Parasitic tapeworm larvae have been found in a man’s brain following weeks of worsening migraines, which researchers believe were caused by his consumption of undercooked bacon.
In a report released last week, the American Journal of Case Reports documented an unidentified 52-year-old American man who was experiencing weekly migraines that were unresponsive to medication.
The man denied traveling to “high-risk areas [for] food security and lived at home with his wife and cat in a modern home”, according to the report. Upon further questioning, the man revealed that he did have a preference for “lightly cooked, non-crispy bacon” which he ate for most of his life.
Following a CT scan on the man, Florida researchers found numerous fluid-filled sacs, or cystic foci, in his brain. With no mass effects of a possible tumor growing on his brain or hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluids in brain cavities, researchers were suspicious for congenital neuroglial cysts.
After being admitted to the hospital, the man tested positive for cysticercosis cyst antibodies. He was then diagnosed with neurocysticercosis, a preventable parasitic infection caused by larval systems from the pork tapeworm Taenia solium.
“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 habits,” researchers said.
The man was then prescribed with anti-inflammatory and anti-parasitic medication including dexamethasone, albendazole and praziquantel, and was successfully treated.
Researchers added: “The treatment of neurocysticercosis is controversial. Antiparasitic drugs such as praziquantel or albendazole have sufficient activity against Taenia solium, but there is concern that most of the inflammation occurs when the cysts are killed, giving some clinicians pause when considering treatment. After a risk-benefit discussion, our patient ultimately decided to pursue definitive treatment with albendazole.”
Neurocysticercosis is contracted when a person ingests microscopic eggs of tapeworm. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), if a person eats undercooked, infected pork and gets a tapeworm infection in the intestines, the person passes the eggs in their feces. If they do not wash their hands after using the bathroom, they may contaminate food or surfaces with feces that contain the eggs. These eggs may then be ingested by someone else if they consume contaminated food.
Once the eggs make their way into the body, they hatch and become larvae, which sometimes then lodge themselves in the brain, in turn causing neurocysticercosis. Symptoms of the disease may vary depending on the locations of the lesions, the number of parasites and the host’s immune response, according to Medscape. Possible symptoms include epilepsy, headache and dizziness and stroke.
Although the disease occurs globally, its highest rates of infection are found in areas of Latin America, Asia and Africa that have poor sanitation and free-ranging pigs with access to human feces, the CDC reports.
It adds that there are an estimated 1,000 new hospitalizations for neurocysticercosis in the US each year, with cases more frequently reported in New York, California, Texas, Oregon and Illinois. Currently, neurocysticercosis is considered a neglected parasitic infection by the CDC – a classification for a group of diseases that results in significant illness among those infected and is often poorly understood by healthcare professionals.
