Carly Goff contracts parasite from uncooked fish in Fiji

A teenage girl has revealed the excruciating pain she lived with after contracting a flesh-eating parasite that fed off her insides for six years.

Carly Goff was on a family holiday in Fiji when she at undercooked fish contaminated with the flesh eating parasite, Gnathostomiasis.

Breaking her silence for the first time on Tuesday, Carly said she lived in complete agony for the six years it took doctors to diagnose her with the parasite. 

 

Carly Goff (pictured) was on a family holiday in Fiji when she at undercooked fish contaminated with the flesh eating parasite, Gnathostomiasis

‘I was so sick and I was in so much pain, burning feet, burning face, almost like an acid-like burning,’ she told Seven News. 

‘It’s like a worm kind of thing, it has teeth and moves around by chewing through the tissues and muscles and destroys everywhere it goes.’ 

After years of tests, Carly’s doctors discovered she had the gnathostomiasis parasite living inside her.

When she was diagnosed two months ago, Carly was treated with a worm tablet which worked to starve the parasite. 

'I was so sick and I was in so much pain, burning feet, burning face, almost like an acid-like burning,' Carly (pictured) said 

‘I was so sick and I was in so much pain, burning feet, burning face, almost like an acid-like burning,’ Carly (pictured) said 

'It's like a worm kind of thing, it has teeth and moves around by chewing through the tissues and muscles and destroys everywhere it goes,' Carly said about the gnathostomiasis (pictured) 

‘It’s like a worm kind of thing, it has teeth and moves around by chewing through the tissues and muscles and destroys everywhere it goes,’ Carly said about the gnathostomiasis (pictured) 

Royal North Shore Hospital’s Dr Bernard Hudson told Seven News the parasite could be deadly if left untreated.

‘It can invade any organ system, through the lungs, brain, get into the bladder, liver, anywhere,’ he said.

The parasite can be contracted from undercooked fresh water fish, chicken, reptiles, eel and frogs, and is most commonly found in southeast Asia, Central and South America, and parts of Africa. 

'It can invade any organ system, through the lungs, brain, get into the bladder, liver, anywhere,' Dr Bernard Hudson said about the parasite (pictured) 

‘It can invade any organ system, through the lungs, brain, get into the bladder, liver, anywhere,’ Dr Bernard Hudson said about the parasite (pictured) 

Royal North Shore Hospital's Dr Bernard Hudson (pictured) told Seven News the parasite could be deadly if left untreated

Royal North Shore Hospital’s Dr Bernard Hudson (pictured) told Seven News the parasite could be deadly if left untreated

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