Lead singer of punk band has PIG TAPEWORM removed from his brain after eating contaminated vegetarian burrito

Jay Whalley of Frenzal Rhomb suffered unexpected seizures

Doctors feared he could have cancer after finding 1cm growth in brain

But operation revealed it was a cyst formed around the egg of a tapeworm

Singer told of shock at diagnosis because he is a vegetarian



A popular punk rocker has told of his shock at catching a tapeworm which burrowed into his brain and had to be removed in a major operation.



Jay Whalley, lead singer of Australian group Frenzal Rhomb, feared he had cancer after suffering two seizures on his way to a gig.



After the growth in his brain was removed, he discovered that it was an egg from a pork tapeworm - but since he is a vegetarian, he was baffled as to how the parasite entered his body.



It later emerged that the tapeworm had apparently come from a vegetarian burrito which Mr Whalley had eaten in Central America which had been contaminated by the person who cooked it.



Scar: Jay Whalley's head after the singer underwent surgery to remove a cyst from his brain

The 40-year-old singer has released eight albums with Frenzal Rhomb, one of Australia's leading punk groups.



Along with his bandmate Lindsay McDougall, Mr Whalley used to present a radio show on station Triple J.

The rocker took to Facebook yesterday to post a comprehensive 1,000-word account of his ordeal after catching the parasite.



He said that his first hint of health problems came on February 25, when he started feeling unusual and having difficulty seeing.



After he failed to recognise the coins he was holding in his hand, a friend stepped in and made sure he was safe while he endured two seizures.



Agony: Mr Whalley, pictured performing last year, suffered two seizures after catching a tapeworm

Mr Whalley was taken to hospital, where doctors gave him a brain scan and discovered a 1cm object which appeared to be a tumour.



'Worst case would be a malignant melanoma, the best would be a benign tumour or an infection of some kind,' he later wrote.



However, when he was operated on three weeks later, he was relieved to be told that the growth was not a tumour but a cyst.



Doctors later told him he had been infected with Taenia solium, the pork tapeworm, during a trip to Central America, despite the fact that he does not eat meat.



Surprise: Mr Whalley was afflicted with the pork tapeworm despite being a vegetarian

PARASITE FOUND IN PIG MEAT

Taenia solium, known as the 'pork tapeworm', is native to pigs as well as humans.

It lives in the intestines, and is usually caught by pigs when they eat human faeces contained the worm's eggs.

The most common way for people to become infected by T. solium is eating the meat of an infected animal which has not been thoroughly cooked.

The worm can grow as long as seven metres and lives in the intestine for years.

Its eggs frequently migrate into muscle and brain tissue, causing cysticercosis - the formation of cysts which isolate the egg from the rest of the body.

These cysts can cause muscle pain, and when present in the brain induce seizures.

Mr Whalley posted a vivid description of the infection process: 'So the tapeworm eggs live in pig flesh (most common in C America but found in loads of other countries too), the pig is killed and the meat undercooked and eaten by old mate.



'Old mate grows a tapeworm in his intestine which eventually produces eggs. Old mate goes to el baño, doesn't wash his hands properly then busies himself cooking my vegetarian burrito. Gross.'



Once the egg had made its way to Mr Whalley's brain, his body formed a cyst around it to isolate it, which remained in place for four years.



However, when the cyst grew large enough to press on his brain, it caused the debilitating seizures which he suffered last month.



The singer now appears to have fully recovered after a period of weakness in hospital following his operation.



'I don't feel like I've retained any deficits from the brain surgery but I guess only time will tell,' he wrote. 'Perhaps the slice will be taken out of my golf swing. My friend Clem thinks I will become racist.'

