British woman diagnosed with 38 brain parasites after India

A British woman has revealed a years-long medical ordeal that began after she unknowingly ingested a parasite during a trip to India, leading to the discovery of 38 tapeworm larvae in her brain. Lowri Denman, a 42-year-old media professional from Cardiff, was diagnosed with neurocysticercosis, a parasitic brain infection, following a backpacking trip in 2007.

Denman traveled through India for approximately two months in 2007, adhering to a vegetarian diet in an effort to avoid common traveler's illnesses. The first sign of a problem emerged years later, in either 2010 or 2011, when she passed a meter-long adult tapeworm. After initial medical checks, she believed the issue was resolved.

However, her health deteriorated within a year. She developed severe headaches and suffered a major tonic-clonic seizure. Subsequent CT and MRI scans revealed dozens of parasitic cysts scattered throughout her brain tissue. Doctors diagnosed her with neurocysticercosis, an infection caused by the larval stage of the pork tapeworm, Taenia solium.

Medical experts explain that neurocysticercosis is contracted not by eating undercooked pork, but by ingesting microscopic tapeworm eggs through...