An ER doctor recently shared “one of the most insane X-rays he has ever seen,” showing a person’s lower body infested with hundreds of calcified tapeworm eggs.

Tapeworms are parasites that usually anchor themselves to the inside of the intestines of their host, absorbing nutrients directly from the gut, but few people know that tapeworm eggs can travel anywhere inside the body of their host, from their feet all the way to the brain. Over time, these eggs calcify and are no longer viable, so they don’t pose much of a threat when they get lodged in soft tissues like muscles or fat, but they can cause a life-threatening condition known as neuro-cysticercosis when they calcify in the brain.

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A Brazilian doctor recently shocked millions on social media by posting an X-ray of a man suffering from cysticercosis whose body was riddled with calcified tapeworm eggs.

Last month, Doctor Vitor Borin de Souza, a resident at the Hospital das Clínicas in Botucatu, Sao Paulo, posted an X-ray of a patient on Twitter to show his followers how bad a tapeworm infection could get. The doctor explained that the white spots visible all through his midsection and his arms were calcified tapeworm eggs following infection with the common intestinal parasite. Luckily, the patient, who had come in for a checkup following a persistent cough, was in no danger from the eggs, as they were all calcified (unviable). Although the tapeworm eggs (cysticerci) posed no threat to the man’s health, they caused quite the stir on Brazilian social media.

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