RFK Jr. is not alone. More than a billion people have parasitic worms
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he once had a worm in his brain. It sounds pretty shocking, but it turns out he's far from alone. Over a billion people worldwide currently have parasitic worms somewhere in their body, according to the World Health Organization. And while RFK Jr. says he's fine and has no long-term consequences, parasitic worms can cause serious health problems. NPR's Gabrielle Emanuel joins me now to bring us up to speed. Welcome.
GABRIELLE EMANUEL, BYLINE: Hi there.
FADEL: So, Gabrielle, I hear that number, over a billion people, and I'm sitting here thinking, do we have worms in our bodies right now?
EMANUEL: Right. The answer is probably not.
FADEL: OK.
EMANUEL: Nowadays, parasitic worms are not at all common here in the U.S.
FADEL: OK.
EMANUEL: But it hasn't always been that way. Back in the early 1900s, there were plenty of hookworms, for example, in the American South. Now the vast, vast majority of cases are in other parts of the world, including Southeast Asia, parts of Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. And RFK Jr.'s campaign has said he got the worm while traveling internationally. Experts tell me that makes sense.
FADEL: Well, let's talk about his case, his brain worm. This isn't something that happened recently, right?
EMANUEL: Yes, it was from a while ago. The New York Times unearthed a deposition from a divorce proceeding. Back in 2012 is when he gave the deposition. And in it, RFK Jr. describes having a brain scan and worries about brain cancer. But a doctor eventually told him the mass they saw on the scan was actually a worm that died in his brain.
Now, we don't know for sure, but experts speculate this could be a pork tapeworm. You can get it when eating undercooked pig meat or with poor sanitation. If you can't wash your hands, the worm's eggs in fecal matter can get onto your food, and you can ingest them. Here is Photini Sinnis from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
PHOTINI SINNIS: We have tapeworm in our gut. We barely know we're infected. In fact, most infections are completely asymptomatic and don't cause much harm.
FADEL: Oh, wow.
EMANUEL: But what seems to have happened in RFK Jr. is that the worm larva left his gut and went to his brain. This does happen, and depending on where it ends up in the brain, it can be totally unproblematic, or it can cause big issues like seizures. These worms can be fairly easily treated in your gut, and RFK Jr. says he did not ultimately need treatment even though his worm was in his brain.
FADEL: Wow, I mean, a lot of this is really freaking me out, Gabrielle. Now, you mentioned it's not very common here in the U.S. What's the scale of the problem globally, though?
EMANUEL: Yeah. Globally, it is enormous, especially for children. One of the most common diseases caused by a worm is bilharzia. You get it from water, say, washing your clothes in the river, for example. And this worm comes through the skin. Here is Francisca Mutapi from the University of Edinburgh.
FRANCISCA MUTAPI: Take all the children in the world that have bilharzia and get them to hold hands end to end - they would encircle the world one and a half times. So it's a huge burden.
EMANUEL: So like many diseases caused by worms, bilharzia tends not to kill you, but it really can hurt your quality of life. So some experts are saying this kind of wacky RFK Jr. story about a brain worm from a long time ago is a nice way to shine light on this broader global issue.
FADEL: That's Gabrielle Emanuel, NPR's global health correspondent. Thank you.
EMANUEL: Thank you.
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