Not long ago I received two messages at my medical office about an earthy problem. One was from a patient who said a colonoscopy had turned up a small herd of tiny white worms in his gut. Needless to say, he was not pleased to learn that he was sharing his cecum (the segment of bowel from which the appendix dangles as a thin sac) with a pack of nematodes. I agreed to see him as soon as possible.
The next message was from the doctor who had performed the colonoscopy. “Urgent!” he texted. “Need help with enterobius and strongyloides.”
Now we’re getting somewhere, I thought. To a Latin-loving parasite specialist like myself, the exotic names were familiar, as were the necessary treatments. But deep down, something felt wrong. It wasn’t the anxiety surrounding the worm sighting. That seemed natural enough. No, I decided, it was the actual pair of intestinal squatters. An odd combination indeed.
