Australia woman's brain invaded by parasitic worm that normally infects pythons

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan revealed the woman had a lesion in her brain (left), which doctors later found to contain a 3.15 inch-long worm (right). (Image credit: Hossain, M. E., et al. (2023). https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2909.230351. (CC BY 4.0))

A woman in Australia has become the first known person in the world to be infected with a parasitic worm that normally lives in pythons — after doctors found it wriggling in her brain. 

The 64-year-old, who lives in New South Wales, Australia, was initially hospitalized several times in 2021 for a variety of symptoms, including abdominal pain, diarrhea, fever and persistent cough. At the time, exams revealed injuries in her lungs, liver and spleen and a remarkably high number of immune cells in the blood.