Nghe An: 5cm long leech found living in nose of 57 year old woman

On February 9, after a week of nasal congestion and continuous bleeding, Ms. Truong Thi T. (residing in Chau Hong commune, Quy Hop, Nghe An), went to a local medical facility for examination. Initial diagnosis, the clinic's doctor determined that there was a foreign object inside her nose, so she used an endoscopy to remove the object.

Doctors later discovered a leech living in the woman's nose.

A 5cm long leech lives in a patient's nose. Photo: Phan Giang

“A 5cm long, live leech was removed from the female patient’s nose immediately after it was discovered,” said Dr. Nguyen Hong Vui, who works at the clinic. She added that because the patient lives in a mountainous area, there are many leeches. When going into the forest, bathing, or drinking water from rivers and streams, it is easy for leeches to crawl into and reside in the body.

According to patient T, not long ago, when she went to the forest, she used stream water to drink. It is possible to squeeze water from here onto a living person.

Previously, in May 2018, in Que Phong district, doctors also successfully removed 2 leeches that had been living in the noses of 2 patients in the area for a long time. A male patient said that the leech had crawled into his nose while bathing in the river more than a month ago. The other patient said that 2 weeks before, while herding buffalo, he drank water from a stream and the creature crawled into his nose but did not know it, after that he often sneezed and had nosebleeds.