“We think this type of event is rare. However, this tapeworm is found worldwide and millions of people globally suffer from conditions like HIV that weaken their immune system. So there may be more cases that are unrecognized,” added Muehlenbachs, lead author of the study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The case involved a 41-year-old man in Colombia. He was HIV-positive and not been taking medications when in 2013, he went to his doctors with a cough, fever and complaints of weakness and weight loss.
His doctors took biopsies from his lymph nodes and lung tumors, and appealed to the CDC for help in diagnosing some bizarre-looking lesions which looked like human cancer, but initial lab tests showed they were not human.
