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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Tapeworm cysts in the brain: can we prevent it happening?

Marshall Lightowlers
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences
The University of Melbourne
250 Princes Highway
Werribee, Vic. 3030, Australia
Email: marshall@unimelb.edu.au

Microbiology Australia 37(1) 25-26 https://doi.org/10.1071/MA16010
Published: 11 February 2016

Abstract

Imagine the consternation; you are a member of an orthodox Jewish family and you and another family member are diagnosed with larvae of a pork tapeworm in your brain. You have recurrent seizures as a result. Ridiculous? Not for members of a Jewish community in New York where a Mexican domestic worker harbouring a Taenia solium tapeworm had apparently contaminated the family's food with eggs from her tapeworm1.


References

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[5]  Lightowlers, M.W. (2010) Eradication of Taenia solium cysticercosis: a role for vaccination of pigs. Int. J. Parasitol. 40, 1183–1192.
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[8]  Lightowlers, M.W. et al. (2016) Anamnestic responses in pigs to the Taenia solium TSOL18 vaccine and implications for control strategies. Parasitology, in press.