One bite of this plant may eat 6,000 parasites! Don't touch this "pink flower" near the water

Review of this article:

Wang Xiaohuan, Doctor of Medicine, Fudan University

Sun Jinlu, Professor of Allergy Department, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Postdoctoral Supervisor and Doctoral Supervisor of Clinical Medicine, Doctor of Clinical Medicine

For many foodies working

There are not many ways to relieve stress

Solu is definitely one of them!

The weather is a bit hot recently

A plate of fried snails and two bottles of cold beer were served.

but but but but but but but but

Before you prepare to eat

I must remind you:

The snail you are sucking may also be sucking you!

Do you remember the dreaded apple snails in those years?

An accidental ingestion

She had 6 lumbar punctures and miscarriages.

At the end of July 2017, a netizen posted a message revealing his own experience, which is still shocking when he thinks about it today.

She was traveling in Yunnan at the time and ate local Erhai snails. After returning, she developed symptoms such as fever and leg pain. Because she was pregnant, she mistakenly thought that she was overworked and didn't take it seriously.

Two weeks later, her condition worsened dramatically. She began to have a high fever, was unable to stand, sleep, or even open her eyes.

In the following days, she had six lumbar punctures, took more than a dozen boxes of deworming medicine, and injected 300 bottles of water. Because of the use of hormones and drugs, her face and body became deformed, and she eventually had to terminate her pregnancy...

The culprit that caused all this was the "snail" she had eaten before.

The golden apple snail is extremely lethal

The tragedy never stops

Are snails that scary? Of course not!

Because what she ate was not a normal field snail, but the dreaded "Golden Apple Snail"!

In May 2006, more than 160 people in Beijing were infected with Angiostrongylus cantonensis after eating golden apple snails in a restaurant, which became a major public health emergency in Beijing.

It was also because of this incident that many places across the country began to ban the sale of golden apple snails, and people gradually became aware of the dangers of golden apple snails.

But the golden apple snail and field snail are so similar that it is difficult for people to distinguish them. So just three years later, the golden apple snail climbed onto the dining table again, and the tragedy caused by the golden apple snail was staged again!

In 2020, a 7-year-old boy suffered from frequent headaches and vomiting, and the cause of the disease could not be diagnosed after visiting several hospitals. After high-throughput sequencing of cerebrospinal fluid, he was diagnosed with intracranial parasitic infection.

The culprit is the Guangzhou roundworm in the golden apple snail!

What is Angiostrongylus cantonensis?

Angiostrongylus cantonensis is a parasite that can cause zoonotic parasitic diseases.

Its final host is the mouse, and its intermediate hosts include the brown cloud agate snail, the golden apple snail, slugs (i.e., slugs), etc., while humans are the abnormal host of the Guangzhou roundworm.

According to relevant research, the larvae of Guangzhou roundworm can be found in the bodies, excrement and mucus left by infected giant snails while crawling.

Humans can be infected with Angiostrongylus cantonensis through the following ways:

Eating raw or undercooked infected snail meat

Close contact between wounds and mucous membranes and infected snails

Consuming salads, fruits, vegetables, or water contaminated by infected snails

After infecting the human body, the Guangzhou roundworm can migrate between various organs of the human body, invading the central nervous system, lungs, eyes, etc., causing meningitis, meningoencephalitis, visual damage and even blindness.

Angiostrongylus cantonensis (also known as Guangdong blood-bearing nematode)

Photo: John F. Lindo/wikimedia

However, although Guangzhou roundworm is terrible, we can stay away from it as long as we do the following:

Do not eat raw snail meat

Avoid direct contact of broken skin and mucous membranes with the excrement, mucus, and tissue of the "giant snail"

Be sure to clean your hands after handling the brown cloud agate snail

Pay attention to the separation of snails and food to prevent vegetables, fruits, salads and other foods from being contaminated by snails

A single golden apple snail can have up to 6,000 parasites

In severe cases, it may be fatal!

According to statistics, a snail may contain 3,000 to 6,000 parasites. After the parasites enter the human body, the larvae will invade the brain, damage the central nervous system, and then cause eosinophilic meningitis.

At this time, the patient will experience symptoms such as headache, fever, and stiff neck. In severe cases, it may lead to shock, dementia, or even death.

The reason why we say that golden apple snails are dangerous is that they are not thoroughly cooked. If the golden apple snails are cooked, the parasites will also be killed.

