Potentially lethal tapeworms
increasing along border
Associated Press - Parasite, which lodges in brain, blamed on poor
sanitation by food handlers and more immigration.
McALLEN - Doctors in South Texas say they're seeing more cases of a
parasite that burrows into the human brain, sometimes resulting in
seizures or even death.
Health officials say the increase is probably due to failure of food
handlers to wash their hands after going to the bathroom. They believe
increasing immigration from Central and South America, where the tapeworm
is more common, may also be a factor.
A condition known as neurocysticercosis occurs when immature larvae
of the pork tapeworm travel in the bloodstream and lodge in the brain or
central nervous system, sometimes causing seizures and headaches. The
disease kills
up to 50,000 people worldwide each year, according to a Cambridge
University research group, but is uncommon in most of the United States.
"Neurocysticercosis is a major health problem along the United
States-Mexico border," according to a 1998 report by the Texas Department
of Health, which said the increase corresponds to increased immigration
from areas where the
disease is more common. It also said doctors are better able to diagnose
the disease, using CAT scans.
"It's a tremendous problem in Third World countries and its becoming an
increasing problem in the U.S. It definitely has to do with immigration,"
Dr. Judy Teale, a researcher at the University of Texas Health Science
Center, told The Monitor newspaper in McAllen.
Teale is studying the effects of treatment for the disease.
Worm on the Brain Woman Recuperating After Doctors Remove
Parasite
Dawn Becerra has made a quick recovery after undergoing an operation to
remove the remains of a parasite from her brain.
(ABCNEWS.com)
April 13 - An Arizona woman says she's feeling good, a little more than a
week after undergoing six hours of surgery to remove a worm that had
lodged in her brain.
Dawn Becerra and her doctors believe the parasite got into her system
three years ago, when she ate a pork taco while on a visit to Mexico.
Becerra said she was ill for three weeks after eating the taco. Soon
after, she began suffering violent seizures. Later, doctors determined she
had a parasitic worm in her brain and it had caused neurocysticercosis
- a lesion
in her brain.
Poor Sanitation Allows Parasite to Spread
Doctors at Arizona's Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale believe the taco contained
Taenia solium, a parasite that is common in Latin America. It can
be transmitted by infected food prepared by someone who has not followed
proper sanitation procedures after coming into contact with the creature's
eggs, which can be present in human feces.
Some experts point out that it is difficult to know for certain that the
taco was the source of the worm. However Becerra ingested the parasite, it
attached itself as an egg to her
intestinal wall. Eventually, the egg developed into the worm, which moved
into her blood stream and to her brain, said Dr. Joseph Sirven, who
operated on Becerra.
Once in the brain, the worm causes little harm until it eventually dies
and decays, thereby inflaming surrounding tissue.
"It's after the worm dies that the body reacts to something foreign,"
Sirven explained.
Undergoing Brain Surgery While Awake
Although Becerra seems to have kept a good attitude - she even gave the
worm a nickname, Tonya - she said the seizures it caused were devastating.
She reached a point where she could no longer tolerate them. "You have to
be conscious that you can have them at any time," Becerra told
ABCNEWS' Good Morning America on Thursday, "and I lived with the
thought that there was a worm in my brain."
She made the decision to have it removed and just when she thought the
situation couldn't get any worse - it did. Doctors told her that she would
have to undergo brain surgery while she was completely conscious because
the procedure would take them into an extremely sensitive area of the
brain.
'She Was Very Lucky'
Beccera underwent the six-hour procedure last week - awake the entire
time. She received only acupuncture and a mild anesthesia to deal with the
pain. Doctors spoke to the bilingual Becerra in both Spanish and English
during the operation.
Eventually, they found the decayed worm and removed it - without doing any
long-term damage to their patient. "She was very lucky because she had
only one cyst," said Sirven. "She should be in good shape now."
Becerra is recovering quickly, and doctors say she won't need a checkup
for six months.
But it has still been a bizarre and difficult ordeal for her.
"The fascinating part about this is that it's much more common than people
think," notes Sirven. And through good sanitation and cooking pork
thoroughly, he says, "it's very, very preventable."
The World Health Organization says neurocysticercosis is a common
cause of epilepsy in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Florida boy dies from amoeba in lake
CNN - An unidentified 12-year-old died Friday after being infected
with an amoeba while swimming in a Florida lake.
The boy had meningeal encephalitis -- a combination of meningitis
and encephalitis, which causes the brain to swell, according to Dr. Jaime
Carrizosa, an infectious disease specialist from Florida Hospital in
Orlando. Carrizosa had treated the boy. Dr. Steven Wiersma of the Florida
Department of Health in Tallahassee, says the condition is very rare and
has a high mortality rate.
The environmental conditions in Florida lakes -- especially in the hot
summer months -- are ideal for amoebas to thrive and proliferate,
Carrizosa said.
Amoebas enter the body through the nose. From there, they can travel
directly to the brain and into the spinal fluid. That causes brain
swelling and the increased pressure is often fatal.
Although patients are given antifungal drugs, "there is no effective
treatment," Carrizosa added. "Amoebas have all the possibilities of
producing some toxins so there has to be some of that occurring. It's so
difficult to study particularly in a critically ill patient." Although
cases are rare, Florida doctors are aware of the danger. "When we have
cases of meningitis and there is any history of having been swimming in a
lake, diving and going underwater, we immediately look for amoebas in the
spinal fluid," Carrizosa said.
The Volusia County Health Department warns against "swimming in lakes,
retention ponds or swimming holes, particularly during the hot summer
months." Carrizosa recommends wearing a nose clip and keeping your head
above water when swimming in these areas.
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RESEARCH BRIEF
Parasites are organisms that live in or on other organisms (the host).
In this arrangement, the parasite benefits by obtaining shelter and
nutrients from the host, while the host does not benefit and, in most
cases, can even be harmed.
There are many different types of organisms that are parasites on humans.
Parasites that live inside their hosts can affect various tissues and
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Worldwide, the estimated number of humans that host parasites alone is
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