WHY I DO NOT EAT SUSHI

California sushi fan discovers 5-foot tapeworm inside his body

By Brett Bodner

New York Daily News
January 17, 2018

This could ruin your next sushi meal.

A Fresno man who enjoyed eating raw salmon went to the emergency room where he told doctors to treat him for worms after making the gross discovery of a tapeworm while recently going to the bathroom.

Dr. Kenny Bahn told the story of his patient at Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno on the "This Won't Hurt A Bit" podcast. Bahn said the man came in complaining of bloody diarrhea, but told doctors "I really want to get treated for worms."

Bahn said he was skeptical of the patient at first until the man showed him proof.

"I take out a toilet paper roll, and wrapped around it of course is what looks like this giant, long tapeworm," Bahn said on the podcast.

When the parasitic worm was unraveled and laid out in the emergency room, the tapeworm measured 5 and a half feet long, which is the height of Bahn.

The man discovered the worm when he felt it wiggling out as he sat on the toilet. Banh said the man thought his "guts were coming out," until he started to remove the worm and it started moving.

Bahn said the patient was relieved to discover it was a tapeworm. The man was given a pill for treatment that would expel the rest of the worm from his body.

The patient swore to Bahn that he hadn't been out of the country, but he did eat raw salmon almost daily. The CDC reports that there has been an outbreak of Japanese tapeworms in Pacific-caught salmon.

After dealing with the tapeworm, the man said he'll no longer eat salmon.
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HOW HUMANS CAN CONTRACT TAPEWORM

Daily Mail
January 18, 2018

Humans contract tapeworm infections by eating raw fish that has been infected with the worm in its larvae stage.

Once a human is infected, a tapeworm will grow inside the intestine to a length of up to 15meters over a period of weeks.

It can survive for years and go undetected for weeks or months, in turn releasing its own eggs that infect other parts of the human body.

Symptoms include fatigue, constipation and abdominal discomfort - which can be so mild the victim may not notice anything is wrong.

If larvae begin to migrate to other parts of the body they can start to eat away at the liver, eyes, heart or brain and cause life-threatening conditions.