlessfascinationwith stickingterriblethings in ourpieholes .
allot to a report inThe American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene , a 78 - twelvemonth - quondam woman and her 46 - twelvemonth - former son were admitted to infirmary within hebdomad of each other , plain of drowsiness , cognitive impairment , and headaches lasting for over 20 days . Both were found to be infected by the rat lungworm parasite , which they had pluck up by – you guess it – run through raw centipede .
verbalise to theNew York Times , study carbon monoxide - author Dr Lingli Lu explained that the son was antecedently healthy , and had bulge chomping on the creepy - crawlies after see a hearsay that they would forbid wintertime common cold . As a good Logos , he had also given his mother this sniffle - saving guard .
" [ A]pparently these two patients believed that naked centipede would be in force for their health , " she explained in astatement . " or else it made them sick . "
Although munching on myriapods might seem like an unmatched way to fend off illness , there ’s a foresighted custom of using centipede in rural Chinese music . Usually , these recipes call for the creatures to be powder , dried , or marinate in alcohol – which should kill off the lungworm parasite – but local seller apparently betray them still creep : the study note that the researcher were able to buy 20 live centipedes at the patients ' local market to corroborate their diagnosis . Seven of these were retrieve to be infect with lungworm larvae .
Both patients were successfully treated with a three - workweek course of antiparasitic medication , but Dr Lu wants us to take this as a warning in any case .
" We should not feed peeled centipedes , " she toldInfectious Disease News . " We should realize that right cookery technique is important to protect us from foodborne diseases . "
