Neurocysticercosis: households, pigs, and risks

• neurocysticercosis

Neurocysticercosis is a major cause of neurological disease in most developing countries and is an emerging disease in industrialised areas. My intention is not to provide a detailed explanation of this problem, but to give an image to the paragraph of a recent review on the topic¹: “ . . .Many rural households rear pigs in small numbers; the animals constitute an important source not only of meat but also of immediate income. The rearing of free-ranging animals requires little investment for the rural poor. In the absence of a sanitary infrastructure, people use open areas and fields for defecation. Free-ranging pigs thus have access to human faeces, which perpetuates transmission of the parasite from human being to pig. Rural pork producers are not motivated to pass pork through meat inspection because of the threat of condemnation. Furthermore, local culinary habits facilitate the consumption of raw or partly cooked meat. These factors lead to transmission of the cysticercus from pig to human being in endemic areas.”¹