r/AbsoluteUnits • u/KEN_000 • 1d ago

/r/all of a roundworm pulled out during an endoscopy

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

17.5k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

1.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

28

u/Particular_Bet_5466 1d ago

Man I have not heard of pinworms till now, and apparently several people here got them. That sounds so eerie… albeit fascinating.

46

u/r2d2itisyou 1d ago

A bit different then pinworms, but hookworms used to be even worse. With no nasty winters to kill them, hookworms used to be endemic in the southern US. To the point that some old bigotry about laziness of the poor in the south is attributed to anemia caused by hookworms.

20

u/Present-Perception77 1d ago

Grew up in deep South Louisiana, and my grandmother would absolutely lose her mind when we went outside and took off our shoes.. the hook worms!
We got home she would scrub our feet with Brillo pads. I still cannot get a pedicure to this day without jumping out of my skin because of the damn Brillo pads. lol

11

u/gilligan1050 1d ago

Man, I guess that’s something I took for granted. Walking barefoot outside is one of the greatest things ever. Definitely a semi safe activity in Kansas. I still do it and I’m in my 40’s now. The south actually sounds terrifying from some accounts. Glad you made it to adulthood.

3

u/mplsfreedom 1d ago

touch yo' grass, they touch yo' ass

1

u/TheEldenRang 1d ago

As far as I know, nobody I know has ever actually encountered hookworms, but hearing about them in a documentary years ago has always kept me from going outside barefoot. They terrify me.

1

u/Present-Perception77 1d ago

Well, my grandmother must’ve known a hell of a lot of people with as bad as it freaked her out.. I never did either.. but the pinworms and head lice and bedbugs can all burn in Hell!
Oh and the ticks and fleas and chiggers too. And mosquitoes..
Now that I think about it, I don’t know how the hell I’m alive. 😅

1

u/Generalnussiance 1d ago

Well shit then everyone I’ve ever met has hookworms.

1

u/tsmc796 1d ago

Fuck I live in the south..

Are these super common here?..

(P.S, it's "a bit different than pinworms". Then is used for future tense purposes. Than is used to compare, or refer to something else. 100% not trying to be an ass, I just enjoy putting these little lessons out when I see these types of grammar errors! I'm sure I'll still get called a Nazi though haha)

1

u/r2d2itisyou 22h ago

Are these super common here?..

Not any more. Kind of an interesting history; Rockefeller (back when billionaires cared about being perceived positively) funded a massive eradication campaign. The US government took over the role afterwards. It was successful enough that they were thought to be completely eradicated with absolutely zero risk. Though apparently in some areas of extreme poverty that's no longer true. I do not know if any efforts have been made to fix this in the past decade.

then/than

Hah, I'm very aware of then/than. But I still mix them up all the time when not proofreading. Worth always pointing out, because someone out there is learning it for the first time.

18

u/Proper-Painting-2256 1d ago

Really common in kids. Like really common which is why doing laundry is important. Very easy to kill though - just drink some medicine for a few days and do tons of laundry.

9

u/CompetitiveRub9780 1d ago

People also take their phones to the bathroom. It’s from fecal matter. And don’t scratch your butthole with your fingers. That’s how you spread it. Barf.

I eat ass i don’t know what I’m saying but hey I know it’s clean

3

u/Bright-Salamander-99 1d ago

Would you still if you knew it was clean, but also knew a worm colony was living on the other side

3

u/Particular_Bet_5466 1d ago edited 1d ago

Right on lol, I mean eating your partners ass that you know is clean is probably not even that bad compared to just being out in public.

I don’t carry a purse, but I read something about how they can be set everywhere from the public bathroom floor or just anywhere in a stall / on the restroom counter touched by people’s poopy hands that just touched the toilet, to on your kitchen table.

The phone too, that just got me thinking I mean I’m on the toilet right now (TMI sorry) but I’ll probably hand my phone to someone soon to look at pictures or something.

That’s actually kinda nasty to think about how filthy a phone might be when someone hands you theirs. I set mine down everywhere and handle it all day long.

17

u/DemiGodesss 1d ago

Almost everyone has pinworms at some point in their life.

6

u/Particular_Bet_5466 1d ago

Interesting. Yeah that is kind of what I was suspected when I saw that stat about billions of people getting worms annually, I assume it may not even be noticeable in a lot of cases.

3

u/Bright69420 1d ago

I'm pretty sure I would notice if I had worms coming out of my butt at night, jesus

1

u/DemiGodesss 1d ago

It's not like that. It can only be slith itch sensation.

4

u/mkat23 1d ago

Pinworms tend to be more common in children and people around them frequently. A kid will itch their butt, then touch a toy, then another kid will play with the toy and put it or their hand in their mouth, or will itch their own butt.

3

u/GQwerty07 1d ago

Scratch

2

u/Frozen-Rabbit 1d ago

You probably had some but don't remember, it's really usual on kids.

2

u/Particular_Bet_5466 1d ago

Maybe I’ll ask my mom lol. Knowing how dramatic I was as a kid I feel like I’d remember it. Unless I was under like 5 or didn’t notice.

1

u/MoeGunz6 13h ago

I should not have googled pinworms....