Chinese girl, 8, vomits live worms for a month - THIS is why

Doctors in China came across a strange case where an 8-year-old girl threw up live worms consecutively for a month. The girl was from Yangzhou City in Jiangsu province in China, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported. Doctors treated her and investigated that the cause of the issue was something so common in a household - drain flies, also known as moth flies. The child was vomiting live larvae, approximately 1 centimetre long, indicating a severe infestation. Although her other family members were fine - which indicated that the issue was not contagious. When her health started deteriorating, the girl was taken to many doctors, but none of them could find the actual cause of the medical problem.

At last, the girl was taken to the Children's Hospital of Soochow University in Jiangsu, where a doctor, Zhang Bingbing, suggested that her family submit the samples to the local Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. A staff member at the centre identified the worms. The worms were previously identified in the body of a 60-year-old woman.

The moth flies are small insects with distinctive heart-shaped wings. They thrive in environments rich in organic matter, such as clogged drains.

The SCMP report quoted Xu Yuhui, who is a department chief at the Yangzhou Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. He explained that the drain flies' larvae had contaminated the running underground water. "When the child brushes her teeth or flushes the toilet, the worms might enter her system through splashes of water," Xu said in the report.