Taeniasis in humans is a parasitic infection caused by the tapeworm species Taenia saginata (beef tapeworm), Taenia solium (pork tapeworm), and Taenia asiatica (Asian tapeworm). Humans can become infected with these tapeworms by eating raw or undercooked beef (T. saginata) or pork (T. solium and T. asiatica). People with taeniasis may not know they have a tapeworm infection because symptoms are usually mild or nonexistent. 
 
 Taenia solium tapeworm infections can lead to cysticercosis, which is a disease that can cause seizures, so it is important seek treatment. 
 
 Image: L&C: Scoleces of T. solium. Note the four large suckers and rostellum containing two rows of hooks. R: Scolex of T. saginata. Note the four large suckers and lack of rostellum and rostellar hooks. Credit: DPDx ||||| Editor's Note: The narration and closed captions in this video are in English. For subtitles in 13 other languages, see this video on the website of the World Health Organization The narration and closed captions in this video are in English. For subtitles in 13 other languages, see this video on the website of the 
 
 Editor's Note: For reasons of public health, readers should be aware that this letter has been “heavily and uncritically cited” as evidence that addiction is rare with opioid therapy. For reasons of public health, readers should be aware that this letter has been “heavily and uncritically cited” as evidence that addiction is rare with opioid therapy. Leung et al. describe its history. 
 
 Editor's Note: The scientific reports by Hwang et al.1,2 that are described in this article were retracted by Science on January 12, 2006. See The scientific reports by Hwang et al.that are described in this article were retracted by Science on January 12, 2006. See Snyder and Loring for further information. 
 
 Editor's Note: The scientific report by Hwang et al.1 that is described in this editorial was retracted by Science on January 12, 2006. See The scientific report by Hwang et al.that is described in this editorial was retracted by Science on January 12, 2006. See Snyder and Loring for further information. 
 
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 Images in Clinical Medicine 
 
 Taenia solium 
 
 Cyriac A. Philips, M.D., and Amrish Sahney, M.D. 
 
 N Engl J Med 2017; 376:e4January 26, 2017DOI: 10.1056/NEJMicm1606747 ||||| The top image shows doctors removing the pork tapeworm from the patient’s mouth. The bottom image shows the intact tapeworm after it was removed from the man’s gut. The tapeworm was 1.88 meters (6.6 feet) long. 
 
 Doctors in India removed a lengthy pork tapeworm from a man's gut, according to a recent report of the man's case. 
 
 The tapeworm, which goes by the scientific name Taenia solium, was nearly 2 meters (6.6 feet) long. In fact, it was the longest worm that Dr. Cyriac Philips, a liver specialist at PVS Memorial Hospital in India who treated the man, had ever seen, he said. 
 
 The 48-year-old man told the doctors that he had been having abdominal pain for two months before he sought medical attention, according to the brief report of the man's case, published today (Jan. 25) in The New England Journal of Medicine. 
 
 The doctors performed a colonoscopy, and found a segment of an undulating worm in the man's colon, Philips told Live Science. [The 10 Most Diabolical and Disgusting Parasites] 
 
 In patients with tapeworms, doctors typically find segments of the parasite in the gut, Philips said. But in this case, the piece of the parasite in the man's colon was only a part of the story. 
 
 Next, the doctors performed an endoscopy, meaning that they inserted a camera into the man's stomach and the upper part of his small intestine, to explore the upper part of the man's digestive system, according to the report. 
 
 They were surprised to find a whole worm curled up in the upper part of the man's small intestine, Philips said. 
 
 The doctors were able to remove the worm by pulling it up through the man's mouth, according to the report. The intact tapeworm spanned 1.88 m (6.2 feet), the doctors wrote. 
 
 Tapeworms can grow to be longer than 11.5 feet (3.5 m) and live for years in a person's gut, according to the National Library of Medicine (NLM). Because tapeworms usually do not cause symptoms, people may not realize they have an infection, the NLM says. In some cases, however, a tapeworm can cause abdominal pain, according to the NLM. 
 
 The whole procedure, which included the endoscopy and the parasite removal, took about an hour and 15 minutes, Philips said. The man was sedated during the procedure, Philips said. 
 
 After the tapeworm was removed, the man was given anti-parasitic medications to kill any remains of the tapeworm, according to the report. A month after the tapeworm's removal, the man reported having no additional symptoms, the doctors wrote. 
 
 In October, doctors in New York reported seeing an increase in a different type of infection from this same tapeworm, which occurs when a person ingests eggs from the pork tapeworm. These eggs can form cysts throughout the body, including the brain. The lead author of that report, Dr. Amy Spallone, a resident in internal medicine at Stony Brook University Hospital in New York, told Live Science at the time that the prevalence of this particular type of infection in the rest of the U.S. is not well understood. 
 
 Originally published on Live Science.
– If you have anti-nausea medication handy, you might want to grab it. Doctors are telling of a remarkable medical case in which they had to a remove a 6-foot-long tapeworm from a man's gut by pulling it through his mouth. Live Science explains that the 48-year-old patient from India had been having stomach pains for two months before he decided to visit PVS Memorial Hospital in Kerala. During a colonoscopy, doctors discovered a segment of a pork tapeworm, a common sign that a larger tapeworm is hiding elsewhere in the body. Doctors then maneuvered a camera into the man's upper intestine, where they found what Dr. Cyriac Philips describes as the longest tapeworm he's ever seen. The worm was curled up, but as doctors began slowly pulling it out through the patient's mouth in what must have felt like an endless scarf gag, its size became clear. In the end, it measured a little over 6 feet long, doctors write in the New England Journal of Medicine. The patient—who was kindly sedated during the 1.5-hour procedure—likely became infected after eating raw or undercooked pork, per the CDC. Those who have tapeworms often don't know it because they're typically symptom-free. (A 20-foot-long tapeworm caused a man to lose 22 pounds in three days.)