Parasitic worms put infant in shock after consuming milk with river water

Nguyen Minh Tien, deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City Children’s Hospital, said Tuesday that the little girl from the Mekong Delta’s Kien Giang Province has been hospitalized with quickened pulse, erratic blood pressure and in shock. Her hematocrit level, which measures the proportion of red blood cells in one’s blood, was just 14%, while it should be 28-32% at her age, he said.

Tien also said that she has suffered gastrointestinal hemorrhage and blood sepsis. A scan revealed large numbers of parasitic worms in her guts, causing inflammation at multiple sites.

She was treated with albendazole and after a week of intensive care, she stopped hemorrhaging and began to breastfeed normally.

Tien said the girl’s family had fed her with milk using river water treated with alum, but not boiled. Doctors suspect that’s how she became infected with parasitic worms.