Woman has sudden bouts of pain and vertigo. Doctors found parasite lodged in her ear
Most people have experienced a kind of ringing or buzzing in their ears, known as tinnitus, sometime in their life.
Whether it’s the ringing in your ears while walking back to your car after a loud concert or the stuffy buzz you feel when your sinuses are congested, most cases of tinnitus are brief and go away on their own.
But for a 21-year-old woman from Dharan, Nepal, the eerie sound ringing in her ear was indicative of something much more serious — a parasite.
The woman arrived in an otorhinolaryngology, or ear, nose and throat, outpatient clinic in Nepal after experiencing pain in her right ear that started suddenly and was getting progressively worse over the course of a week, according to a case report published Jan. 7 in the peer-reviewed Journal of Medical Case Reports.
In the two days before she sought medical help, the “piercing” pain was exacerbated to include “dizziness intensified by head movement” and “nausea and vomiting,” doctors said.
Her hearing also decreased, and she told doctors she hadn’t been fighting an upper respiratory infection or used a tool like a cotton swab recently.
Her left ear, however, was completely normal.
Doctors used a tool to look deep into her ear, a procedure called an otoscopy, and noted the ear canal was congested and inflamed. As they reached the bony wall of the inner ear, doctors saw something was lodged in the woman’s skin.
Buried in the skin of her ear canal was a tick, according to the report.
At this point, the tick was dead, doctors said, but had become encased in skin as the ear canal became irritated and inflamed.
Doctors used a suctioning tool and forceps to pull the tick out, and an anti-inflammatory and antibiotic medication regimen restored the woman’s hearing and prevented infection.
Skin irritation is caused by an enzyme in tick saliva, doctors said, so the pain in the woman’s ear was likely not from the tick itself, but her body’s reaction to the invasion.
Some tick bites can be incredibly serious.
“Ticks release neurotoxins inhibiting acetylcholine, potentially inducing respiratory distress or paralysis,” doctors said. “In severe cases, the tick’s mouthparts attaching to the tympanic membrane (or ear drum) can lead to perforations and the release of enzymes in the middle ear.”
Ticks are also common vectors, or carriers, of zoonotic diseases, meaning diseases that can be transmitted from animals to people.
In the United States, tics can carry Lyme disease, Bourbon virus, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Colorado tick fever, Heartland virus and other potentially deadly infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Tickborne illnesses can start with fever and chills in the first few weeks, but then grow into aches and pains, rashes and paralysis, the CDC says.
Health officials recommend seeking medical attention if you experience any of these symptoms after a known tick bite, or if you experience the symptoms in a region where tick bites may be possible and have spent time outside.
Dharan is in southeastern Nepal.
The medical team includes Ankita Shah, Deepak Paudel and Aman Shah.
This story was originally published January 8, 2025 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Woman has sudden bouts of pain and vertigo. Doctors found parasite lodged in her ear."
