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**12** 

*Kenya* 

**Educating People Participating in the** 

In the developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America, neurocysticercosis is the major cause of adult-onset epilepsy (Garcia et al., 2004; Roman et al., 2000; Garcia et al., 2005; Sarti et al., 1994; Sciutto et al., 2000; Mahajan RC, 1982). In 1992, this form of epilepsy, and the *Taenia solium* tapeworm was declared a potentially eradicable disease by the International Task Force for Disease Eradication (Aarata et al., 1992; Shantz et al., 1993). However, there are several barriers to eradication such as lack of knowledge, lack of resources, poor hygiene and the fundamental implications of the management of pigs as a source of banking and income generation for the poorest of the poor. This chapter will discuss promising results of an educational program, the fact that the education should include the various actors in the swine industry, and illustrate the need for a broader

geographic focus to promote the eradication of epilepsy due to neurocysticercosis.

person. This form of the disease is called neurocysticercosis (Serpa et al., 2007).

*T. solium,* called the pork tapeworm, has people as its definitive host. The adult tapeworm grows in the intestine of the infected person, shedding proglotids which are mature segments of the worm. These proglotids, that contain approximately 50,000 eggs, are shed each day in the stool of the infected person. Pigs, as the intermediate host, are infected by *Cysticercus cellulosae*. When a pig ingests the eggs that have been shed in the stool of the human, the egg crosses the intestinal wall. Next, the egg enters the blood stream and migrates to the muscle tissue. There the egg develops into a larval cyst. The tapeworm is transmitted to another person when this second person eats infected, undercooked pork. However, people can also act as an intermediate host. If a person ingests a tapeworm egg, it crosses from the intestine to the blood stream and preferentially migrates to nervous tissue. There it develops into a larval cyst. Epilepsy is caused by the space occupying lesions of the cysts in the brain of the infected

Epilepsy is a devastating clinical problem in rural areas where there is little education, high rates of poverty, and poor access to health care. People suffering from epilepsy are often misunderstood, ostracised, and limited in their participation in society. The family members

**2. Life cycle of the** *Taenia solium* **parasite** 

**1. Introduction** 

**Pig Industry to Reduce Epilepsy** 

**due to Taenia Solium** 

*1University of Guelph, Canada;* 

*2University of Nairobi,* 

Cate E. Dewey1, Florence K. Mutua2, Mike Levy1 and Jared M. Wohlgemut1

Yu, F.H., Mantegazza, M., Westenbroek, R.E., Robbins, C.A., Kalume, F., Burton, K.A., Spain, W.J., McKnight, G.S., Scheuer, T., & Catterall, W.A. (2006). Reduced sodium current in GABAergic interneurons in a mouse model of severe myoclonic epilepsy in infancy. *Nature Neuroscience* Vol. 9, No. 9, pp. 1142-1149, ISSN 1097-6256
