ST. LOUIS, MO - One popular way to beat the summer heat is to take a float trip. But over the past year, some floaters found themselves hospitalized with an illness so strange, it is difficult to diagnose. For Adam Brewer, his troubles began on a float trip, when he pulled a live crayfish out of the Jack's Fork River, and swallowed it.
"Other people were doing it and someone said 'Are you going to do it?' and I said 'Sure, why not?'" said Brewer.
At the time, he thought nothing of it. So three months later, when he started having fevers, coughing jags, and shortness of breath, it never occurred to him that eating a raw crayfish could be the cause. All he knew was he kept getting sicker. But despite test after test, doctors could not reach a diagnosis.
It took seven agonizing months of tests before the Brewer's finally ended up seeing a Washington University doctor who connected the dots. It turned out Adam had an infection called Paragonimiasis, meaning his lungs were under assault from a parasitic worm that lives in crayfish, so rare that in all of North America there have only ever been seven recorded cases.
But over the past three years, Missouri has posted seven more.
Most of the victims are from St. Louis.
"I think this has always been around, but maybe there is different behavior on the river with more drinking or more crazy things, but we don't know if this is some kind of fad that came in, but we think there are more cases out there. It is not like the tip of an iceberg, but maybe the tip of the ice cube," said Dr. Gary Weil, an infectious disease specialist at the Washington University School of Medicine.
The state has since issued a health advisory to physicians, and is posting warning signs at canoe rental resorts across Missouri.
Once Adam was correctly diagnosed, it took only a two-day course of an anti-parasitic medication to kill the worm.
Now, because of cases like Adam's, Washington University is going back through several years of medical records looking for similar cases that were unresolved, because the parasite found in crayfish can live in humans as long as ten years.
"Other people were doing it and someone said 'Are you going to do it?' and I said 'Sure, why not?'" said Brewer.
At the time, he thought nothing of it. So three months later, when he started having fevers, coughing jags, and shortness of breath, it never occurred to him that eating a raw crayfish could be the cause. All he knew was he kept getting sicker. But despite test after test, doctors could not reach a diagnosis.
It took seven agonizing months of tests before the Brewer's finally ended up seeing a Washington University doctor who connected the dots. It turned out Adam had an infection called Paragonimiasis, meaning his lungs were under assault from a parasitic worm that lives in crayfish, so rare that in all of North America there have only ever been seven recorded cases.
But over the past three years, Missouri has posted seven more.
Most of the victims are from St. Louis.
"I think this has always been around, but maybe there is different behavior on the river with more drinking or more crazy things, but we don't know if this is some kind of fad that came in, but we think there are more cases out there. It is not like the tip of an iceberg, but maybe the tip of the ice cube," said Dr. Gary Weil, an infectious disease specialist at the Washington University School of Medicine.
The state has since issued a health advisory to physicians, and is posting warning signs at canoe rental resorts across Missouri.
Once Adam was correctly diagnosed, it took only a two-day course of an anti-parasitic medication to kill the worm.
Now, because of cases like Adam's, Washington University is going back through several years of medical records looking for similar cases that were unresolved, because the parasite found in crayfish can live in humans as long as ten years.
