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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for raxas:

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)

Original Submission