WWhat the fox tapeworm can do to a person once it takes possession of them is reminiscent of the monster from Alien that grows inside a human host and eventually breaks through its abdominal wall. If you become infected with the eggs of the endoparasite Echinococcus multilocularis, there is a risk that the eggs are first activated in the stomach by stomach acid, migrate to the liver, reach a larval stage there – and then begin to reproduce. Unnoticed for years.
“Tumor-like,” as Klaus Brehm, professor of medical parasitology at the University of Würzburg explains. A tumor in the liver grows and grows, spreads, puts pressure on blood vessels and bile ducts, is painful and can lead to metastases to other organs. If left untreated, “alveolar echinococcosis” leads to liver failure and certain death. Thus, the association with “extraterrestrials,” says Brehm, “is quite common among parasitologists.”
Source: Frantfurter Allgemeine
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