A Taichung physician on Thursday warned against eating raw pork after treating a migrant worker for tapeworms that had infected their calf muscles.
Chang Wei-shuo (張為碩), an infectious disease specialist at Asia University Hospital, said that he treated a Thai national complaining of pain in their calves.
Doctors hospitalized the patient after pain medication proved only moderately effective, Chang said.
An X-ray showed white, elongated forms in the person’s calf muscles, leading to a diagnosis of cysticercosis, a tissue infection caused by pork tapeworms, he said, adding that the worker had said they sometimes eat raw pork.
The person reported that the pain vanished after taking several doses of a medication used to treat parasitic worm infections, Chang said.
When people eat raw or improperly cooked pork that contains live eggs or larvae, the larvae could mature into pork tapeworms in two to three months, which could then work themselves into the human body, he said.
Typically, cysticercosis occurs in the small intestines of the host and the body naturally expels worm eggs and dead worms, so the infection is usually not felt or detected, he said.
However, tapeworm larvae could also attach themselves to other parts of the body, such as the brain, spinal cord, heart, eyes, kidneys, lungs or skeletal muscle tissues, possibly leading to death, he said.
Pork frozen for a day at minus-24°C or for three days at minus-5°C should be safe to eat, as is pork cooked at a temperature higher than 65.6°C, Chang said.
People should avoid eating raw pork, beef and drinking contaminated water, he said, adding that they should also use separate knives and cutting boards for meats and vegetables, and wash their hands before meals and after using the restroom.
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