Texas: Woman had eight tapeworm eggs living in her head

A Texan women has had multiple tapeworm eggs surgically removed from her brain following nine months of complaining about severe headaches. Yadira Rostro, 31, from Garland, had eight tapeworm eggs inside her head.

Doctors believe that the parasites began to live there two years ago when Rostro ate contaminated food while on holiday in Mexico. They then reached her brain through the bloodstream which ultimately resulted in fluid being built up on her brain. Usually the parasite would pass through the host, but her doctor described it as "bad luck".

Such was the severity of her headaches, Rostro told ABC's News 8 show: "Sometimes my sight was impaired... I could not see properly. I never imagined I had something different or something in my head."

Neurosurgeon Dr Richard Meyrat, who performed the surgery, of the Methodist Dallas Medical Center, said: "They looked a little bit like eggs, and they had a clear sac. And inside it, there was a small tapeworm."

He added that Rostro is "happy to be alive. Her headaches have gone and she is feeling better."