Pork tapeworm found in woman's brain...

[nankerphelge]

I've seen this in a couple places now and my reaction each time is aarrghhh! It's good to be vegan:

http://www.marlerblog.com/2008/11/articles/case-news/pork-tapeworm-the-parasite-known-as-cysticercosis-found-in-phoenix-woman-rosemary-alvarezs-brain/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na_wPT6zZFY

http://www.vegan.com/blog/2008/12/08/brain-worms/

[LeftyMom]

1. Mmm, parasites.

:9

[flvegan]

2. Unfortunately

"But she also heard the disturbing news of how the worm got there in the first place. She had been served food that was tainted with the feces of a person infected with the pork tapeworm parasite."

For all we know, she might've been eating a salad that was prepped by someone with their own pork tapeworm parasite infected feces on their hands...which is incredibly disgusting. This is why I don't eat out.

The very fact that one COULD get a tapeworm from pork makes it good to be vegan.

[Kolesar]

3. There are some countries where *you* are advised to eat only cooked food

...to ensure that the microbes are killed. One country is Mexico.

One of my friends consumed a parasite that almost killed him. It was in rasberries from Central America. yuk

[LeftyMom]

4. I'm really tempted to make a dirty joke

But I'm going to show restraint. Not because I'm finally learning restraint, mind, but because there are some subjects I just don't want to mentally connect to tapeworms.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

5. I was watching one of those shows on Discovery...

like "Mysrery Diagnosis" and they were covering the case of a young Jewish person who came down with that very pork/brain worm thing -- not only was there the horror of diagnosis, but also the possiblity the guy had been breaking a religious taboo by eating pork. He swore he hadn't, and the doctors were stumped at how he came down with it.

Long story short, there were other outbreaks in that particular Jewish community -- and the investigation eventually led authorities to the Central/Latin American housekeepers that were employeed in those households! Turns out they were all carriers of that parasite and had passed it on. :(