Cardiff Woman Recovers From 38 Brain Parasites, Seeks Awareness After India Trip
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · Jun 30
Cardiff Woman Recovers From 38 Brain Parasites, Seeks Awareness After India Trip
2 articles · Updated · BBC.com · Jun 30
Summary
Lowri Denman, 42, says years of treatment have left the 38 parasites in her brain calcified, and she has now returned to health after a rare neurocysticercosis infection.
A three-month India trip in 2007 is believed to be the source; after finding a metre-long tapeworm in 2010, she later suffered headaches, seizures and psychosis before scans revealed the parasites in 2011.
Two weeks in hospital, anti-parasitic drugs and steroids initially helped, but later brain swelling triggered a collapse, six weeks in a neuropsychiatric hospital and years away from work.
By 2018 she had resumed study in Cardiff, returned to work in 2022 and has had no seizure since 2017, though she will remain on epilepsy medication for life.
Dr Brendan Healy called it a once-in-a-career case, saying neurocysticercosis is exceptionally rare in the UK; Denman now wants to use her ordeal to raise awareness.