An odd lump on a woman's face turned out to be a worm
A lump that seemed to mysteriously move around on a woman's face was in fact a worm crawling under her skin.The woman, who lived in Russia, took a series of selfies to document the moving lump, which first appeared under her left eye, thenmoved above her eye and then migrated to her upper lip. The woman had an infection with a type of parasitic worm called Dirofilaria repens, according to a report of the woman's case, published June 20 in The New England Journal of Medicine.These thread-like worms naturally infect dogs, cats, foxes and other wildmammals, and typically live in the tissue under the skin.The worms are spread by mosquito bites, and human cases have been reported in parts of Europe and Asia (including Russia), as well as Africa.As horrifying as the infection sounds, thetreatment is relatively simple: Surgically removing the worm can cure the infection.Indeed, the Russian woman had the worm removed and made a full recovery.
