Guys. This is quite possibly the most disgusting video ever posted on the web. And it came from New England Journal of Medicine.

After being torn for a while about whether or not to pass this on from Metafilter, where I first found it, I decided you guys could take it. Or at least decide as informed adults whether or not you want to. This (poor poor poor) 55 year old male complained of abdomen cramps. A colonoscopy revealed a pinworm (Enterobius vermicularis) infestation in his colon. How evil (ew ew ew ew) is this: after laying eggs around the anus, the female worm secretes an itching agent, which causes the host to scratch his or her ass, thereby transferring the eggs to the fingers, a mere hop skip and jump away from more oral ingestion. And so, the ew ew ew ew ew EW life cycle continues. But take comfort: they don't cause any major bodily harm. They might just disturb your sleep though by triggering itching and "crawling" sensations. Now if this has made your skin crawl and you're a bit of a hypochondriac fear not. Apparently the simple "Scotch tape test" is all you need in a bind to diagnose yourself (FYI: that's clear tape not frosted).

Comments

[sara]

I have to say I wasn't sure it really was going to be that gross. But no, you are right -- that is absolutely disgusting!

[MT]

Does it help you lose weight?

[Anne]

Possibly. Definitely cause it simply turns you off food. And maybe a bit more on top of that.

[MJ]

I'll never be able to look at Scotch tape again without thinking of "the test."

[kurtrik]

i'm a worm-a-phobe. i get creepy feelings just thinking about it. so i'm not going to watch the video than you very much. but i'm wondering how you came across it. do you surf NEJM and Lancet for fun disgusting medical vids and pics?

[Anne]

Nope. I'm not THAT much of a loser (though they should add that feature in somehow. Great idea). Came across it at Metafilter.com, which is more prolific and less unerring than usual with its link now.

[M@]

You won't believe me, but I really was eating rice noodles while watching that. Never has your 'like, ew?' tag seemed so appropriate.

[Anne]

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. That's is, like, so, ew?!

Sorry M@. I really and truly am.

[Katie]

I'm a wormophobe too, but I've read all about that therapy for phobias where you confront your fear and make it go away so I thought I'd watch the vid and give it a go. I think I made it through about 1.5 seconds before I turned it off. I think I'll just stay phobic for now!

[Jess]

I spent a summer doing research for a parasitologist, and I remember him telling me about this worm. The disease is called "itchy bum sucky thumb" syndrome, I kid you not (apparently kids get it a lot because they're completely unselfconscious about scratching their ass...and then sticking their fingers in their mouth).

[gromesst]

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