For those of us who have developed a love for trekking, especially through the jungles in the tropics or along the routes near a river, there is one piece of advice you will hear from just about any seasoned trekker – always bring with you a packet of salt.
It is very sound advice too, considering the leeches that you might come across.
Blood-sucking little creatures, these wiggly worms are commonly found in wet and humid areas, such as among the marshy grasses that line the side of slow-moving riverbanks.
This is because these parasitic, worm-like animals require high levels of moisture in their environments.
If not, there’s a good chance they will become shriveled and wind up drying out and then, dying. As a result, salt is a great way to get these evil little suckers off you!
The problem, of course, is that most of the time, you never see them coming.
Small and dark, they blend in perfectly into their environments, and their bites have a numbing effect so you don’t feel it when they latch onto you.
This, of course, can prove to be a nightmarish situation when you find out that one of these creatures had somehow attached themselves to you when you’re not looking, in the most unsuspecting of places.
In the case of this unfortunate Vietnamese man, up inside his nostril!
In a video that had gone viral recently, what had happened was that this man had recently noticed he was having some very strange and worrying symptoms.
This had then prompted him to see an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialist.
Upon examination, the specialist found the cause of the Vietnamese man’s problems – a dark-colored, wiggling creature hidden up in the man’s nose!
This, of course, had to be rectified immediately. Armed with a tiny microscope and a pair of sharp scissors, the specialist reached up into his patient’s nostril and begins pulling out the creature.
Although the strange worm-like animal was not identified, it very likely is a live leech.
Unfortunately for those of us who are terrified of these vampiric wigglers, this isn’t an isolated case.
During a Scottish backpacker’s visit to Vietnam in 2014, she began getting nosebleeds.
Initially, she had brushed these incidents aside, assuming that they were simply caused by a blood clot that had formed after a motorcycle accident she had recently been in.
However, once she realized it was not resolving itself after a few weeks, she decided to seek medical attention.
There, she found that there was a 3-inch long leech that had taken residence up her nose!
Incidents like these, sadly, are common enough that there is a term for it – hirudiniasis.
It is named for the condition caused by leeches, which belong to a subclass of animals called hirudinea.
This is a condition where a leech, for reasons unknown, successfully attaches itself to either the skin or the inside of the mouth or nose of its human victim.
Considering trying to pull out these creatures while they are still attached to you can mean having its microscopic teeth broken off (so that it remains stuck in you), it’s probably best to bring around a packet of salt!
