Posted on 04/12/2017 10:50:48 AM PDT by nickcarraway
A Bay Area couple returned from Hawaii with more than a tan.
Newlyweds Ben Manilla, a journalism professor at UC Berkeley, and Eliza Lape contracted a brain-infecting parasite called rat lungworm disease, according to Hawaii News Now.
Manilla, 64, and Lape, 57, traveled to Maui for their wedding in January. After the ceremony, they spent a fortnight in the area of Hana, Hawaii News Now reported.
Lape began presenting symptoms even before the duo’s return to San Francisco.
"My symptoms started growing to feeling like somebody was taking a hot knife and just stabbing me in different parts of my body," she told Hawaii News Now.
Rat lungworm disease is caused by parasite that impacts rats that then excrete worm larvae. Slugs and snails consume the larvae, which are then passed on to humans who eat raw produce, freshwater shrimp or land crabs that contain traces of the worms, according to Hawaii News Now. The parasitic worms trigger a rare meningitis that affects the brain and spinal cord.
Lape has recovered, but Manilla has spent a month in the ICU and needs to undergo rehabilitation, the TV station said.
"I've had several operations, two pneumonias, a blood clot. Right now, I'm dealing with a kidney issue, all of which was spurred by the ratlung," Manilla said to Hawaii News Now.
The couple is speaking about the experience to help other people take appropriate precautions.
"Had we known we were walking into this kind of environment, we would have had a completely different attitude," Lape told Hawaii News Now. "It really does disrupt and destroy people's lives."
Officials have noted an upswing in rat lungworm disease – at least nine cases recently – on the Big Island and on Maui, Hawaii News Now reported. But health experts believe that number may not include people who went to private clinics, not hospitals. The Department of Health is investigating.
wow i never heard of that one
Tiny Bubbles ?
A “journalism professor at UC Berkeley?” How can a brain eater survive in his head?
Good thing your loving government advised you of this. Feel the love.
Miniaturized Obamas?
Seems to survive in Nancy Pelosi...
Oh, I thought they ran into BHO!
He recovered. The worms died from starvation.
I’m shocked that a man and woman from San Francisco got married.
AKA Leftism.
If I had a “bucket list”, going to Hawaii would’ve been removed.
Maybe one of them had an operation, so their gender could have been in quotes
“Rat lungworm disease”
~~~~~~~
Ew. Just from it’s name alone you know it’s one disease you don’t wanna get or even talk about, if ya got it.
They are from San Francisco. Doesn’t that automatically make them brain-infecting parasites?
I did stick my hand in the waters of Bath, England. They occasionally get some sort of parasite. A few years back, they shutdown, drained, and sanitized the Roman Baths.
I would think that Bay Area people would have a built in immunity.
Note to Vegans, eat Kosher!
'Bout dang time! 2000 years too late!...........
Sheesh.. I like to watch The Amazing Race. I often wonder what they catch from the waters, etc as the complete their tasks. Like falling out of their canoes over and over again in murky water in Brazil. I think that is where they were in that episode.
If you use a neti pot - which I don’t- you aren’t suppose to use tap water for this very reason.
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