Epidemiological studies of taeniosis and cysticercosis in Latin America

Abstract

Research on cysticercosis has gained much interest in many countries, epidemiology, especially, has been thoroughly studied in Latin American. The review of the information gathered from these studies allows suggesting that the knowledge of the epidemiology of cysticercosis may be subdivided in three stages. In the first half of last century information was obtained mainly from autopsy cases, When serological assays were developed for search of specific antibodies to the cysticercus in the blood, epidemiological studies were performed in the field. These type of studies are still taking place. The author offers a new approach to the epidemiological study of cysticercosis, based on the most recent reports that provide initial data on associations with cancer, to explain if the parasite is the cause or the effect of such disease. It is also remarkable the difficult), in finding Taenia solium carriers, thus studies on the host-parasite relationship on taeniosis are needed to further understand the epidemiology of cysticercosis.