A parasite lived and grew in a woman's eye for two years. Doctors believe contaminated...

In a rare case, doctors found that a mass, which was believed to have been growing in a woman's eye for two years, was actually a parasite that sometimes enters the human body through the consumption of reptiles.

Contaminated crocodile meat is believed to be the reason behind the rare infection. This has emerged as the first case of its kind in the history of medical literature and was reported in JAMA Ophthalmology on Thursday (April 11).

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The woman was diagnosed by the authors with an infection called "ocular pentastomiasis". This is a rare eye infection which occurs because of parasites known as "pentastomids".

In the woman's case, the parasite had embedded itself below the conjunctiva or the clear outer membrane of the left eye of the patient and hadgrown to about 0.4 inches (10 millimetres) long.

According to the doctors, the 28-year-old from Basankusu in Congo did not show any other symptoms apart from the outgrown mass in the corner of her eye, reported her doctors.

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After the examination, the doctors found that the mass could be removed by surgery. It was during the surgery that a pale, C-shaped larva was revealed.

The parasite was sent for further analysis and the scientists discovered that it was part of a species called Armillifer grandis.

How do such parasites enter the human body?

It is known that snakes are used by Armillifer parasites as their hosts when they enter the final stage of their life cycle.

In the respiratory tracts of different pythons and vipers, these parasites lay their eggs. Eventually, the eggs move from the lungs and enter the environment through the mouth or the digestive tract of the snake.

They are generally picked by small mammals like rodents, which a snake is likely to eat. In these hosts, they generally develop into larvae before getting eaten by a snake, which completes the life cycle of theparasite.

The parasite enters the human body when they eat or drink food or water which is contaminated with its eggs or by coming in close contact with infected snakes, wrote the case report authors.

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However, in this case, the woman said that she had never handled or eaten any snakes.

"However, she was used to eating crocodile meat. No case ofArmilliferocular infection has ever been reported in individuals who eat crocodile meat, but crocodiles can be infected by pentastomids," said her doctors.

Hence, there is a chancethat the woman contracted the infection when she consumed crocodile meat containing parasite eggs.

"This meat could also have been contaminated via infected snake meat on a market stall," said the doctors.

(With inputs from agencies)