What was initially suspected as run-of-the-mill pneumonia became a world first after Australian doctors removed a live and “wriggling” 8cm-long parasitic worm from a 64-year-old woman’s brain.

The patient, from southeastern NSW, first presented to a local hospital in early 2021, but it was not until almost 18 months later that the nematode — identified as Ophidascaris robertsi — was discovered. 

Case study co-author Associate Professor Sanjaya Senanayake said it was the first documented human case of a worm that typically infects local carpet pythons.

“Normally, the larvae are found in small mammals and marsupials, which are eaten by the python, allowing the life cycle to complete itself in the snake,” said Professor Senanayake, an infectious diseases specialist from the Australian National University and Canberra Hospital.