Doctors Find A Parasitic Worm That Has Never Infected A Human Before Within A Woman’s Eye
Doctors Find A Parasitic Worm That Has Never Infected A Human Before Within A Woman’s Eye
Generally speaking, we do not want any living things near our eyes, let alone inside of our eyes. The eye is among the most discomforting of locations to find small organisms. Certainly there has been a few cases of insects or arachnids being found within human eye sockets in the past, but inside of the eye? One cannot help but to wonder how a tiny organism could manage to invade an inner-eyeball. However, this is a big world that we live in, and basically anything is possible. Unfortunately, this “anything” includes finding a parasitic worm within a person’s eye. In addition to this cringeworthy news, the parasitic worm in question infects cattle and has never before been documented as infecting a human.
Recently a woman by the name of Abby Beckley felt something move within her left eyeball while fishing in Alaska. According to Beckley, the sensation in her eyeball was comparable to the sensation of having a stray eyelash poking at your eye. However, after five frustratingly long days of enduring this sensation, Beckley found no trace of a stray eyelash. After several days of enduring this eye discomfort, Beckley became fed up and decided that drastic action was needed. Beckley, in a fit of frustration, pinched and yanked at the part of her eye causing the discomfort. Seconds later, Beckley found a worm on her finger. The worm looked suspiciously like it had just left a nice cozy eyeball. Beckley realized almost instantly that the grotesque worm in her hand had erupted from her inflamed eyeball. Sadly, the worst news was yet to come as Beckley later learned that the worm in her hand was actually a parasitic nematode that was thought to infect only cattle. The parasite squeezed from her eye had never been found within a human before. In fact, experts had no idea that this parasitic worm could even survive in the human body. What is also remarkable is that this is only the eleventh case of Thelazia in recorded history. For the few of you who do not know, “Thelazia” is a word used to refer to all types of parasitic eye-worms or nematodes. The last known case of Thelazia occurred more than twenty years ago. Eventually doctors removed several more of these extremely rare nematodes from Beckley’s eyeball. After a long struggle, doctors and numerous experts identified the extremely rare parasitic worm as being of the species known as Thelazia gulosa. This revelation came about after an interested doctor found a description of this nematode species in a German publication dating back to 1928. Hopefully, Beckley’s luck will change for the better soon.
Have you ever heard of arthropod eggs or larvae being found within a human orifice?