Can a big worm live in your body or is that an urban legend?

Question

I know that tape worms are for real and little kids get them from eating dirt. I heard of an elderly woman who had a big worm living in her body and she could see it moving under her skin. Is that possible? How would it get there? How would you get it out?

Answer 1

absolutely. when i was in Viet Nam, one of my men regurgitated 4 or 5 worms that were the size of night crawlers. we med evacuated him cause we didn't' t know what they were. word came back down that this was fairly routine and there was no way to prevent it from happening.

Answer 2

To the comment above about Ringworm... ringworm is a fungal infection, not an actual worm... and a topical cream is a remedy for ringworm, not surgery.
But to answer the question, there have been cases where the Tapeworm living in the specific individual got so large it exploded out of the person.
Big worms can live inside the body besides tapeworms. There are a lot of different parasitic worms, especially in third-world countries where the water is polluted.

Answer 3

Yes, I saw on T.V, in Africa the doctors remove a worm from a child that was six feet long! And this was not a tape worm! They said the people get these worms from drinking nasty water. And the worm lives just under the skin and is removed by cutting the skin open and digging it out!

Answer 4

tape worms are huge. Pin worms are what kids get from eating dirt. Parasites that live in the muscles can be seen under the skin. There is even an eye worm (Loa loa) that can be seen migrating under the lens.

Answer 5

Yes. Tape worms, for example, can live in your intestines and can get about as long. They live of the nutrients your body is (not) getting from the foods you eat. They come from undercooked meat (which is why I rarely eat steak outside of well done-medium well).

And it's not only worms, my mother works in an ICU unit and believe, worms are the least of your problems.

Answer 6

New research shows that parasites not only control the behavior of their hosts, they can change entire ecosystems to suit their needs. "Hookworms sink their teeth into the intestinal walls of more than a billion people every day to drink their fill of blood."

Intestinal parasites can enter the body in several ways. Most commonly is through food and water contamination. Food or water can also contain the eggs or larvae of the parasites. Meat, chicken, raw fish and even salads are some of the more common ways parasites can enter through food. They can lay thousands of eggs each day, and even though some of the parasites can be killed through cooking, often their eggs are not. It is more common to have parasites within the intestinal tract when the flora (bacteria) in unbalanced, particularly in the colon.

Answer 7

it is pretty gross but there are several different types of worms (parasites) that can live inside of the human body.
I watched a program where a man had one in his belly- you could see it moving around- there was a worm crawling around in someones eye and some other pretty gross ones.
Pinworms, flatworms, tapeworms, roundworms, hookworms are just a few of the parasites able to live in human bodies. Some of these can become several feet long.
Check these out :

http://www.curezone.com/diseases/parasites/

http://www.curezone.com/diseases/parasites/

Answer 8

tape worms are one of dozens or parasites that live off the human body.

some are larva hatched from eggs laid by flies in open wounds.

size of a worm depends upon food and size of space lived in.

Answer 9

I saw on tv where a person had worms in their body and they moved around and even in the eyeball and you could see the worm moving on the eye and the worm had to be located and removed.
(might have been a movie??? i don't know)

Answer 10

there are several types of paracytic worms that can invade your body. Most live in your gastrointestinal tract, but some can live in your blood stream and travel throughout your body.