Worm in woman's brain shocks doctor - 9th October 2023

Something strange just happened in a hospital in Canberra. A doctor found a worm in a patient's brain.

The doctor's name was Dr Hari Priya Bandi. She took the worm from the patient's brain. It was eight centimetres long. And it was alive – it moved.

The patient was a 64 year old Australian. Before this, she felt ill. She had a cough and stomach ache. She kept forgetting things. So she had a brain scan at hospital. The image showed something was wrong. The doctors decided to have a look.

Afterwards, scientists checked the worm. It's an Ophidascaris robertsi and it usually lives in snakes. They think the woman picked up some worm eggs when outside.

For scientists, this worm's a new thing. In the last 30 years, there were 30 new diseases. Most were like this – diseases from animals to people. The number's increasing. And it's increasing quickly.