Ocular horror: 'Squiggly worm' raids man's eye in India, doctors vacuum it out

Doctors in India have reported about the case of a man whose eye was afflicted with a parasitic roundworm, and how the juices from his eye had to be sucked out to remove the worm. The case study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week. This particular roundworm usually affects dogs and cats. However, the 35-year-old man became an accidental victim of the roundworm that lives in carnivorous mammal hosts like cats. He had been suffering from blurry vision and a red eye for eight months. When he visited a local ophthalmology clinic, the doctors noticed extensive inflammation in the eye. Closer inspection revealed the culprit - a squiggly worm "moving sluggishly" in the back of the eye. Removing the roundworm proved to be a major task. To gain access to the worm, a pars plana vitrectomy had to be performed. The procedure requires the eye’s internal jelly-like vitreous humor to be sucked out. The worm was finally removed and identified as Gnathostoma spinigerum, a parasitic nematode.

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How do roundworms enter human body?

It had caused a condition called ocular gnathostomiasis which can lead to the infected person losing their vision. The man escaped with a cataract, causing a partial loss of vision in the eye. This happened because of the worm removal procedure. Steroids helped tame down the inflammation. People who eat raw fish or partially cooked seafood are most at risk of being infected by the parasitic roundworm. This creature has a complex life cycle. Cats are the main hosts who pass them out as eggs in their poop. If these eggs enter freshwater, they hatch and the larvae infect small crustaceans called copepods. Fish and frogs usually feed on these copepods. When they enter their system, the larvae continue to develop. When cats are fed their meat, the worms fully mature and lay eggs, again being passed out in the cat's poop.

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Who is at risk from roundworms?

When a human consumes uncooked meat of fish, frogs or ducks that feed on copepods, the worms enter their body but never fully mature. However, they can travel around inside the body, affecting organs like the brain. This causes an infection called gnathostomiasis, and according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, it mostly affects people in countries where raw fish is consumed, like Japan, Thailand, and Mexico.