A couple of years ago, the researchers at Cambridge examined a man in order to determine the cause for his headaches. This man has been to China prior to doing these tests. China is known to be the leading country in terms of reported cases of Spirometra erinaceieuropaei, a parasite which was spread through South Korea, Japan, and Thailand.
Besides the headaches, this worm caused weakness and seizures as well. This man was diagnosed with sparganosis, a parasitic infection which is caused by tapeworm larvae plerocercois diphyllobothroid. This infection cannot be treated with drugs or other treatments, so the patient underwent surgery after the diagnosis.
Pork Tapeworm
Even though there are many different type of tapeworms, only three of them may infect the brain, including the pork tapeworm which is considered to be the major cause of brain infection.
One can get infected with this parasite in two ways. The first one is through eating poorly cooked pork from infected pigs, which leads to taeniasis, a condition in which an adult work lives in the intestine.
The second way of getting the infection is through direct contact with animal faces, which leads to neurocysticerosis, a condition when the larval worm infects the nervous system and brain. This infection is highly dangerous as it is likely to cause epilepsy.
Even though this infection is most common in parts of Africa, Latin America and Asia, the increased distribution of pork tapeworm increases the number of infected individuals all around the world.
As mentioned earlier, drugs and similar treatments are not as effective, so surgery is the most commonly used method.
World food trade and international travels are a matter of concern as they increase the risk of eating infected food.
Source : www.healthylifecentar.com
