“Can anyone identify these red worms?” asks this reader in her submission. “They are in my scalp.”

“I did prescription treatment and national doctor treatment, but can’t get rid of them. They are also in my car. Can anyone help or direct me to someone who cares?” she continues.

Now, while we appreciate the photos she sent in, as well as the context, we will unfortunately not be able to identify the worms our reader found. This is because the worms were found in/on her body, and she has taken medication, as well as sought medical treatment, meaning this situation is potentially medical in nature. Since we are not medical professionals, we are not qualified to identify worms of this nature.

However, we can indeed direct our reader to someone who can help (though we should mention that we do care). We recommend that she consult a medical parasitologist. The problem with consulting a doctor who does not specialize in parasitology is that they usually will have received next to no training within the field of parasitology and infectious diseases.

A medical parasitologist, on the other hand, will be more than equipped to identify and treat medical issues caused by organisms, as that is exactly the field they are trained in. And they will take our reader’s problem seriously.

So, what we can recommend is that our reader do one or more of the following:

1) Search for a medical parasitologist in their area using this directory of medical parasitology consultants: https://www.astmh.org/for-astmh-members/clinical-consultants-directory.
2) Search for a local parasitologist by doing a Google search for “medical parasitologist (name of the closest big city)” or “tropical medicine specialist (name of the closest big city)”.
3) Get in touch with Dr. Omar Amin at the Parasitology Center at https://www.parasitetesting.com.
4) Contact Dr. Vipul Savaliya of Infectious Disease Care (“IDCare”) at idcarepa.com.

We should note that both Dr. Amin and Dr. Savaliya are available for online consultation, so our reader does not need to be in the vicinity of their physical offices to get help!

In conclusion, we are unfortunately not qualified to identify the red worms plaguing our reader, but we hope that the resources listed above prove helpful and that she can get the answers and aid she requires soon. We wish her the very best.

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