Tiny liver flukes threaten our health: a monologue of a liver fluke

A few days ago, the famous Hong Kong movie star "Uncle Tat" Wu Mengda and rock singer Zhao Yingjun died of liver cancer. As the "king of cancer", liver cancer is mostly in the middle and late stages once diagnosed, with a poor prognosis. Singer Zhao Yingjun died after fighting cancer for two years, and Mr. Wu Mengda died only a few months after diagnosis. What causes cancer, which is so scary? As one of the main "contributors", I have to mention me - liver fluke.

I am 10-25 mm long, only the size of a "sunflower seed", and experts like to call me Clonorchis sinensis. I have a coral-like tail and a sucker-like head. I love to eat bile and live in human bile ducts or gallbladders when I grow up. Humans as our hosts can be traced back thousands of years ago, and you can even find traces of us in the ancient corpses of the Chu tombs in the Warring States period.

I used to be unknown and had not accomplished anything earth-shattering. However, no one expected that a plate of sashimi would usher in my springtime.

But then again, although I am called a liver fluke, I do not live in the human body before I become an adult. I first develop from eggs into cercariae in freshwater snails, and then parasitize freshwater fish such as grass carp and crucian carp, and develop into cystic larvae in their bodies. At this time, if someone eats the fish I parasitize raw, I will take the opportunity to shed my outer capsule in the human body, grow rapidly, and suck bile in the bile duct without worry.

When talking about eating raw fish, we have to mention Shunde. People say "food is in Guangdong, taste is in Shunde". Raw fish is Shunde's name card. It goes into people's mouths without being processed and with other condiments. At this moment, our liver flukes are hiding in the raw fish slices and are chewed into the stomach along with the fish meat.

It's incredible that people know we hide in fish meat, but still believe that the soy sauce and wasabi in the condiments can completely kill us. Some even think that after deworming treatment, they can enjoy the food, but they don't know that I will come back again the next time I eat freshwater fish.

Thanks to these rumors and neglect of human beings, I, hiding in sashimi, have gradually become a god. In the second national survey on the status of important human parasitic diseases organized by the Ministry of Health, more than 5 million people in Guangdong Province alone have been "settled" by my compatriots. In Guangdong Province, the highest infection rate is in Shunde, the birthplace of sashimi, with an infection rate of 50.74%. Shunde sashimi once attracted countless gourmets, but it was this blind pursuit of delicious food that allowed liver flukes to invade the human liver, resulting in such a high infection rate.

Having said so much, I have only emphasized my strong ability to spread in Guangdong. But you should know that as a Class 1 carcinogen certified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, in addition to infecting a wide range of people, my pathogenicity should not be underestimated. After parasitism, I will release secretions and excretions on the bile duct epithelium and submucosal blood vessels of humans, causing recurrent cholangitis, hepatobiliary stones, and eventually leading to cirrhosis and liver cancer!

Although I don't want to admit it, I am not invincible as a liver fluke. If I can do the following, I can isolate myself from the body and prevent liver cancer in the first place.

1. Do not try uncooked freshwater fish, and do not eat raw shrimp, raw fish porridge, and other dishes that have not been processed at high temperatures, so as to cut off the possibility of me entering the human body from the source.

2. If you have eaten raw fish before, take albendazole tablets and other drugs with the help of a doctor to expel me from the body. However, if you still eat freshwater fish after treatment, it will cause repeated infection and cause more serious consequences.

3. Regularly test, especially those with hepatitis and long-term drinking should insist on regular MR or CT liver screening all year round. Even if I have taken the opportunity to invade the body and cause certain damage, it will be discovered in time and early treatment will be done.

4. Maintain healthy living habits and stick to a healthy diet low in fat and sugar. At the same time, pay attention to the cleanliness of food and water sources. Do not eat polluted water sources or moldy food.

5. Pay attention to physical exercise and ensure adequate sleep every day. Maintaining a good body and enhancing your immunity are the cornerstones for dealing with all external pathogenic factors.

Countless experts have tried every possible means to eliminate us, but no one has ever been able to completely wipe us out from the human body. Because we know that as long as people still have the habit of eating raw freshwater fish and do not pay attention to regular checkups and regular life, even if we are expelled for a short time, we will still come back one day.

Zeng Ning Wei Tian Fang Chi Hua

Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University/Guangdong Digital Medical Clinical Engineering Research Center, Second Clinical Medical College, Southern Medical University