Candiru: a catfish that’s small, eel-like, and penetrates the urethra

3.5 out of 5 stars Candiru — A Little Fish With Bad Habits: Need Travel Health Professionals Worry? A Review. Bauer IL J Travel Med 2013 Mar-Apr;20:119-124. Abstract Don’t know how I missed this paper when it was published 2 years ago. The author searched medical literature to answer the pressing question: Is there really a catfish native to the Amazon River that can swim up — and become embedded in — a man’s urethra? TPR has posted on this subject before. The candiru (Vandellia cirrhosa) — a tiny eel-like catfish — is a blood-sucking parasite that preys on larger fish, following the stream of water and urea that flows from victim’s gill slits until it enters the gill opening and embeds itself by means of sharp spines. The legend, going back centuries, is that if a person urinates in the Amazon, the fish can mistakenly follow the similar stream and actually swim into the urethral opening, where it becomes nearly impossible to remove because of its backward-pointing spines. Rumored treatments have included high-dose vitamin C and amputation. (Some claim that the things necessary for surviving a candiru attack is “a machete and a strong will to live.”) As the author points out, there have been no confirmed cases reported in the scientific literature. The best documented case occurred in 1997, when urologist Dr. Anoar Samad claimed to have removed a candiru from a patient’s urea by means of cystoscopy. Supporting evidence includes a ...
Source: The Poison Review - Category: Toxicology Authors: Tags: Medical candiru catfish penis urethral penetration urology Source Type: news