Urgent warning to dog owners who let their pets lick them after woman catches horror parasite

PET owners have been warned of the deadly consequences of letting their pets lick them after a pregnant woman developed a massive parasitic cyst in her abdomen.

The 26-year-old, who is 20 weeks pregnant and from rural Tunisia, complained of having stomach pain before doctors unearthed huge cyst in her pelvis.

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Hospital staff swooped in a performed emergency surgery to save the unborn child before it burst.

It was revealed to be a hydatid cyst - the result of a parasitic infection from a tapeworm that causes cysts in your liver and other organs.

The most common form is Echinococcus granulous, and it’s often caught by herbivore animals such as sheep or cattle and then transferred to carnivore’s animals such as dogs and cats.

It can get accidentally transferred to humans via contaminated food by an ova of a parasite.

Dr Aimee Warner, resident veterinarian at pet insurance company Waggel, has issued a warning to pet owners on the back of the case.

"Ideally, dogs should not lick faces, especially around the mouth or eyes, as a matter of health," she told DailyMail.com.

"Humans are not infected by the adult tapeworms within the dog, but instead ingest Echinococcus eggs passed in dog feces by accident.

"If a dog has fecal soiling on its mouth or coat and then licks someone, there is a potential — albeit rare — for transmission."

It comes after experts sounded the alarm over the surge of a "neglected" parasite that can cause deadly liver failure.

Alveolar echinococcosis (AE) is a rare parasitic disease that spreads from animals to humans and is "of increasing concern worldwide" - but the recent rise in cases has sparked fears that it could reach the UK.

The "silently progressing and infiltrative disease" is caused by the parasite Echinococcus multilocularis, known as the fox parasite as it tends to infect foxes, as well as dogs.

While animals won't usually show any signs of infection, the parasite can cause serious illness in humans, who may pick it up from contact with fox or dog faeces or handling contaminated plants, soil or berries.

When the parasite enters the body, it can cause tumour-like growths - usually in the liver - that expand slowly over 10 to 15 years, until they cause symptoms such as stomach pain, weight loss and signs of liver failure.

Left untreated, the tapeworms may spread to other organs and can be fatal.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) previously listed AE as one of its 17 most "neglected" diseases in 2014, calling for more to be done to control it.

Swiss scientists have now revealed that cases of AE, though still rare, increased nearly three times over in a 30 year period.

They also revealed that the parasitical disease - once contained in Europe, China, Japan and Siberia - is now spreading to parts of Canada and the United States.

"Previously non-endemic regions such as North America and eastern central Europe are reporting an increasing number of AE patients," University Hospital Zurich scientists wrote in a report published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

So far, there have been no known domestically acquired cases of E. multilocularis in the UK, meaning it has only been brought in from someone who has travelled.

But as cases of the disease are increasingly spotted European regions, it has stoked fears that the parasite may infect animals and humans in the British Isles.