Cysticercosis and epilepsy in rural Tanzania: a community-based case–control and imaging study
Document Type
Article
Department
Imaging and Diagnostic Radiology (East Africa)
Abstract
Objective
To assess the contribution of neurocysticercosis (NCC) to the burden of epilepsy in a rural Tanzanian population.
Methods
We identified adult people with epilepsy (PWE) in a door-to-door study in an established demographic surveillance site. PWE and community controls were tested for antibodies to Taenia solium, the causative agent of NCC, and all PWE were offered a computed tomography (CT) head scan. Data on household occupancy and sanitation, pig-keeping and pork consumption were collected from PWE and controls and associations with epilepsy were assessed using chi-square or Fisher's exact tests.
Results
Six of 218 PWE had antibodies to T. solium (2.8%; 95% CI 0.6–4.9), compared to none of 174 controls (Fisher's exact test, P = 0.04). Lesions compatible with NCC were seen in eight of 200 CT scans (4.0%; 95% CI 1.3–6.7). A total of 176 PWE had both investigations of whom two had positive serology along with NCC-compatible lesions on CT (1.1%; 95% 0.3–4.0). No associations between epilepsy and any risk factors for NCC were identified.
Conclusions
Neurocysticercosis is present in this population but at a lower prevalence than elsewhere in Tanzania and sub-Saharan Africa. Insights from low-prevalence areas may inform public health interventions designed to reduce the burden of preventable epilepsy.
Publication ( Name of Journal)
Tropical Medicine and International Health
Recommended Citation
Hunter, E., Burton, K., Iqbal, A., Birchall, D., Jackson, M., Rogathe, J., ... & Walker, R. (2015). Cysticercosis and epilepsy in rural Tanzania: a community‐based case–control and imaging study. Tropical medicine & international health, 20(9), 1171-1179.
Comments
This work was published before the author joined Aga Khan University.