A woman who complained of memory problems and depression was found to have an 8cm worm, which usually lives in pythons, living in her brain, reports The Guardian.

It was a pretty normal day in the infectious disease department of a Canberra hospital until a neurosurgeon announced he had found a live worm in a woman’s brain.

Neurosurgeon Hari Priya Bundy removed an 8cm parasitic worm from her patient, prompting her to call colleagues at the hospital for advice on what to do next.

The patient, a 64-year-old woman from New South Wales, was first admitted to a local hospital in late January 2021 after three weeks of abdominal pain and diarrhea accompanied by a persistent dry cough, fever and night sweats.

By 2022, her symptoms also included memory problems and depression, prompting her to be referred to a Canberra hospital. An MRI of her brain revealed abnormalities that required surgery.

“But a neurosurgeon certainly didn’t start surgery thinking they were going to find a wriggling worm,” said Dr. Sanjaya Senanayake.

“Neurosurgeons regularly deal with brain infections, but this was a once-in-a-lifetime discovery. No one expected to find it.”

The startling discovery prompted a team at the hospital to quickly assemble to find out what the worm was and, most importantly, decide on any further treatment the patient might need.

After searching in textbooks in vain, doctors turned to experts.

“Canberra is a small place, so we sent the worm, which was still alive, straight to the laboratory of a CSIRO scientist who has a lot of experience with parasites,” Senanayake said. “He looked at it and said, ‘Oh my God, it’s Ophidascaris robertsi.’

Ophidascaris robertsi is a roundworm commonly found in pythons. A patient at a hospital in Canberra became the first case in the world of such a parasite.

How the worm got into the patient’s brain

The patient lives near a lake where carpet pythons live. Although she had no direct contact with the snake, she often collected herbs around the lake to use in cooking, Senanayake said.

Doctors and scientists involved in her case suggest that the python may have shed the parasite through faeces in the grass. They believe that the patient probably contracted the parasite directly from touching the herb or after eating the greens.

“This Ophidascaris infection is not transmissible between humans, so this patient will not cause a pandemic like Covid-19 or Ebola. However, the snake and the parasite are found in other parts of the world, so it is likely that more cases will be identified in other countries in the coming years,” said Dr Senanayake.

Infectious disease doctor Peter Collignon, who was not involved in the patient’s case, said some cases of zoonotic diseases may never be diagnosed if they are rare and doctors don’t know what to look for.

“Sometimes people die without ever finding a cause,” he said, warning that it’s a good idea to wash food when you’re out in nature or around animals.