{"id":12059,"date":"2025-04-11T22:59:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T22:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/12059\/"},"modified":"2025-04-11T22:59:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T22:59:13","slug":"horrifying-images-of-giant-worms-being-removed-from-young-patients-body-trigger-urgent-warning-about-drinking-contaminated-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/12059\/","title":{"rendered":"Horrifying images of giant WORMS being removed from young patient’s body trigger urgent warning about drinking contaminated water"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stomach-churning images have captured the moment doctors discovered dozens of\u00a0 worms writhing in a boy’s intestine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bloated three-year-old had battled constipation, fever and\u00a0failed to pass stools for three days before his concerned parents sought medical help.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After attending hospital, he was diagnosed with constipation, according to Indonesian medics who shared his story in a journal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But it was only after he began vomiting worms a day later, that an x-ray of his stomach then showed grey masses \u2014 indicating he had an ‘intestinal obstruction’.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Doctors carried out a laparotomy \u2014 when an incision is made in the abdomen \u2014 and discovered the worms blocking three separate areas of his small intestine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Identified as ascaris lumbricoides, this type of roundworm can grow up to 35cm long and live in the human gut.<\/p>\n

Medics at\u00a0Dr Soebandi General Hospital in Jember said the boy \u2014 who wasn’t identified \u2014 was likely exposed to the worms via contaminated water and walking barefoot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Writing in the Journal of Medical Case Reports<\/a>, doctors added that without prompt treatment, the creatures could trigger intestinal perforation,\u00a0a medical emergency that can prove fatal when a hole develops in the wall of the intestine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The bloated three-year-old had battled constipation, fever and had failed to pass stools for three days before his concerned parents sought medical help. Pictured, one worm medics recovered from the boy’s intestine<\/p>\n

\"Doctors <\/p>\n

Doctors carried out a laparotomy \u2014 when an incision is made in the abdomen \u2014 and discovered the packs of worms blocking three separate areas of his small intestine<\/p>\n

‘Intestinal obstruction is a rare manifestation of ascariasis lumbricoides but should be considered, especially in an endemic area,’ they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Poor hygiene and sanitation may influence this massive condition.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

After discovering the worms, blood tests also revealed the boy had\u00a0anaemia, which occurs when the body doesn’t produce enough healthy red blood cells, required for carrying oxygen around the body.<\/p>\n

A common warning sign of a parasitic infection, this is\u00a0because some worms feed on blood in the intestines, leading to chronic blood loss and reduced iron levels.<\/p>\n

To remove the ascaris lumbricoides, medics\u00a0made a small cut in his intestine, about 50cm from where it joins the large bowel, and gently squeezed \u2014 or ‘milked’ \u2014 the worms out.<\/p>\n

They then stitched the intestine back together and sent the worms to a lab for testing.<\/p>\n

The boy was prescribed antibiotics, fluids and\u00a0pyrantel pamoate tablets, a treatment used for a variety of intestinal parasite infections including roundworms and hookworms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was discharged from hospital a week later and given\u00a0albendazole tablets, another intestinal parasite infection treatment.<\/p>\n

\"An <\/p>\n

An x-ray of his stomach showed grey masses \u2014 indicating he had an ‘intestinal obstruction’<\/p>\n

\"People <\/p>\n

People unwittingly become infected by ascaris lumbricoides by consuming contaminated food or water laced with the worm’s microscopic eggs<\/p>\n

\"To <\/p>\n

To remove the ascaris lumbricoides, medics made a small cut in his intestine, about 50cm from where it joins the large bowel, and gently squeezed \u2014 or ‘milked’ \u2014 the worms out<\/p>\n

Up to a billion people are estimated to have giant roundworms worldwide, or one in eight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

People unwittingly become infected by ascaris lumbricoides by consuming contaminated food or water laced with the worm’s microscopic eggs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This can happen via contamination of hands from pets’ faeces, with the eggs then passed on to food while a meal is prepared.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Water can also become contaminated if poor sanitation leads to it being mixed with feces.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Infections occur more often in rural areas or those with poor sanitation.<\/p>\n

But these worms are known to can cause a range of health issues, especially in children \u2014 including stomach pain and difficulty absorbing nutrients, which can lead to poor growth and development.<\/p>\n

In more severe cases, the worms can travel to other parts of the body, such as the liver and could trigger breathing problems.<\/p>\n

The boy often ‘went out with his friends in the river’ without foot protection and to the landfill picking up rubbish with his bare hands, the medics wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Drinking unboiled contaminated water could have also triggered the infection, they said, as well as\u00a0‘being hand-fed by his mother’ if proper hygiene procedures were not in place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stomach-churning images have captured the moment doctors discovered dozens of\u00a0 worms writhing in a boy’s intestine.\u00a0 The bloated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[92,105,8262,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-12059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-indonesia","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114321815502276882","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}