How dangerous is cysticercosis in humans?

This is an automatically translated article.

Brain fluke is a disease belonging to the group of infections of the central nervous system, with a very high level of danger if not detected and treated early. This disease is often caused by infection with pathogenic larvae in the environment where pigs live, so this epidemiological factor should be taken into account to minimize the possibility of disease.

1. Brain fluke cocoon disease

Central nervous system infection brain fluke cocoon is caused by infected human body with tapeworm larvae in areas with unclean living environment, frequent contact with pigs and habit of eating meat. pork is not cooked. Because the disease affects the central nervous system, if not treated promptly, it can affect many other organ systems that the nervous system governs.
Pork tapeworm is defined as a large fluke that lives in humans and pigs, the fluke usually lives for 1 month and will die when boiled at 100°C for a few minutes. The disease is very easy to catch if you eat pork that has not been thoroughly processed because these fluke larvae, when entering the human stomach, will continue to enter the blood, lymph nodes as well as many other organs and thrive. damage these organ systems.
Because cysticercosis affects the central nervous system most, the initial manifestations of the disease are continuous headache, headache in the whole head and the nature of spreading to many other areas. Some other symptoms accompanied by the appearance of small cysts under the skin, which are mobile and painless to the touch, are the presence of brain fluke cysts forming under the skin. If more severe, patients may experience seizures of varying severity, the duration may be short or long depending on the location of the cyst in the patient's body as well as the number of cysts that the patient has. right infected. Symptoms such as insomnia, sleep not lasting and not deep or central nervous system manifestations such as memory impairment, psychotic symptoms, dementia are also common with brain fluke disease. Some other rare symptoms such as hemiplegia, sensory and motor abnormalities, bulging of the eyeball, double vision, blindness or decreased vision in cases of brain fluke cysts appearing in the orbit. .

2. Test to diagnose brain fluke

In addition to exploiting epidemiological factors such as whether or not the living area has pigs, or in the matter of daily eating, whether or not you eat undercooked pork, combined with examination of functional symptoms and In fact, some diagnostic tests for brain flukes also contribute greatly to the detection of helminth diseases, including brain cysts:
Look for eggs, burn adult tapeworms in the patient's stool. Magnetic resonance or computed tomography of the body, especially the skull, shows cysts in the brain Immunoassay ELISA

3. Treatment of brain fluke

Treatment of brain fluke is first medical treatment by using medicine Praziquantel or Albendazol to kill tapeworm larvae. In clinical, if a cyst is detected under the skin, the patient will be assigned to inject Flagyl into the cyst. Symptoms such as headaches, epilepsy will be treated with painkillers, anti-epileptic drugs...
However, if the cyst is too large or its activity causes a blockage in the nervous system, causing If the cerebrospinal fluid is difficult to circulate, leading to the syndrome of increased intracranial pressure, medical treatment will not be effective at this time, instead the patient will have surgery to drain the ventricles and remove the cyst. outside.
Most importantly, patients need to prevent infection by taking measures to reduce risk factors for larval infection such as:
Keep a clean living environment Eat hygienically Eat processed food thoroughly cooked and fully cooked. Always wash your hands with soap and water before and after using the toilet Limit free-ranging pigs If you raise pigs, you must follow procedures for handling manure, or separate the breeding site from the living environment. Periodic deworming Pork tapeworm is one of the dangerous pathogens for humans, especially cysticercosis, a disease that infects the central nervous system with pork tapeworm, not only causing nervous system symptoms. It also affects many other organ systems in the body. Therefore, it is necessary to take preventive measures to reduce the risk of disease to the maximum extent.

Please dial HOTLINE for more information or register for an appointment HERE. Download MyVinmec app to make appointments faster and to manage your bookings easily.