Chinese woman has EIGHT FOOT long tapeworm removed from her intestines after eating rare beef while on holiday

• Mrs Li probably picked up the worm while travelling in South East Asia
• She was diagnosed when she returned to China and started to feel unwell
• She was given traditional Chinese medicines and was able to pass the worm

She told Chinese media: ‘It’s disgusting and almost makes me faint.’

Mrs Li, who is in her 30s and lives in Xiamen, in China’s Fujian Province, visited a doctor after she started to feel unwell and noticed unusual fluids in her stools.

She was diagnosed with teniasis – an infection cause by a tapeworm, dailymirror reports.

 

She believes she picked up the worm by eating rare beef while on holiday in January.

Doctors treated her with traditional Chinese medicines and she was able to pass the tapeworm in May. She is now recovering well.

A tapeworm is a parasite that can live in a person's bowel. They tend to be flat, segmented and ribbon-like.

Humans can catch them by touching contaminated stools and then touching their mouths, by swallowing food or water that contains traces of contaminated faeces or by eating undercooked, contaminated port, beef or fish.

Mrs Li is thought to have picked up the worm from some rare beef. Image shows a beef tapeworm's head

Symptoms of a tapeworm infection include stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhoea as well as weight loss and malnutrition.

However, some patients have no symptoms and are unaware of their infection until they see segments of the worm in their stools.

Beef tapeworms can be easily treated with tablets.

However, infection with other tapeworms can lead to serious complications.

This is because their larvae can settle in other parts of the body.

Tapeworm infections are most commonly seen in the developing world - they are rare in the UK.