Parasitic tapeworm found in woman's spine after leg complaints

A French woman who sought medical help for leg problems found out she had a parasitic worm in her spine.

She'd gone to an emergency room in Dijon, France, complaining of issues ranging from weakness to the feeling of electric shocks in both legs.

Doctors ran tests and conducted an MRI of her spine and found a tapeworm in her ninth thoracic vertebra, the New England Journal of Medicine said.

The woman had surgery and was given a course of anti-parasitic medication.

Nine months later, there's been no recurrence of the parasite or any symptoms.

Diseases caused by that kind of worm usually appear in tropical regions and are rare in developed countries.

It's typically spread by contact between humans and dogs but doctors in Lyon admit they don't really know how she was contaminated.