Cysticercosis is not acquired through contact with pigs, nor, specifically, by eating pork. The diagnosis relies either on histology, sophisticated imaging or an immunological test – none of which is widely available in Africa. As a result, cysticercosis is not a diagnosis that is commonly made.

Life cycle

Cysticercosis is the disease caused by the ingestion of the eggs of the pig tapeworm, Taenia solium, not by eating ‘measly’ pork. Humans who eat ‘measly’ pork acquire a tape worm. People with T. solium excrete eggs in their faeces and it is ingestion of these eggs that produce cysticercosis. It is not uncommon for patients with T. solium to auto-infect – in other words, to ingest eggs shed by their own tapeworm. Once ingested, the eggs hatch in the stomach and the larvae burrow through the wall of the intestine and migrate around the body, with a particular predilection for skeletal muscle and the brain. Larvae in the brain are the cause of neurocysticercosis (NCC).

The problem in Africa

There are very few data about the prevalence of cysticercosis in Africa. Most of the published data come from the Peruvian Cysticercosis Working Group, based in Lima, whose work suggest that as much as 40 percent of adult-onset epilepsy is secondary to neurocysticercosis (Garcia et al., 2003).