Today, in Weird Patientthe strange case of a young man who “sees worms”.
In South Korea, a 21-year-old man presented himself at the military hospital in Gyeonggi, Seoul Province, with a rather unusual problem. He told doctors that he ” sees worms ” Without further ado, he went to the ophthalmology department to undergo a thorough examination of his irritated left eye. Under local anesthesia, the doctors irrigated the patient’s eye abundantly to dislodge the parasiteparasite who has taken up residence there.
A white worm translucenttranslucent more than a centimeter long and barely a few millimeters wide, wriggles on the eye-balleye-ball of the patient. It is gently removed with forceps. But how can a worm end up in the eye?
From dog to fly to human
To understand, you have to be interested in thespeciesspecies of this parasitic worm. Morphological analyses indicate that it is a Thelazia callipaedaa parasite that causes thelaziosis. Like many parasites, its life cycle is complex and involves multiple hosts. Thelaziosis is primarily a disease veterinarianveterinarian which affects the dogsdogscats and cattle; canidscanids Domestic and wild organisms are the natural reservoirs of the worm.
Females that live in the eyes of animals lay eggs that are inadvertently swallowed by a fly feeding on the tear secretions. The eggs metamorphose in the fly’s body. larvaelarvae Almost fully grown (at the L3 stage) larvae emerge through its proboscis when it feeds again. In the normal cycle of the parasite, the L3 larvae return to the eye of an animal where they continue their cycle, but flies sometimes transmit them to humans. This transmission is called aberrant because the parasite can no longer continue its replication cycle.
Thelazia callipaeda is very common in Asia, but cases are beginning to emerge in the West. In humans, treatment simply involves removing the worm from the eyes, while in pets or domestic animals, the veterinarian may also prescribe antiparasitic treatment.
