Sushi lover pulls 5-foot tapeworm from his body, doctor says

(Meredith) – A California man who enjoyed eating sushi every day discovered a giant tapeworm had been living inside his body.

The unidentified man went to a Fresno emergency room complaining of diarrhea and abdominal pain said Dr. Kenny Bahn on a recent episode of the podcast “This Won’t Hurt a Bit.”

Bahn said the man insisted he had worms. The ER physician at Community Regional Medical Center was skeptical until the man pulled out the tapeworm, which was wrapped around a toilet paper roll.

“He grabs it, and he pulls on it, and it keeps coming out,” Bahn recounted. “He picks it up and looks at it. And what does it do? It starts moving.”

Bahn then took it upon himself to measure the tapeworm, which stretched a whopping 5 feet, 6 inches.

The doctor said his patient had not traveled out of the country but professed his love for eating raw salmon sashimi daily.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a study in 2017, warning of tapeworm parasites found in wild-caught salmon from the American and Asian Pacific coasts.

A common fish tapeworm called Diphyllobothrium latum can grow up to 30 feet long, according to the CDC.

Most people infected with the parasite may never experience symptoms, while others may have severe complications like gallbladder disease.

Safe and effective medications are available to treat the infection. Plus, flash freezing or cooking the fish can kill the parasite altogether.

Bahn said after he gave his patient medication to help remove the rest of the tapeworm from his body, the man said he will continue to eat sushi…but he may think twice about raw salmon.

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