It started with a dry cough – and ended with a python snake parasite inside the brain

A live worm about eight centimeters long was removed from the brain of a 64-year-old Australian woman during surgery, in a world-first medical case. Tests confirmed it was a larva of a rare parasite that lives in the digestive tract of carpet pythons.

A world-first medical case: a live worm about eight centimeters long was removed from the brain of a 64-year-old Australian woman during a biopsy surgery. The patient had suffered for months from abdominal pain, dry cough, night sweats, lung and liver lesions, and later from memory deterioration and deep depression. Genetic tests confirmed it was a larva of the parasite Ophidascaris robertsi, which lives in the digestive tract of carpet pythons. The woman used to forage for edible plants along a lake where pythons reside, and likely ingested the parasite's eggs. After the surgery and anti-parasitic treatment, her physical condition significantly improved, but mild neuropsychiatric symptoms remained.