By Hsu Li-chuan and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writerKaohsiung’s E-Da Hospital on Wednesday warned against drinking unboiled or unfiltered water from mountain streams to avoid ingesting parasites, after treating a woman with a leech in her throat. The hospital treated a 60-year-old woman surnamed Shen (沈) who was complaining of feeling “something in her throat” and was coughing blood, said an otorhinolaryngologist at the hospital, Wang Chih-chun (王誌群). The patient, who grows coffee trees in Kaohsiung’s Maolin District (茂林), often washed her face or rinsed her mouth using nearby water sources, Wang said. Shen’s exposure to untreated mountain water might have given the leech an opportunity to enter her body, possibly through the nasal cavity, Wang said. Wang urged people who hike and camp in the mountains to avoid drinking water directly from ponds or streams, and that any food washed with the water should be thoroughly cooked and boiled before ingestion.

Source: Taipei Times January 18, 2020 15:56 UTC