Human Taenia solium cysticercosis is a severely debilitating, yet treatable disease. In the pig, this infection accounts for multimillion dollars of economic loss per year. Preliminary epidemiological surveys with the newly developed immmunoblot assay (EITB) in many Latin American countries, China, and India indicated that this is a significant public health problem with prevalence rates ranging from 8% to 15% in humans and up to 45% in pigs. A recent Centers for Disease Control Survey showed endogenous transmission in families with immigrant domestic workers, resulting in a sero- prevalence of 13% in a single community in Brooklyn alone. Cysticercosis has therefore, acquired a domestic mode. Control of this important public health problem is dependent on the identification and treatment of patient and pigs. We propose to extend and enhance the power, usefulness, and practicality of our unique assay/field operation system toward the detection and control of this important disease. We also propose to test the efficacy of a novel pig/human approach to surveillance and control of cysticercosis. We will: 1. To develop a low cost, robust, and field applicable version of the EITB assay for the detection of human and pig cysticercosis 2, determine the longevity of infection-specific antibodies in treated patients by quantitative isotype assays 3, To test the hypothesis that a single treatment of EITB positive pigs, together with elimination of tape worms in sero-positive human patients, and eduction is a viable and effective approach to the control of human and pig cysticercosis 4, to determine if the serology of cysticercosis-free pigs is a useful and effective sentinel for measuring disease prevalence and control effectiveness of human cysticercosis.
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