A toddler in Mississippi contracted a parasitic worm that was discovered in her diaper by her horrified mother.
The girl, who lived on a farm in New Albany in Union County, had suffered abdominal cramping and diarrhea for two weeks and had lost her appetite.
The mother found a moving worm in the two-year-old’s diaper while changing her, filmed the worm and then discarded the diaper and the worm.
CDC researchers later identified the worm in the video as an Ascaris lumbricoides – a large parasitic roundworm – which they believe she picked up from a pig on her farm.
Health officials thought the toddler picked up the parasitic worm from a pig kept on her family’s farm
The girl, who lived on a farm in New Albany in Union County, had suffered abdominal cramping and diarrhea for two weeks and had lost her appetite
Ascaris parasites live in the intestine. Ascaris eggs are passed on through feces from infected people or animals. If ingested, the eggs can hatch inside you.
The family, who was originally from Mexico but had been in the US for 13 years, said that the child and her twin sister sometimes ate dirt from the house plants.
It was thought that the child might have picked up the infection from the pigs, who are a common carrier for parasitic worms.
If an infected pig had defected outside, worm eggs would have been deposited on the soil.
The worm eggs can then grow into a form of the parasite that can infect others.
An adult female A. lumbricoides, as was found in the Mississippi toddler’s diaper
If contaminated soil was used in the house plants, and then the toddler ate the soil, she could have ingested the worm eggs.
Ascariasis often shows no symptoms, but they can include abdominal discomfort or pain.
There an an estimated four million cases of ascariasis in the US at any time.
The toddler was taken to the family’s local pediatrician where she was given ivermectin, an anti-parasite drug used to treat infections caused by roundworms, threadworms and other parasites.
No worm eggs or additional worms were found in stool samples from the young girl.
The Mississippi State Department of Health visited the patient’s home, but the family’s pigs had been sent to slaughter.
The health officials reminded the family members on the importance of handwashing, particularly after touching soil where pigs had defecated.
Only the one worm was expelled by the patient, even after treatment, and the absence of eggs during treatment suggested that the toddler had a single worm infection.
Ascaris lumbricoides worms can live in humans for up to two yeas, and eggs can remain viable in soil for up to 10 years.
The CDC has been interested in reports of parasitic worms after an increase of hookworm cases was reported in rural Alabama back in US.
The researchers concluded that sporadic ascariasis cases in America most often occur from animals, with exposure to pigs, or soil contaminated with pig feces, as the primary risk factor.
