Abstract
Human cysticercosis, a zoonotic disease due to Taeniasolium, is of the highly debilitating and stigmatizing neglected tropical diseases due to epilepsy, ophthalmia and dermatological disorders in endemic developing countries. Tanzania is among the sub-Saharan African countries with an average prevalence of porcine cysticercosis 17.2% [1], which increases the risk of human cysticercosis infection. Studies on people with epilepsy in northern zone of Tanzania show a 16.2% [2] to be suffering from neurocysticercosis. While this was the case, there were no single report on the prevalence of human cysticercosis neither to regular hospital visitors, admissions, and nor general public that result to insufficient deployment of intervention strategies. Study was performed to assess the prevalence of human cysticercosis in general public in Mbulu district. The cephalic venous blood was collected from assorted community members. Serum was extracted and then subjected to Cysticercus IgG Western Blot Assay for human cysticercosis sero-screening. It was found that about 16.3% of the community members had antibodies signifying infection by human cysticercosis. This is the first ever study to assess the prevalence of human cysticercosis in the country and it has revealed the problem to be very high. This study can be valuable for deployment of appropriate intervention measures on human cysticercosis in the study area and extend to the entire country.
Highlights
Tanzania is among the sub-Saharan African countries with an average prevalence of porcine cysticercosis 17.2% [1], which increases the risk of human cysticercosis infection
While this was the case, there were no single report on the prevalence of human cysticercosis neither to regular hospital visitors, admissions, and nor general public that result to insufficient deployment of intervention strategies
Human cysticercosis is a zoonotic disease which is caused by the larval stage of pork tapeworm (Taeniasolium cysticercosis) and poses serious public health consequences in developing countries [3]
Summary
Human cysticercosis is a zoonotic disease which is caused by the larval stage of pork tapeworm (Taeniasolium cysticercosis) and poses serious public health consequences in developing countries [3]. Neurocysticercosis due to Taeniasolium cysticercosis is reported to be a disease of poverty and under development as to why being one of the main causes of epilepsy in developing countries [14]. The few studies that report cysticercosis infections in human are based on neuro cysticercosis to people with epilepsy [2,25]. Hospital based studies in people with epilepsy in northern Tanzania report an average neurocysticercosis prevalence of 16.2% [2,25]. This study reports a serological survey of human cysticercosis based on antibodies determination in the general community from Mbulu district, in the northern part of Tanzania
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