Fact Check: Scans allegedly show woman's body infected with parasites from eating raw pork for a decade. Here's the real story

Key Points:

• The medical images originate from a documented 2016 case of widespread cysticercosis in a 23-year-old Chinese woman who reportedly began eating raw meat sometime after age 10, but the claim that she ate raw pork for 10 years is unsubstantiated.
• Cysticercosis results from swallowing tapeworm eggs, not directly from eating raw pork, which can cause intestinal taeniasis if it contains larval cysts; the woman’s infection route was not definitively established.
• The original Chinese news report and later medical case report confirmed the diagnosis and treatment of cysticercosis but did not conclusively link the infection to long-term consumption of raw pork or the presence of an intestinal tapeworm.
• While raw pork may play an indirect role in the parasite’s life cycle by potentially leading to intestinal tapeworm infection and subsequent egg shedding, the evidence does not clarify how the woman acquired cysticercosis.
• The claim circulating on social media conflates accurate medical imaging with incorrect assumptions about the infection timeline and cause, combining true, false, and unproven information.