Deadly Parasite Discovered in Chinese Family Shows You Should Never Eat Raw Centipedes:
Centipedes mean business. They can slay animals 15 times their size, even devour whole snakes if they want.
[...] A 78-year-old woman was admitted to Zhujiang Hospital in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, saying she'd experienced headaches, drowsiness, and cognitive impairment for weeks, although she had no other signs of illness, such as fever or vomiting.
Subsequent examination suggested symptoms of meningitis, but not a viral or bacterial cause for the condition. Her cerebrospinal fluid did however indicate traces of antibodies against the rat lungworm, indicating a diagnosis of A. cantonensis eosinophilic meningitis.
What was unusual was how she'd presumably contracted it: by eating raw centipedes.
While centipedes aren't a common foodstuff for most of us, dried or crushed centipedes have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries (usually consumed in powder form), and live, wild specimens are sold in some Chinese agricultural markets.
In this case, the lady's son had served the fresh produce variety to his elderly mother – and uncooked.
If that sounds unreasonable, don't be too hard on him: he himself turned up at the hospital only a few weeks later, presenting the same symptoms, having shared in the meal.
"We don't typically hear of people eating raw centipedes, but apparently these two patients believed that raw centipedes would be good for their health," says the treating physician, neurologist Lingli Lu from Zhujiang Hospital.
"Instead it made them sick."
Fortunately for mother and son, both patients were ultimately treated successfully with a course of anti-parasitic drugs that rid them of their A. cantonensis infection.
Journal Reference:
Huijie Wang, Lingli Lu, Dan She, et al. Eating Centipedes Can Result in Angiostrongylus cantonensis Infection: Two Case Reports and Pathogen Investigation, The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.18-0151)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @08:24AM (12 children)
Raw ants are a staple 'Bush Tucker' here in Aussie... The Green tree ants, at least, which taste like lemon.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @08:42AM (4 children)
What's that old adage again, ... "you are what you eat."
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Wednesday May 26 2021, @09:37AM
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin have nothing to say to aboriginal culture in Australia, he can keep baking his savarins.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @07:16PM (1 child)
So Americans are baloney?
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday May 26 2021, @08:18PM
Corn.
Hell, if we replaced some of that corn syrup with baloney it would likely end up a net health benefit!
(Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Thursday May 27 2021, @02:15AM
That's why you shouldn't eat vegetables. :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 26 2021, @02:03PM
Aunts are better when cooked.
The Centauri traded Earth jump gate technology in exchange for our superior hair mousse formulas.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Wednesday May 26 2021, @05:13PM (5 children)
I've eaten fried grasshoppers before, and found them reasonably tasty. And locusts have been eaten or even considered a delicacy by many of the cultures around where they can be found easily.
The idea that insects are gross and shouldn't be eaten is very very modern.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @07:33PM (2 children)
"Reasonably tasty." :)
I've also eaten them. They're generally sold in red-light type areas to drunk tourists looking to experience the native life. And the reason is because because nobody would eat them while sober! It's not because they're grasshoppers, but because they're just don't taste very good. It's why when you look at cultures that do eat them semi-regularly, they tend to be drenched in flavorings to try to make them more tolerable. There are some things that are esoteric and not big game that actually do taste good though. For instance wasp larvae are just crazy delicious grilled up. But grasshopper is only tasty if you can't taste it.
The reason insects have generally not been eaten as a primary food source is because one large mammal can feed a family for months while one insect gives one man a tiny fraction of one meal. And the mammal tastes a million times better and is also mobile. If you need to move places you can just pack up Bessie, or Porkchop, or whoever else you're raising to go along with you. There's also the bittersweet fact that raising mammals is itself just enjoyable.
(Score: 2) by DutchUncle on Wednesday May 26 2021, @09:08PM (1 child)
Confused: The mammal isn't mobile if you've cut it up to eat, and doesn't last for months either - it goes bad in smelly and horrifying ways.
I agree with your other points, along with Terry Pratchett: "Any seasoned traveller soon learns to avoid anything wished on them as a‘regional speciality’, because all the term means is that dish is so unpleasant the people living everywhere else will bite off their own legs rather than eat it. "
(Score: 2) by KilroySmith on Thursday May 27 2021, @01:36AM
"The mammal isn't mobile if you've cut it up to eat, and doesn't last for months either - it goes bad in smelly and horrifying ways."
People have been preserving meat using ice, salt, or smoking and drying since about the same time that they started being able to kill large mammals.
