hbb@hou5a.UUCP (H.B.Braude) (03/19/85)
Not too long ago, there was a discussion in this newsgroup about the pros and cons of raising racoons as pets. This morning, I was listening to a radio program (National Public Radio (NPR) of Delaware) where a number of maladies were attributed to contact with racoons. It seems that a doctor treated a patient who complained of blurred vision in one eye and discovered that a larva of some species of worm had begun to migrate over the retina (it was killed with laser therapy, but the damage caused by the enzymes secreted by the larva as it moves was irrepairable.) In a seemingly unrelated case, many larvae of the same type were discovered in the brain tissue of a number of infants who died due to encephalitis (an inflammation of the brain tissue.) The common thread of these cases was that the individuals were in contact with racoons or areas where racoons lived. Generally speaking, the report said that infestation in Humans was rare, but that the risks increased with increased exposure to these animals and their habitats. The doctor that was quoted (I do not recall the name) claimed that laser therapy was only effective in eye-related problems but was ineffective when the larvae were found in brain tissue. -- Harlan B. Braude {most "backbone" sites}!hou5a!hbb