Cysticercosis

For a lay person:

Cysticercosis is an infection with the larval cysts of the pork tapeworm, caught by swallowing tapeworm eggs from contaminated food, water or hands. The cysts can lodge in muscles, eyes and the brain, where they are a common cause of epilepsy in parts of the world.

For a trained medical person:

Caused by Taenia solium larvae after faecal-oral ingestion of eggs, often from a household tapeworm carrier; neurocysticercosis may present with seizures, raised intracranial pressure or hydrocephalus. Diagnosis is by CT or MRI with serology, plus fundoscopy before treatment. Management includes antiseizure medicine, corticosteroids, and albendazole with or without praziquantel for viable cysts, with surgery or shunting for hydrocephalus; household contacts are screened for tapeworm.

In Chinese medicine:

Liu and Tseng's textbook differentiates this condition into these patterns: Between Epileptic Attack. Treatment follows the pattern a patient presents with, not the Western diagnosis alone.

When to get help: Get urgent medical care for a first seizure, severe headache, vision changes or confusion; this needs specialist treatment and Chinese medicine is adjunctive at most. Do not stop prescribed antiseizure medicine.