Title
Case report: Neurocysticercosis acquired in Australia
Date Issued
01 December 2020
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Forster D.
Ko D.K.
Koehler A.V.
Kranz S.
Goh C.
Fleming B.
Awad M.
Johnson D.
Gasser R.B.
Royal Melbourne Hospital
Publisher(s)
American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Abstract
Neurocysticercosis (NCC) is a disease caused by infection of the central nervous system with the larval stage of the tapeworm Taenia solium. This disease is endemic in many parts of the world, including Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where animal husbandry practices are common such that pigs reared for human consumption ingest feces from humans infected with T. solium. Neurocysticercosis is rarely acquired in economically affluent regions, including North America, Central Europe, Japan, and Australasia, and in countries where pork consumption is discouraged by religious or social practices. In these countries, NCC is usually diagnosed in immigrants or returning travelers who have spent time in endemic regions. Here, we report a case of NCC in a 25-year-old woman presenting with worsening visual symptoms in association with headache, diagnosed previously as a migraine with visual aura. This person had always lived in Australia and had never traveled overseas to a country endemic for T. solium. The unusual features of the clinical presentation and epidemiology are highlighted to raise physicians' awareness that attention needs to be paid to the risk of autochthonous infection occurring in non-endemic countries.
Start page
2318
End page
2322
Volume
103
Issue
6
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Enfermedades infecciosas Medicina tropical
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85097211473
PubMed ID
Source
American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
ISSN of the container
00029637
Sponsor(s)
Financial support: S. M. is the recipient of a Doherty Institute Internal Grant for research in parasitology. A. V. K. and R. B. G. are supported by bodies including the Australian Research Council (ARC).
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus