Neurocysticercosis (cysts in the brain, spinal cord): Seizures and headaches are the most common symptoms. However, confusion, lack of attention to people and surroundings, difficulty with balance, excess fluid around the brain (called hydrocephalus) may also occur. The disease can result in death.
Can tapeworms Eat your brain?
Cysticercosis is a parasitic tissue infection caused by larval cysts of the tapeworm Taenia solium. These larval cysts infect brain, muscle, or other tissue, and are a major cause of adult onset seizures in most low-income countries.
How do you get rid of a tapeworm in your head?
Medicine is now advanced enough that surgery is often not necessary. However, the drugs are highly toxic. If a tapeworm reaches the brain, surgery and medicine may be used together to remove the parasite.
How long can you live with a tapeworm in your brain?
The Spirometra tapeworm can live in humans for up to 20 years. A man in China experienced seizures and other mysterious symptoms for years before doctors finally found the cause: He had a rare parasite living in his brain, which had likely been there for more than a decade, according to news reports.
How do people get tapeworms in their head?
People get infected with the parasite from ingesting the eggs of pork tapeworms (Taenia solium) in undercooked or infected pork. Those eggs can then hatch in the body, become larvae and travel around the body, including to the brain where they form cysts.
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