**2.5 Data extraction and collection**

Presence of *T. solium* in this study was defined as a documented case of disease related to the tapeworm, whether it was diagnosed and documented as human cysticercosis, neurocysticercosis, porcine cysticercosis, taeniasis or epilepsy. Initially, we reviewed all titles and abstracts, if accessible, and excluded studies outside West Africa, and studies with no specified diagnostic technique, studies written in languages other than English and French, and studies not having full paper, that is, abstracts only experimental studies were also excluded.
