Kenyan pig farmers try to curb epilepsy parasite

The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene has released results of an education program aimed at teaching pig farmers to tether their animals, inspect pork, and treat sick pigs. This may help stop pigs from spreading a tapeworm that infects humans and causes epilepsy in poor countries, such as Africa, Asia, and Latin America, according to an article in the New York Times.
People come in contact with the parasite, Taenia solium from undercooked pork or from food contaminated by feces from a person infected with the disease. The parasite’s eggs are passed in feces and infect pigs that come in contact with human waste. If the eggs are ingested by a person, a larval form of the worm can infect the brain and cause seizures, says the New York Times.