A salmon sashimi lover from Fresno, while on the toilet, pulled out a tapeworm with a length of over 5 feet from inside his body.
The incident is the latest reminder that sushi eaters should be very careful, as there is a very real risk of being infected by parasites or tapeworms from the popular Japanese food.
Sushi Lover Pulls Out 5-Foot Tapeworm From His Body
A young Asian man visited the emergency room of the Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, California. He claimed that he was having bloody diarrhea and insisted that he be treated for worms.
"I get asked this a lot," said Dr. Kenny Bahn, the doctor on duty at the time who told the story of the incident on the This Won't Hurt A Bit podcast. "Truthfully, a lot of times I don't think they have it."
Unfortunately for Bahn, the man had proof. He opened the plastic grocery bag that he was carrying and pulled out a toilet paper tube. Wrapped around it was a tapeworm, which the man said he pulled out of himself while he was on the toilet. When Bahn unraveled the tapeworm, it measured about five and a half feet.
The man told Bahn that he thought his intestines were coming out through his bottom. He started pulling on it, and was surprised that it moved. He continued pulling on the tapeworm until its end, but he was not convinced that he was able to get everything out of his body.
The patient requested for medical treatment to make sure that the tapeworm has been fully removed from inside his body. Bahn gave him an anthelmintic, which is a single-treatment medication to treat tapeworms in both humans and dogs.
He realized that he likely caught the tapeworm from sushi, as he said that he consumes salmon sashimi daily. The sushi eater, who was glad that it was a tapeworm that was coming out of himself instead of his intestines, said that he will no longer eat his favorite sashimi after the horrible incident.
Risks In Eating Sushi
Fresno is located 150 miles from the coastline and is not known as a sushi hotspot, which are red flags for eating the raw Japanese food.
About a year ago, researchers claimed that the likelihood of acquiring a tapeworm from eating sushi in the United States is low, but the risk is heightened if the sushi is not prepared properly. Consuming sushi also exposes people to the chance of contracting the parasitic infection known as anisakiasis.
Also about a year ago, doctors in India pulled out a six-foot-long tapeworm through a man's mouth.
