Story By: Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

These images show a parasitic worm growing in the sole of a woman’s foot after larvae burrowed under her skin while she was taking a stroll on the beach.

The stomach-turning incident occurred after Nurul Ezzatul went for a walk on a beach while on holiday in Port Dickson, a town in Western Malaysia’s Negeri Sembilan Province.

The 31-year-old says she saw red lines on the sole of her foot a week after returning from the holiday so she decided to have a foot rub, thinking the lines were a symptom of a problem with the nerves in her foot.

Pictures Credit: AsiaWire/@nurul.ezzatul

She says the masseuse agreed that the lines were being caused by a nerve problem but Ezzatul’s foot then became very itchy after the rub.

She wrote on social media that she then began feeling a sensation of tingling in her left foot at night which felt like something were moving under her skin.

She posted a photo of the bottom of her foot to social media where friends told her it looked like a worm.

Ezzatul then went to a hospital in the township of Ara Damansara in western Malaysia and a doctor diagnosed the problem as cutaneous larva migrans, a skin disease which is caused by the larvae of parasites from the hookworm family burrowing under the surface of the skin.

The parasite is usually transmitted when someone is exposed to sand which is moist and contaminated with the faeces of a dog or a cat.

Cats and dogs suffering from hookworm pass out the parasite’s eggs in their stool. The parasites then hatch and can penetrate human skin.

Ezzatul says the doctor could not find the parasite’s exact location so he could not remove it. She was prescribed medication and told to see a dermatologist to have the worm removed.

She says she cannot feel the hookworm moving in her feet anymore but is unclear if she has had it removed.

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