Doctors suspected man had brain cancer. He had worms • Hacker News Board

Re: Doctors suspected man had brain cancer. He had worms

#41

Post by tristor » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 1:34 PM UTC

spwa4 wrote: post #40

tristor wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have often thought it might be a wise idea to do some form of prophylactic course against parasitic infections given my extensive travels, but this isn't something that's generally recommended here in the US and I've yet to meet a doctor who would be willing to prescribe deworming without evidence of an active infection. Is this something that's common in India?

The medical world is wildly against this, because of course it will cause resistance in the exact problem your trying to help with. Even within a single patient this is sometimes observed. So yes, it helps. Until it suddenly doesn't. And the point where it suddenly doesn't comes faster every year. We have no real alternatives.

You may be correct, but I assume the word prophylaxis here is to some extent being misused, and really what's happening is that in regions where parasitic infections are endemic, nearly everyone has parasites but because they're often asymptomatic you don't get treated unless you have symptoms, so ensuring you clear our your parasitic load regularly may be beneficial to health regardless of whether you actively have symptoms. I would not expect anti-parasitic agents to become less effective if used on an individual where they don't have any parasitic infection, as there's no evolutionary pressure on the parasites, but it might become less effective over time if someone is actively infected but the agent doesn't successfully kill all the parasites allowing them to reproduce with those evolutionary changes.

Re: Doctors suspected man had brain cancer. He had worms

#42

Post by spwa4 » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 8:32 AM UTC

tristor wrote: post #41

spwa4 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The medical world is wildly against this, because of course it will cause resistance in the exact problem your trying to help with. Even within a single patient this is sometimes observed. So yes, it helps. Until it suddenly doesn't. And the point where it suddenly doesn't comes faster every year. We have no real alternatives.

You may be correct, but I assume the word prophylaxis here is to some extent being misused, and really what's happening is that in regions where parasitic infections are endemic, nearly everyone has parasites but because they're often asymptomatic you don't get treated unless you have symptoms, so ensuring you clear our your parasitic load regularly may be beneficial to health regardless of whether you actively have…

Yeah but that's opening a can of worms nobody even wants to talk about.

What we do about parasites is simple, and you describe it well. Tell people to take basic measures, and when visible signs are observed, give medication that works "in most cases". How is this done? Informally (luckily at least by people who were educated and are at least aware of the problems. And not just the problem right in front of their faces). Additionally, give the same medicine to 50 million cows without any check or treatment because that's cheaper.

The correct way to deal with it is to go look for infection sources, clean them (which is done, but not nearly enough), and essentially go look for patients. Not waiting for patients to come but if you find some source of infection, "arrest" everyone around there, given them near-overdoses of medication for a very long time (so that the odds of a single parasite surviving are almost nothing). Outside of these actions it should be almost impossible for a parasite to encounter the medicine (ie. there should be no way for patients to get it on their own initiative). Why? That would make it very hard for parasites to adapt.

(oh and if you find it in cows? Don't try to treat them, kill every cow less than 1 km or so from a known infected one, and burn them all to a crisp, in an oven, never using any part of them for anything)

But if you put it like this, it becomes pretty clear why it's not going to happen, doesn't it?

Re: Doctors suspected man had brain cancer. He had worms

#43

Post by nchmy » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 1:16 PM UTC

woadwarrior01 wrote: post #19

aurareturn wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you take it even if you don't have any symptoms?

Yes. 400mg prophylactic dose, once every year.

Yeah, I live in Central America now. 7 years ago after a month of subtle... Issues... and and a bunch of weight loss, I finally discovered an 8 inch worm in my poop after taking some albendazol.

Since then, I take it every few months. There's really no risk as it is barely absorbed into your system - it just stays in the intestines and paralyzes (doesn't kill) the worms, they loosen their grip, so to speak, and fall out.

I also give it regularly to my dogs even when they aren't showing symptoms.

If you have more... violent... symptoms, it's likely bacteria etc rather than worms. Secnidazol is what you want for that - single dose and youre done. Most doctors prescribe metronidazol because they don't know anything - it is something like 3 pills a day for a week, and bacteria have high resistance to it. More expensive, more hassle, less effective.

I also give Secnidazol to my dogs.

Albendazol and Secnidazol are essentially free here at any pharmacy.