A 52-year-old man in Florida with severe migraines that did not improve with medication was diagnosed with neurocysticercosis after doctors discovered tapeworm larvae in his brain. The tapeworm infection stemmed from the patient’s consumption of undercooked bacon.
According to a report published in the American Journal of Case Reports, the unidentified man went to the doctor after his migraines suddenly worsened over four months and started to occur almost weekly.
In a CT scan, doctors found multiple cysts throughout the patient’s brain that appeared like fluid-filled sacs. These were initially thought to be from a rare neurologic condition called congenital neuroglial cysts, and the patient was admitted for neurosurgical consultation.
Further tests at the hospital revealed that the cysts were parasitic tapeworm larvae residing in his brain, leading to a diagnosis of neurocysticercosis.
The man did not travel to high-risk areas and did not have close contact with pigs or live in an area with poor sanitation. However, the patient had a habit of eating lightly cooked, non-crispy bacon for most of his life.
Cysticercosis is an illness caused by infection with the eggs of the parasite Taenia solium, also known as the pork tapeworm. Humans contract the infection from eating food or drinking water contaminated with the parasite eggs, or from not washing hands after touching the poop of a human tapeworm carrier. The eggs hatch in the gut, and the tapeworm larvae can travel to other parts of the body to form cysts.
When cysticercosis involves the central nervous system, the condition is neurocysticercosis. It is the most common parasitic infection of the brain and a leading cause of epilepsy in the developing world.
“It can only be speculated but given our patient’s predilection for undercooked pork and benign exposure history, we favor that his cysticercosis was transmitted via autoinfection after improper handwashing after he had contracted taeniasis himself from his eating…
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