Symptoms
With initial infection, some patients have reported remembering a mild fever and flu-like symptoms about a month previous to extraction or identification of worm. The most common symptom is the complaint of sensation of a worm moving around the mouth, near the lips, and in the soft palate area. This movement is normally engendered by immature adult female worms. Symptoms, once noted, may continue from a month to a year if the worm is not surgically extracted. Eosinophilia is noted in some patients. Gongylonemiasis is the affliction caused by this parasite, which is simply protracted discomfort or sensation of movement in the buccal, oral or gingival areas associated with a sensation of foreign body. Subjects commonly pull worms from their gums, tongue, lips, and inner cheeks after days and even weeks of reported discomfort. In animals, this parasite quickly spreads down the esophagus, and into the upper digestive and respiratory tracts, making it more often than not, fatal. For humans, this parasite never makes it further than the oral cavity, and is often surgically or manually extracted.
Read more about this topic: Gongylonema Pulchrum
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