Anisakiasis

In Japan anisakiasis is a recognized public health problem due to the substantial amount of raw and under cooked fish eaten in the Japanese culture. A lot of the time anisakiasis is misdiagnosed as appendicitis, peptic ulcer, or stomach cancer. It can be avoided by freezing the fish before letting it thaw and eating it raw or by simply cooking it. Many sushi restaurants perform a “safety” act called “candling” to eliminate any herring worms/ larvae before serving up the raw fish, but according to the Centre for Disease Control this is totally useless (“the efficacy of this method is on par with rain dancing”).
The whole cycle of an anisakias’s life is quite disturbing, especially when it is ingested by humans and makes its way to the intestine where it can take up permanent residence. This video clip shows the only way to get rid of the worm once it has made its way to the intestine. Amazing that we have the technology to find and extract this little guy and thank goodness, how terrible would it be to have a WORM living in you! Gross!