What's that wiggling in my sushi?What's that wiggling in my sushi? Physicians diagnosed appendicitis Appendicitis Definition Appendicitis is an inflammation of the appendix, which is the worm-shaped pouch attached to the cecum, the beginning of the large intestine. The appendix has no known function in the body, but it can become diseased. in a 24-year-old college student with severe abdominal pain. But nothing looked unusual during surgery -- until the surgeon spied a 1.5-inch, bright red worm with a slit-like mouth crawling onto the surgical drape near the patient's incision. With his inadvertent ingestion of this curlicue worm -- from the genus Eustrongylides -- the student joined the small but rapidly growing ranks of Americans who consume live parasites in raw fish delicacies such as sushi and sashimi. This case, reported in the April 27 NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE The New England Journal of Medicine (New Engl J Med or NEJM) is an English-language peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is one of the most popular and widely-read peer-reviewed general medical journals in the world. , should remind both patients and physicians of the dangers of eating unprocessed fish, write Murray Wittner of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine
The Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM) is a graduate school of Yeshiva University. It is a private medical school located in the Jack and Pearl Resnick Campus of Yeshiva University in the Morris Park in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. and his colleagues. Though the patient recovered, such worms can perforate per·fo·rate v. 1. To make a hole or holes in, as from injury, disease, or medical procedure. 2. To pass into or through (a body structure or tissue). adj. Having been perforated. intestinal linings and cause life-threatening infections. Happily, adds Peter M. Schantz of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, most parasitic worms "are coughed up or regurgitated within hours of ingestion, producing astonishment but no disease." To ensure the safety of raw fish, he says, it should be frozen for at least five days at -20[deg.]C (-4[deg.]F). That temperature kills all relevant parasitic worms so far tested. |
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