cysticercosis

Last edited 01/2022 and last reviewed 02/2022

This the condition when there is infection with Taenia solium and human tissue is invaded by the larval form.

• natural life cycle of T solium is for a human host infected with the adult intestinal worm to shed eggs (ova), which can survive for several months before ingestion, or egg-filled motile worm segments (gravid proglottids) into the environment
  • are subsequently ingested by pigs through contamination of their diet
    
    
• ova hatch within the porcine gastrointestinal tract to become oncospheres, invade the mucosa to gain access to the bloodstream, migrate to various tissues and encyst to become cysticerci
  
  
• when a human ingests encysted pork, the cysticerci attach to the intestinal mucosa and mature into adult tapeworms, completing the life cycle
  
  
• human neurocysticercosis is an aberration of this life cycle and occurs when a human (rather than a pig) ingests the ova of T solium
  
  
• cysticerci (cysts) form within various human tissues (cysticercosis), much the same as within the porcine host