Tapeworm Diet Infecting Chinese Women

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End the Neglect, a blog focused on shedding light on neglected tropical diseases reports a story today on the extreme measures that Chinese women are taking to lose weight.

In the competition for jobs, women in the Xiamen area of China are purposely ingesting themselves with roundworm eggs—a parasite—to lose weight. It's a public health worker's worst nightmare.

End the Neglect reports:

Although weight loss may occur when infected by roundworm, there are very serious adverse health consequences associated with roundworm infection. Eggs can travel from the intestine to other parts of the body such as the liver, lungs, or central nervous system and cause symptoms such as fever, coughing, enlarged liver or pneumonia.

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Roundworm are a parasitic tapeworm most commonly found in tropical climates and also in dogs and cats in warm weather.