2.8m live tapeworm removed from a Singapore patient who had no symptoms

Professor Hsu said the 2.8m-long worm seen in Singapore was clearly a tapeworm as no other human parasite can grow to such a



length.

"The question is what tapeworm, which will also help answer how the patient had acquired the worm."

An adult tapeworm has a head, neck and chain of segments called proglottids. During an intestinal infection, the tapeworm head sticks to the intestinal wall, and the proglottids grow and produce eggs.

People get tapeworms mostly by eating undercooked pork, beef or fish. From the egg obtained from a segment of the 2.8m-long tapeworm excreted out, the SGH's Department of Microbiology said the egg most closely resembled those of fish tapeworms.

Most fish tapeworms are acquired by the consumption of raw or undercooked freshwater fish, as well as fish that spend a considerable amount of their life in fresh water, such as salmon.