The muscular guy is still skin and bones because of eating blood pudding
From a muscular guy weighing over 60kg, G. now cannot eat or walk, his body is just skin and bones.
Dr. Nguyen Trung Cap, Head of the Emergency Department, Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases, said that recently, two male patients from Mu Ca commune, Muong Te, Lai Chau were hospitalized in a state of weakness, severe muscle pain, and unable to eat or talk.
Test results showed that the patient was infected with roundworms. Despite being treated with a specific regimen, the male patient PPH (32 years old) had a cardiac arrest and died on December 27, after 2 days of treatment.
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| The 24-year-old male patient is being treated at the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases. Photo: T. Hanh |
The remaining patient is LLG, 24 years old, Ha Nhi ethnic group, who is receiving intensive treatment. G. cannot eat or drink, cannot swallow saliva, has muscle pain all over his body, even breathing is painful, and must be fed through a feeding tube. From a muscular young man weighing over 60kg, G. now weighs less than 40kg.
G.'s family said that the whole village organized a grand Tet celebration, slaughtered a sick pig, including blood pudding and salad. After eating, the 5 men suffered from stomachaches, diarrhea, fever, and especially severe pain in the muscles.
All 5 were taken to Lai Chau Provincial Hospital for treatment, 2 serious cases were transferred to the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases.
Dried meat can also be infected with worms.
Dr. Cap said that in the past 10 years, the hospital has only received 3-4 cases of trichinosis. This type of worm is commonly found in rats in nature. When rats are infected with worms, other rats that eat undercooked rat meat will also become infected.
In the human body, when entering the intestine, the worm larvae penetrate the intestinal wall into the blood, run into the muscles, run into the respiratory muscles causing pain when breathing, the diaphragm causing hiccups, enter the esophagus making it impossible to swallow, enter the heart muscle and can cause cardiac arrest and death.
On average, 1 gram of meat infected with roundworms can contain several hundred larvae, so they multiply very quickly in the body.
For treatment, Dr. Cap said it will take a very long time. Even if the larvae are killed, if there are still bodies in the muscles, the patient will still be in pain and unable to walk.
Usually after 6-9 months, the cysts in the muscle will gradually calcify but can still transmit the disease for 10-20 years when eating undercooked meat.
"Therefore, even dried and smoked meats can still be contaminated with worms due to the lack of temperature," Dr. Cap warned.