But I still recommend you not to eat it, because you don't know how to cook the golden apple snail thoroughly. More importantly, the taste of the golden apple snail will deteriorate a lot after it is thoroughly cooked, so some businesses will take risks.

Don’t touch the “pink flowers” ​​that have been crawling all over the lakeside recently

All are eggs of golden apple snails

Many people have recently discovered that a lot of pink "flowers" have appeared by the water and on the shore. They look crystal clear from a distance and are very eye-catching.

Copyright image, no permission to reprint

If you look closely closer, you will see that these "flowers" are made up of small round balls, densely packed, and look like pink mulberries.

Copyright image, no permission to reprint

My grandmother told me since I was little not to pick wild flowers on the roadside, be careful of getting your hands pricked!

Today, the editor would like to solemnly remind everyone not to touch these "pink flowers" on the roadside -

These are not "flowers" but the eggs of the golden apple snail!

Golden apple snails generally grow in shallow water areas with relatively good water quality, or on the stems of aquatic plants. April to June is a very suitable season for the growth and reproduction of golden apple snails. Every night, golden apple snails will come to the shore to lay eggs.

They have a strong reproductive capacity and can lay eggs 20-40 times a year, with an annual egg production of 30,000 to 50,000 eggs. They also have a varied diet and can spread rapidly. Once an outbreak occurs, they will destroy the surrounding ecosystem.

How to distinguish between golden apple snails and field snails?

Although the golden apple snail and the river snail look like "brothers" in appearance, there are still many differences upon closer inspection.

Size:

The spiral part of an adult golden apple snail is relatively small, and the snail is usually larger than a field snail.

color:

The field snails are more bluish-brown, while the golden apple snails are more yellowish.

shape:

Field snails are generally oblong or oval in shape, while the golden apple snail is more disc-shaped.

Shell mouth:

Field snails basically have black borders, while golden apple snails generally do not have black borders.

Taste:

Compared with golden apple snails, field snail meat tastes a little more tender.

There are 4 other common delicacies

It is a favorite of parasites!

01

There are worms in the fish, and wine, sauce, vinegar, etc. can't do anything about it.

Freshwater fish often carry live metacercariae of liver flukes. Eating them regularly may lead to infection and liver fluke disease. This disease may develop into cholangitis, gallstones, cirrhosis and even liver cancer.

remind:

Whether you drink strong liquor before eating, or dip it in vinegar, soy sauce, etc., you need to soak it for at least 2 hours if you want to kill the insects. Just dip it lightly with your hand, it will not kill the insects at all.

02

If you love to eat kebabs, two kinds of parasites may be targeting you

Grilled lamb skewers are cooked quickly at high temperatures, so it is easy to eat them undercooked. At this time, it is easy to be infected with Toxoplasma gondii or (and) Trichinella spiralis.

If a pregnant woman is infected with Toxoplasma gondii, it may cause miscarriage, premature birth, malformation, or stillbirth.

People with trichinellosis often show symptoms such as eyelid edema, long-term fever, muscle pain, gastrointestinal symptoms and rash.

03

If you love to eat drunken shrimps and crabs, you will develop "bumps that can move around" on your body

Crabs and freshwater shrimps are the intermediate hosts of lung flukes, which are characterized by running around in the human body. When they run under the skin, bulges the size of broad beans or walnuts can be seen.

When paragonimiasis enters the lungs, liver, brain and other parts of the infected person, symptoms such as coughing, chest pain, abdominal pain, diarrhea, headache, epilepsy, vision loss, paralysis, etc. may occur, and in severe cases, it may be life-threatening.

remind:

Drunken shrimps and crabs are not fully steamed and only pickled with salt, or soaked in vinegar or wine, which cannot do anything to kill lung flukes.

04

Eating frog meat and snake meat will cause worms in your brain

A parasite called sparganosis often lives in the bodies of frogs and snakes.

Once it enters the human body, it will penetrate the intestinal wall and wander around, or run under the skin, or drill into the internal organs, or sneak into the brain, causing adverse reactions throughout the body.

remind:

Frog hotpot, cold snake skin, etc. are all high-risk dishes.

Of course, there are more foods that can attract parasites than the ones mentioned above. To avoid being harmed by them, we should keep the following 3 points in mind when cooking:

Source: Science Popularization China WeChat Official Account

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