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Trichuris “looks a bit like an American football,” Smith explains, while Ascaris is a round, lumpy orb.

All told, the team found that about 25% of the individuals were infected with Trichuris, and about 40% with Ascaris, and those rates stayed fairly stable over time, even into the 18th century.

The researchers then analyzed the DNA in those samples, looking for genetic traces of two of the most common types of parasitic worms endemic in many countries today: the whipworm Trichuris trichiura, and the hookworm belonging to the genus Ascaris.

Li treated Yang and her family members for Ascaris, which is the most common human worm infection.

Surgeons then removed “bundles of Ascaris lumbricoides worms” manually and “by milking through the stoma.”