After a canoeing trip with his friends in South East Africa, a British man almost died after a parasite infected his system by laying its eggs in his vital organs.
The parasite had access to one of the openings in his groin area, swimming up and destroying his body after it laid eggs inside. He states that he was unable to sleep from the pain.
James Michael, 32, had traveled with his friends from Zambia to Zimbabwe. His friends decided to make a stopover in Malawi, taking the chance as a tourist to have fun while swimming in Lake Malawi.
Parasitic flatworms, specifically schistosomes, made their way up his penis and affected him in a life-threatening manner. It took some time to catch the parasites, since he noticed that he lost feeling in his legs the year after they had traveled.
Once neurologists figured out what was going on in his body, they told James that his immune system was attacking his spine. This was only a small factor, the parasites still hidden from medical review until delving more into the situation.
James had been put on steroids, the cause was still unidentified until doctors from the Hospital for Tropical Diseases told him that he had contracted schistosomiasis, AKA bilharzia, which is a plastic worm that had crawled up his body and invaded it negatively.
After finding out what the cause was for the attack on his immune system, they prescribed James praziquantel, a medication that kills the worms.
The infection had been destroyed, but “I was left basically debilitated. They told me there was a 30% chance I’d make a full recovery. It was a horrible feeling… and the odds weren’t good. I couldn’t wish what I’ve been through on anybody.
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In the first three months of being admitted to the hospital, he had to use a wheelchair and catheter since he could not go to the toilet properly. He had a breakout of extreme acne due to the steroids, and a case of diarrhea on top of that.
He is still continuing to fight the parasite, he tells news sources, “The pain has been like nothing I’ve ever known. I couldn’t sleep for a month because lying on my back hurt. This has been horrendous. It’s felt like a never-ending mountain I’ve had to climb.”