Tapeworm Larvae Found in Brain of Man Who Ate Undercooked Pork

A 52-year-old U.S. man with a “predilection for undercooked pork” showed up at a Florida hospital complaining of brutal migraines, after which doctors found his brain infested with parasitic tapeworm larvae.

The unnamed patient said his migraines had gotten worse over the previous four months, and were now occurring “almost weekly,” according to the American Journal of Case Reports. He said he hadn’t traveled to any high-risk locations, and that his most recent trip was a cruise to the Bahamas two years prior. The man and his wife lived with a cat “in a modern home,” and were not food-insecure, the report states. It says his vitals were “unremarkable,” routine lab tests didn’t raise any red flags, and a full infectious disease workup came back negative.

However, a CT scan “revealed numerous cystic foci… within the deep cortical and periventricular white matter” of his brain, which physicians regarded as “suspicious,” the case report, which was published March 7, goes on.

Read more at The Daily Beast.