Jen Mills
Published December 1, 2025 12:24pm
Updated December 1, 2025 12:24pm
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The worm underneath the woman’s eye, and (centre) after it was plucked out (Picture: nejm.org)
Doctors removed a four-inch parasitic worm from a woman’s eyelid after it burrowed into her forehead and grew there for a month.
The woman, 26, went to hospital after a wriggling lesion migrated over to her left eye.
Before removing it, medics first took a video of the uninvited guest as it squirmed beneath the thin skin of the upper eyelid, looking a little like a bulging vein.
Doctors then surgically removed a white, 11cm-long roundworm, a scientific report of the case in the New England Journal of Medicine described last week.
Tests identified the worm as Dirofilaria repens, a nematode more commonly found in dogs, foxes, wolves and raccoons.
Worms injected by mosquitos can cause problems with lungs, skin and eyes (Stock picture: Getty)
It is transmitted by mosquitoes, who inject a tiny larva at the same time as feeding on blood.
This larva then slowly grows into an adult worm, and if the cycle of life goes to plan, it deposits its own larva in the host’s body, which can then be picked up from its blood by another mosquito.
Humans are not very good hosts for this purpose, as they do not circulate larva in their blood.
Researchers therefore noted that the patient, from Romania, ‘owned a dog’, a better target if the mosquito had fed there instead.
The paper noted that when humans are infected by these worms, they can develop worms in the lungs, under the skin, or around the eyes, depending on the exact species.
‘A small nodule develops at the site of inoculation and then grows into a worm over a period of months, they said.
Althought the woman said she had only had symptoms for a day, when doctors asked about her medical history, she said that a month earlier she had developed a ‘nodule’ on her right temple, which disappeared right before her eye became swollen.
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Luckily, although she may be traumatised by the sheer thought of this, after the worm was extracted, she had no further physical symptoms.
Eye worms are a horrible concept, but might even have been preferable to what a British man went through in 2019, when a parasitic worm crawled up his penis and laid eggs inside him.
James Michael, 32, was infected with bilharzia and had to use crutches for four months, as well as suffering digestion and toilet problems.
He spoke out about his horrific ordeal to warn others about the dangers of swimming in areas where there is a risk of waterborne disease, such as Lake Malawi, where he was exposed to the worm.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
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