A family noticed a worm in a toddler's stool. Laboratory identification showed it was not a familiar roundworm or tapeworm but Moniliformis moniliformis, a thorny-headed worm whose usual hosts are rats and other rodents, according to a case report in BMJ Case Reports.
Apart from the worm, the girl had no symptoms. The clue that tied the case together surfaced only after the diagnosis, when her mother recalled that the child had recently been found with a cockroach in her mouth.
