It’s a disease that quietly continues to ruin the health and lives of Big Island residents each year.
Slugs Help Facilitate Rat Lungworm
Despite the debilitating effects of rat lungworm and some awareness campaigns by the state Department of Health and community groups, those who have been personally impacted by the disease aren’t sure why it has managed to stay under the radar as well as it has.
The ailment is caused by a borrowing parasitic worm that is transmitted when humans accidentally consume a slug or snail — usually by eating leafy greens that haven’t been properly washed. The disease attacks the central nervous system and can also be transmitted through undercooked mollusks, freshwater prawns or land crabs.
Meningitis, extensive nerve damage and years of pain are all potential fallout from the severe cases, say Big Island health professionals, researchers and those who have actually battled the disease.
For Hilo resident Kathleen Howe, rat lungworm came calling in 2008 when her son, Graham McCumber, now 30, became ill with the disease. McCumber fell into a coma from which he was expected to never emerge. Six years into a painful recovery with extensive vitamins and alternative medicine therapy, he lives with extensive nerve damage.
The disease affected nearly every system in McCumber’s body, cutting short his surfing days. Today, his balance and sense of vision remain impaired. A great attitude and dedication to his therapeutic routine have helped McCumber to keep the disease from ruining his life, Howe said.
Several other people she knows who have battled rat lungworm for some time are still seriously handicapped and in wheelchairs.
“It is probably one of the most painful diseases I have ever seen,” she said. “It is a lifelong disease.”
via Rat lungworm: Still out there, still debilitating | West Hawaii Today.