Fake news in neglected tropical diseases: The case of neurocysticercosis

While pigs are part of the life cycle of the tapeworm Taenia solium, the causal agent of cysticercosis, human and porcine cysticercosis is only acquired by ingestion of microscopic tapeworm eggs through fecal–oral contamination, not by eating contaminated pork [1,2]. Humans are the only definitive host harboring the adult tapeworm stage (acquired by ingesting poorly cooked pork with cysts) and the sole source of cysticercosis infections in humans and pigs (Fig 1). According to the script, this was the most important clue that led to the diagnosis (in other words, that women acquired the disease by eating ham).