Or did you think Jerky was a modern invention?
(Score: 2) by Aegis on Wednesday May 26 2021, @11:25PM
A lot of people have probably eaten bugs without even realizing it.
The Truth About Red Food Dye Made from Bugs [livescience.com]
Starbucks recently stopped using a bug-based red food coloring.
(Score: 2) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Thursday May 27 2021, @05:31AM
They're specifically not kosher, so that refusal to eat insects has been around a long time.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @10:37AM (29 children)
And this how the next Chinese based pandemic starts...
I realize these exotic foods are part of Chinese culture and history, and may have developed due to lack of food resources in the past, but they need to re-evaluate the value and potential consequences of this type of culture.
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @11:00AM (8 children)
Before you make fun of the the Chinaman's eating habits, remember that the Democrat elites want us all to eat insects.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @02:16PM (6 children)
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @04:06PM (4 children)
No, repeated references to the unsustainability of meat in the climate change agenda, and repeated bolstering of insect protein as an alternative, has said so, and these are usually discussed by Democrats or other liberals.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @05:03PM (1 child)
Ah yes, the concept of accumulative effects of meat production distilled down to 'cow farts' so it'll be within reach of you lot to babble incessantly about. Oh and as to the crime of suggesting alternative solutions WHILE raising a problem... those brutes! Your poor feelz!! How's your blood pressure doing?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @07:19PM
Next they'll ask people to stop saying the N-word! The horror!
Oh wait, that already happened, now I see why the troll is so upset. All their favorite things are going out of fashion. Lucky them we don't exile people anymore.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday May 26 2021, @05:24PM
All the conservatives and Fox "News" blatantly lying about it doesn't help.
Republican members of Congress, Fox News personalities and other prominent right-wing figures are falsely claiming that President Joe Biden is trying to force Americans to eat far less red meat. [cnn.com]
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Wednesday May 26 2021, @09:11PM
Don't worry, we're not all like that. Some of us liberals will make sure you don't eat anything with a brain, insect or not.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @07:39PM
Or the World Economic Forum [twitter.com] which is seemingly increasingly becoming the source of DNC positions.
Key moment at 55 seconds.
(Score: 2) by Anti-aristarchus on Thursday May 27 2021, @12:02AM
Centipedes are arthropods, not insects. (Hint: how many legs to insects have? )
(Score: -1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 26 2021, @11:07AM (9 children)
Ahhhh. So, you still believe that COVID19 came from the wetmarket? Well, I suppose they sold that propaganda pretty successfully.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @11:24AM (7 children)
The best you can do is doubt. What you are doing is peddling conspiracy theory instead.
Faking confidence has obviously worked for you at your old age. That is a problem with your society. Normally this kind of bullshitting will result in some friend correcting you.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @11:49AM
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/24/us-should-dig-deeper-into-theory-that-covid-originated-in-a-wuhan-lab-ex-clinton-official-says.html [cnbc.com]
https://www.foxnews.com/media/critics-coronavirus-lab-leak-theory-critics-accuse-amnesia [foxnews.com]
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 26 2021, @12:06PM (5 children)
Was the Wuhan lab working on COVID for at least 5 years, or was it not? Maybe you should ask Dr. Sheng-li Shi, because she was the lady doing the most of the work. Or, at least the most advanced work.
https://nypost.com/2021/05/09/theory-that-covid-escaped-from-a-lab-may-not-be-far-fetched/ [nypost.com]
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @04:57PM (3 children)
there's no point .. uhm ..err... pointing fingers at a country.
the oversight in biotech research is globally way, no, waaaayyy, too lax.
all the fuss about iran and n.korea and nukes but it's champagne and hurras and pats on the back all around if a naturally, already dangerous or even deadly bug gets a human "upgrade". DOI-papers flow by the gallons and grants and whatnot.
srsly, it's like every human where a fissile atom and it's partyyyyy-time whenever a new more efficient neutron source is found. that's the state of bio research WORLDWIDE!
keeping smallpox around? i mean that's just plain crazy. as in: clinically crazy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @04:59PM
dodo extinct? no problem!
