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In September 2014, images of x-rays were circulated on Chinese-language web sites accompanied by the claim that they documented a man whose body had become riddled with tapeworms he had contracted from consuming sashimi (i.e., raw fish): The Chinese-language web site hk.on.cc then published an article stating that medical officials had confirmed the x-rays as genuine: This information was picked up and passed along by the dubious Central European News agency, which passed it along to Western media outlets such as BuzzFeed and the Daily Mail, who unquestioningly ran it as straight news — even though it bore a strong resemblance to the fictitious backstory of another image that has been circulated widely on the Internet for several years (one which is falsely claimed to show a man whose brain became infected with maggots through his consumption of sushi). This news item as presented had some contradictory details (possibly due to translation issues), referencing tapeworms contracted through the consumption of raw fish but then discussing a type of tapeworm found only in pork. In fact, the x-ray images were similar to those included in a 2014 case report published by the British Medical Journal that dealt with a man who contracted a rare case of disseminated cysticercosis through the consumption of uncooked pork (with no mention of raw fish): In summary, what these images show is the aftermath of a parasitic tapeworm infection caused by the eating of raw or undercooked pork, not sashimi. And what's viewable in the x-rays are not the tapeworms themselves, but rather calcified cysts that were the end result of the infection.
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