Aishwarya Iyer
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Written By: Aishwarya Iyer | Published : August 7, 2018 6:04 PM IST
The cover image of a painting by an artist, Ben Taylor was feature in the medical journal published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This image is sure to send chills down your spine. It is the painting of a human eye, but it is an eye covered with long and undulating, an inch long worm. The worm, known as Loa loa is also called as an African eye worm. It is believed that people infected with this worm don't realize its presence unless they notice the worm wriggling in the eye.
The painting is the image of his own eye. In his website, the artist writes, "I thought this painting was finished last year (2014). It ended up as an abstract piece that took ages to complete due to the intricate, worm-like patterns that filled the canvas. I was not able to fully bond with the piece at that time, it was a struggle to complete and I was not satisfied with the end result. I had no idea what compelled me to paint it, or what it was trying to say, and it rested in this unsatisfactory state for many months. Little did I realise that all would be revealed soon enough, and that this painting was being influenced by other beings."
All of this started when the artist traveled to a village in the jungle Gabon in the summer of 2013. "In the summer of 2013, I went to stay in a traditional Bwiti village in the jungles of Gabon, where I underwent an intensive ten day healing ceremony conducted by a group of Babongo Pygmees led by their illustrious leader and king, Adumangana," he wrote.
After returning from the place, Taylor experienced various health issues like blinding pain in the eye, joint aches etc. All of which, was bothersome to him at a large level. Once, when he was looking at the mirror, he found the culprit behind his blinding eye pain- a wriggling Loa loa worm which was an inch long.
"Extensive testing revealed not only Loa Loa but also two other different parasites, Hookworm and Strongyloides, which have been partying inside my body for an unknown amount of time," Taylor wrote.
After all of this, the artist underwent an operation and the worm was removed. "A steady hand (by the doctor) made a scalpel incision in the eyeball and pulled out a 3.5cm long wriggling Loa Loa worm," he wrote.
Image Source: CDC
Reference:
Breedlove, B., & Bradbury, R. (2018). A Worm's Eye View. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 24(8), 1602-1603. https://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid2408.ac2408.
Blog: https://www.mometo.net/paintings/#/new-gallery-92/
