Eat Raw Fish ... Get a 9-Foot Tapeworm

June 16, 2009— -- One summer day in August 2006, Anthony Franz went to a Chicago area hospital carrying a 9-foot worm.

He did not find it in his garden.

Franz is one of the few, but growing number of tapeworm victims in cities across the world who are discovering (or rediscovering) that some of the most popular fish can host parasites.

Although still rare, a study this June showed salmon tapeworm infestations tripled from an average of 0.32 cases per 100,000 people each year in Kyoto, Japan, to at least to 1 case in 100,000 people in 2008. As more people adopt sushi and undercooked fish diets around the world so too, has the worm spread.

The article, printed in Emerging Infectious Diseases, tracked the movement of tapeworm infection for 20 years as reports migrated from rural fishing villages in Japan to urban centers around the world, including France, Switzerland and the United States.

"Usually, with this particular warm it produces discomfort, some pain, and it can produce anemia," said Dr. Felipe C. Cabello professor of Microbiology and Immunology at New York Medical College in Valhalla.

A more dangerous worm, a nematode called anisakis, can burrow into the stomach wall and require surgery. But Cabello said the fish tapeworm can still slowly drain a person's energy.

"The parasite sucks the vitamin B12, and the person with the parasite does not have enough," said Cabello. "This is a worm that can reach 25 feet and it might take months, a year to grow."

In 2008 a Czech tourist fell ill from eating raw sockeye salmon in Vancouver, Canada. According to an article in The Oregonian, the man only discovered a tapeworm when he returned home. Other forms of salmon tapeworm have been found in sushi-eating urbanites in Brazil, according to a July 2007 report in Emerging Infectious Diseases.

In Franz's case, the offending creature was the Diphyllobothrium latum. Franz was not available for comment and is suing an Illinois seafood restaurant for $100,000.

"Basically we discovered that this particular tapeworm was caused from uncooked seafood, particularly salmon," said Franz's attorney, Gregory Leiter. "That's what he brought into the hospital."