Raw fish strikes again. Sushi, poke and other similar dishes have gained a reputation as a risky food group, where even the most prized cuts can come with an unwelcome garnish: parasites. By nature of their uncooked preparation, parasites that call many fish home can survive even while the fish is out of water and long-dead. Sometimes just a few millimeters long, these worms can go unnoticed on the plate, and later wreak havoc on your insides.
On July 8, doctors in Tokyo reported the case of an anonymous 25-year-old woman who was admitted to St. Luke’s International Hospital over a sore throat earlier this year. A simple examination revealed “a black moving worm” wriggling in her left palatine tonsil, determined to be a Pseudoterranova azarasi, a type of parasitic roundworm.
In their study, published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, they noted that the woman had consumed a meal of “assorted sashimi” five days prior, and had suffered a sore throat ever since. That’s how they determined that sushi was to blame.
They wrote that her “symptoms rapidly improved” after a tweezer-removal. They measured the worm at 38 millimeters (1.5 inches) long and a millimeter wide, and noted that it was “molting the outer cuticle,” which “revealed this worm was a fourth-stage larva of Pseudoterranova azarasi.”
The Pseudoterranova genus of nematode is rarely known to infect the digestive tract, including the throat, where it causes pain, cough and “tingling throat syndrome.” However, usually these parasites settle in the stomach, leading to abdominal discomfort, and usually requires an endoscopy to remove.
Link:New York Post