It could have been the storyline of a horror movie, but a tapeworm found in the brain of an unidentified 52-year-old American man has been attributed to him eating undercooked bacon.

The 52-year-old visited his doctor after his usual migraines became worse and his regular pills stopped working.

He was sent for a CT scan which discovered he had numerous fluid-filled sacs, or tapeworm larval cysts in his brain, which cause cysticercosis.

Doctors put the condition down to “improper handwashing”. They believe the man got his tapeworm from eating underdone pork, and essentially infected himself.

According to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), tapeworm larvae gets into tissues such as muscle and brain, and form cysts. When cysts are found in the brain, the condition is called neurocysticercosis.

Symptoms of the disease include epilepsy, headaches, dizziness and stroke. They can often vary depending on the locations of the lesions, the number of parasites and the host’s immune response.

In this case the patient responded well to anti-parasitic and anti-inflammatory medication.

Possible public health implications

This case has shocked the CDC for the simple reason that the condition of neurocysticercosis is extremely uncommon in the US, or indeed the UK, where pig meat undergoes rigorous testing.

They organisation stated that with that in mind, this individual occurence could have public health implications moving forward. A spokesperson for the CDC said: “It is very rare for patients to contract outside of classic exposures or travel, and such cases in the United States were thought to be non-existent.”

Usually found in poor sanitation areas

The highest rates of infection with this condition are found in parts of Latin America, Asia and Africa, and it is most common in rural areas where pigs are allowed to roam freely, and sanitation and food safety practices are poor at best and in some places, virtually non-existent.

Preference for lightly cooked bacon

With this particular gentleman, a report written concluded that although it could only be speculated, the thought was that his condition was transmitted through auto-infection after “improper handwashing”.

They wrote that the man had denied travelling to any “high-risk” areas, and lived in a modern home with his wife, but on questioning with regards to his eating habits, he did reveal a preference for “lightly cooked, non-crispy bacon” and that was a choice he had made for most of his life.

He had been prescribed with anti-inflammatory and anti-parasitic medication including dexamethasone, albendazole and praziquantel, and had responded well; he was they said, well on the way to recovery