PT Health Life – Due to the habit of eating raw or undercooked food, people are at risk of getting brain flukes. This is the most dangerous parasitic disease and is often mistaken for a neurological disease, so it is mostly detected late, when the tapeworm larvae have caused brain damage.
1. Brain flukes are caused by eating blood pudding, fish salad, and undercooked pork
The cause of brainworm disease is due to eating tapeworm larvae from pigs or cattle.
The disease-causing process of tapeworms is through dirty foods, especially due to the habit of eating blood pudding, fish salad, undercooked meat or raw vegetables that have not been cleaned thoroughly. Tapeworm larvae in food enter the diet through the intestinal mucosa, enter the circulatory system and reach organs in the body, usually residing under the skin, muscles or brain and eye tissue.
It is also possible for tapeworm larvae to travel through the bloodstream to the brain, lungs, liver,… and cause disease. If the larvae take up residence in the brain, they will cause disease.
The disease is often found in areas with low living standards and poor hygiene, especially in areas where free-range pig farming is practiced.
Symptoms of brain flukes
Clinical symptoms of brain fluke usually do not show any special symptoms if the fluke is only localized under the skin or in the muscle. Sometimes discovered accidentally thanks to calcifications in the soft tissue on X-rays of the chest or limbs. That’s when the flukes die, leaving behind sequelae.
The severity of the damage depends on the number of cysts present in the brain. Common symptoms are: patients have headaches, nausea or vomiting, seizures (epilepsy), hemiplegia or numbness, sensory disorders, difficulty sleeping or insomnia, blurred vision, increased cranial pressure , nervous breakdown, mental disorders, the patient may die suddenly.
Most patients infected with brain flukes show signs of prolonged headaches or seizures. Treatment at the primary level for many months or even years does not help with the diagnosis of headaches and epilepsy. When taking a CT scan, the image of brain cysts is easily detected by large cysts ranging from 0.5-1cm.
2. Disease stages of brain fluke
- Stage 1 noncystic: At this stage, the parasite’s embryo cannot be seen on CT- or MRI. However, areas of mild edema may be seen. Within months, they will progress to lesions as the embryos develop into the cysts that characterize the disease.
- Stage 2 fluid cysts: Cysts have opaque walls, contain clear fluid and parasites inside. If these cysts are intact, the patient will not show symptoms
- Stage 3 colloid cyst: The wall of the cyst thickens, the fluid inside becomes more opaque, and the patient will have a severe inflammatory reaction. This shows that the condition is starting to worsen. At this stage, edematous lesions can be seen on X-ray. Patients often have seizures.
- Stage 4 granular cyst: At this stage, edema has subsided, but convulsions and epilepsy can still occur. Seizures often occur during the colloid and granular cyst stages due to areas of inflammation surrounding the dying parasite.
- Stage 5 calcification: Occurs after the parasite dies. Seizures can still occur due to inflammation caused by the immune system’s response to the parasite’s remains.
3. Brain fluke treatment
Regarding treatment, patients with brain flukes are given special medications, which are only effective for active tapeworms and should be administered at specialized levels.
In fact, treatment of tapeworm infection depends on the advanced stage of the larvae and its complications.
If the parasite is dead, the approach is as follows:
- Treatment is mainly symptomatic.
- Anticonvulsants are used to treat epilepsy.
- The duration of treatment remains unknown.
If the parasite is alive or active, other treatments are as follows:
- Patients with vasculitis, arachnoiditis or encephalitis: A course of steroid or immunosuppressant treatment is recommended before using antihelminthic drugs.
- Parasitic treatment with albendazole is also useful in polycystic cysticercosis (eg, multiple cysts in the cerebral cisterna that resemble a bunch of grapes – “racemose” form).
- Patients with parenchymal, subarachnoid, or spinal cystic lesions and no complications (eg, chronic epilepsy, headache, stroke-related neurologic deficits, hydrocephalus): may Specific treatment for tapeworm, with concurrent use of steroids.
- Multiple trials of tapeworm-specific treatment may be required for giant subarachnoid cysts.
- Patients with epilepsy due to living hydatid cysts in the brain parenchyma: antiparasitic treatment.
If the sequelae are accompanied by epilepsy complications, they must be treated as for normal epilepsy. If the tapeworm causes damage to the eye, it must be treated according to the symptoms of reducing edema and pressure, sometimes requiring surgical intervention.
Brain worm disease can cause serious complications such as stroke and death if not detected and treated promptly.
Physician advice
Brainworm is a very dangerous disease but can be prevented by:
- Eat cooked and boiled drinks, do not eat pork blood pudding, pork intestines, salad, rare pork… Do not eat rice pork, do not eat raw or undercooked vegetables grown under water such as coriander, water spinach, celery … but must be thoroughly cooked before eating;
- Wash hands before eating and after going to the toilet;
- Keep the environment clean;
- Build hygienic toilets, not open defecation;
- Do not raise free-range pigs…;
- Use tapeworm remover when infected with tapeworms;
- When you have signs of frequent headaches or dizziness, you should go to a medical facility for timely examination and treatment.
