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University of Alberta doctors raise alarm about rare coyote tapeworm in humans

Last Updated Jul 19, 2017 at 5:36 pm MDT

EDMONTON – Doctors at the University of Alberta are raising the alarm about a rare tapeworm that, until recently, hadn’t been seen in humans in Canada since the 1920s.

The worm is harmless to coyotes and other dogs, but can spread like a slow-moving cancer in humans and is potentially deadly if untreated.

Infectious disease expert Stan Houston says there have been four cases in Alberta in the last four years and the only other one in Canada was in Manitoba in 1928.

He says that’s a rate that is worth keeping an eye on.

The researchers say dogs get the tapeworm from eating infected rodents and it can be spread to humans by eating vegetables that came in contact with dog feces or through microscopic traces of feces on the hair of a dog that hunts rodents.

Its spread can be prevented by having dogs dewormed on a regular basis and by thoroughly washing vegetables that grow close to the ground.