MEDICS were shocked to learn a woman’s iron deficiency was caused by worms feeding off her body.
The 75-year-old woman visited the doctor in China after experiencing weakness, poor appetite, and trouble sleeping for two months.
Blood tests revealed the farmer from Hunan Province, in South Central China, had severe anaemia caused by iron deficiency.
This happens when the body doesn’t have enough iron to make haemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen.
Without enough haemoglobin, the red blood cells can’t do their job properly, leaving the body starved for oxygen.
This results in symptoms like weakness, fatigue, and shortness of breath.
She was also diagnosed with chronic atrophic gastritis, where the stomach lining becomes inflamed, and Helicobacter pylori, a bacteria that causes stomach infections.
Both these conditions can make it harder for her body to absorb the iron it needs.
However, despite having been diagnosed with these conditions, there was still no explanation for the anaemia, medics from Central South University in Changsha, wrote in the Journal of Medical Case Reports.
The doctors initially focused on managing these conditions, but her symptoms persisted despite treatment.
It wasn’t until an endoscopy – a test that looks inside the body – revealed live hookworms in her gut that doctors realised the true cause of her woes.
Stool tests confirmed that the hookworms were necator americanus, a species of worm known to cause severe anaemia.
These parasites feed on blood in the intestines, which can lead to severe iron deficiency over time.
The authors never explicitly said how she contracted the hookworm, but it’s likely that she was exposed to contaminated soil or water through her job as a farmer, which is common in rural areas.
Hookworm larvae can enter the body through the skin, often through bare feet, or through ingestion of contaminated food or water.
This particular case was especially tricky because the woman didn’t show typical signs of gastrointestinal bleeding, which often makes hookworm infections go undiagnosed, the experts explained.
“Although hookworm infection is rare in China, it remains a concern in rural areas, where the prevalence of such infections may still be underestimated,” the doctors wrote.
The woman was treated with albendazole, an anti-parasitic drug, which cleared the worms from her system.
She also received blood transfusions to boost her hemoglobin levels.
After treatment, her symptoms vanished, and her anaemia was completely cured.
The weirdest things found inside the human body – from a fly buzzing around a man’s gut to a coconut and deodorant can
IT is not unusual for doctors to find random objects inside people's bodies.
Whether they are inhaled by accident, inserted for erotic pleasure or as a means to try and solve a health problem like constipation, doctors see it all.
Medics recently found a fully intact fly buzzing around a man’s intestines.
Meanwhile, a lady in Taiwan recently made the news because a live spider and its discarded outer shell were found inside her ear.
Spiders crawling inside the body are rare; those with arachnophobia will be pleased to hear.
While the person giving a home to a spider had little choice, others accidentally inhale objects, while some even purposely stick things up themselves.
A 2021 study found the vast majority – a whopping 88 per cent – of people attending A&E with this complaint are men.
Some of these have included apples, an aubergine, a brush, pens, carrots, a deodorant can and pesticide containers.
Inhaling objects is one of the most common causes of death in children under three.
Some of the most commonly inhaled objects include coins, toys or magnets, peanuts, and even hot dogs.
In one bizarre case published in Dove Press, doctors in Africa found a leech stuck in a little girl’s throat, which was later safely removed.
A postman from Preston, England, inhaled a Playmobil road cone as a child, but it was only discovered when the 47-year-old had his lungs scanned when he presented with a persistent cough.
In another odd case, a man inhaled a pea, which was in place long enough for it to begin to sprout in his respiratory tract.