small pox extinct? hmmmm ... lemme think about that.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 26 2021, @08:24PM (1 child)
Wasn't exactly pointing fingers at China. https://www.newsweek.com/dr-fauci-backed-controversial-wuhan-lab-millions-us-dollars-risky-coronavirus-research-1500741 [newsweek.com]
The US was involved, and Dr. Fauci was arguing for gain of function research. Yes, the same Dr. Fauci who is gonna save us all, blah blah blah.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 27 2021, @06:49PM
one big happy bug making family! :)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @07:24PM
Is someone eating up all the propaganda narratives to distract conservatives from realizing the Trump and the GOP done fucked up big time? The origina really doesn't matter unless it was intentional terrorism or warfare. I'm starting to think that with all the GOP nonsense about COVID it was lmost likely a plan by the GOP to cause a crisis that would help the re-election of the worst POTUS in history. Or less conspiratorially, it is just the afore mentioned attempt to keep the heat off themselves. "It was CHYYYNAA see!" I wonder how many runaway posts mocked Chinese people for their wet markets before the narrative switched.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @11:29AM
don't worry about people ignoring the "COVID was manufactured" story.
soon the UFO report will come out, and then you'll have new things to talk about.
it's sad that you choose to ignore the actual communicative potential of language, but, as long as you're happy...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @02:12PM
I have the feeling that the "bat story" was launched to mesh with Westerner's smug preconceptions about the Chinese. Let the big noses have a laugh and a shudder about the stuff Chinese people eat, because they already have stereotypes in their heads. Let the big noses mask out careless practices at the virology lab that caused an experimental virus to escape to outsiders.
China is notorious for ignoring safety practices. And there's nothing the Chinese hate more than foreigners thinking of them as second rate. Pointing to a food taboo is a convenient deflection.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Immerman on Wednesday May 26 2021, @03:58PM (2 children)
You realize exotic really just means different, with a subtext of appealing, right? Western diets and behaviors are in many ways just as exotic when seen from other cultures. I mean, we've completely stopped eating insects, one of our oldest protein sources? And what's this weird newfangled corn stuff that makes up so much of so many people's diet? Not to mention the huge mountains of synthetic chemicals we use as seasonings, preservatives, etc.
Humans are omnivores to rival rats - we evolved to eat anything we could get our teeth on, and that naturally varies considerably based on regional availability.
(Score: 2) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Thursday May 27 2021, @05:29AM (1 child)
Domesticated things with veterinary care and vaccinations may be safer to eat.
China's government may have suspected a problem. It's interesting that in February 2020 they shut down the ranches raising animals from the wild for food. Just interesting, not proof of anything.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday May 27 2021, @02:26PM
Maybe, but when's the last time a dangerous plague originated as something some places vaccinate animals against?
The biggest problem with wild meat ("exotic" or not), along with human expansion into wild spaces, is that it increases our exposure to new animal diseases that may be able to jump species. We're lucky fish metabolisms are so alien to our own, or that would likely be a huge source of new diseases.
On the other hand we know for certain that humans living closely alongside domesticated animals dramatically increases the rate at which relatively harmless viruses will interbreed with their animal-infecting cousins with potentially deadly results. Swine flu and bird flu being some recent examples that were worrying enough to get their own names from the media. And the frequency of such behavior by Europeans is widely credited for breeding the horrible plagues that colonialists spread wherever they went.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @05:14PM (4 children)
I think the point is that they ate it raw. Even if you eat 'non-exotic' foods raw you can still get sick. Cook it and you're fine.
(Score: 2) by number11 on Wednesday May 26 2021, @07:04PM (3 children)
I found that cooked salad is nasty. And some foods, cooking destroys some of the nutrients. Onions, garlic, broccoli, actually most fresh vegetables. (Do continue cooking your kidney beans and potatoes, though.)
And then there's steak tartare, sushi, ceviche, kibbeh nayeh, and many other tasty things. Granted, in the meat/seafood world it's a good idea to know a bit about what you're doing and where your supply came from.
Insects (are centipedes "insects"?), I dunno. Mostly in my part of the world we only eat them a (common but) accidental additive to other foods.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @07:55PM (2 children)
I was specifically referring to 'meat', not plants.
(Score: 2) by Anti-aristarchus on Thursday May 27 2021, @12:09AM (1 child)
Rat lung worm is often ingested by eating salads where the leaves are insufficiently washed, and small slugs that carry the parasite are consumed unawares. Cooking the salad would kill the parasite, and the slugs, so the suggestion is not any more farfetched than cooking your centipedes before you enjoy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 27 2021, @05:46AM
So you wash your salad thoroughly.
(Score: 2) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Thursday May 27 2021, @05:23AM
No citation, sorry, but I've read calls for suppressing wildlife meat markets everywhere.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @10:40AM
This article, as well as the sciencealert post, date from 2018.