Like the post about a man and his cat dying from CFD, this too, is
scary...
Brain disease due to parasite seen in US
By E. J. Mundell
MONTREAL, Oct 19 (Reuters) -- More cases of neurological illness due to
a tapeworm are turning up in America's inner
cities, researchers reported at this week's annual meeting of the
American Neurological Association in Montreal.
Neurocysticercosis, a disease that is ``very common in Central America
and Mexico, is becoming more common in the United
States, it's something that we see in the inner cities,'' said Dr.
Daniel Sax of Boston University School of Medicine in
Massachusetts.
In an interview with Reuters Health, Sax explained that
neurocysticercosis is caused by the ingestion of the larvae of the pig
tapeworm. ``These are the eggs and young of the tapeworm that are in
water or feces, or water or food that's contaminated by
the droppings of the pig,'' he said. Once inside the human body, the
larvae can travel via the bloodstream to any number of
body sites. If the larvae become deposited in muscle tissue, for
example, they can create muscle aches and pains.
If larvae enter the brain, they can trigger neurocysticercosis. ``The
body's defense against this is that these animals become
calcified (surrounded by calcium deposits),'' Sax explained. ``If you
have a minor infestation, then you might end up with just
some headache and seizures and epilepsy,'' he said. These cases are
easily treated with medication. But in more serious cases,
the larvae can cause blockages of the channels that drain the protective
fluid that bathes the brain -- a complication that requires
immediate surgery.
Neurocysticercosis is endemic to much of the developing world,
especially Central and South America. But until recently, the
condition has been almost unheard of in North America.
However, Sax noted that ``from 1992 to 1998, I have seen over 20
patients with neurocysticercosis. In the prior 10 years,
from 1982 to 1992, I had only seen one.'' He believes that the disease
is being carried by immigrants moving from endemic
areas to large US urban centers.
One Jamaican-American woman who came to Sax suffering from seizures had
just such a history. ``In the year before,'' he
explained, ``she had gone back to Jamaica and went up to one of the
churches in the hills and bathed in the water. It was about
that time that she began to come down with symptoms.'' He speculates
that the woman contracted the illness from contact with
larvae-infested water.
Sax stresses that the disease is relatively difficult to pass on in the
US if normal methods of hygiene, such as conscientious
hand-washing during food preparation, is carried out. A more likely
route of transmission might be ``if you were eating
(unwashed) lettuce from an endemic area,'' he said.
--
Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
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^^^
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