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The pork tapeworm –taenia solium– is an extra-ordinary zoonotic parasite which has considerable impact on human and animal health as well as on the agricultural and health sectors in many low income countries.T. soliuminfection begins with the consumption of raw or undercooked infected pork.

In humans, the adult stage of the tapeworm is found in the intestines (taeniasis) and the larval stage can develop as cysts mainly in the subcutaneous tissue, skeletal and heart muscles (cysticercosis), and most scaring, in the brain – a condition called neurocysticercosis.

Tapeworm cysts in the brain very often remain without symptoms for several years. The exact host-parasite interactions that finally, but not necessarily, lead to severe neurologic signs like epileptic seizures are still intensively discussed in the scientific community. But what we all agree on is that the immune system of the host plays a major role in the progress and presentation of neurocysticercosis.
These observations and articles gave rise to many questions in our research group. Does chronic suppression of the human immune system – like the human immune deficiency virus (HIV) – lead to a higher infection rate of the pork tapeworm in individuals?

Also, are symptoms of individuals infected with both diseases the same or different with individuals infected only with neurocysticercosis – requiring maybe different treatment? Or can this immune suppression even “protect” individuals with tapeworm cysts in the brain? There is strong evidence that symptoms are related to the attack of the parasite by human immune cells causing massive local inflammation.

此外,我们发现,目前为止,只有中国ical research was published in regards to neurocysticercosis and HIV; a precise case-control approach was totally lacking. Around 2011, we decided to further investigate these pending questions in an African country well known to be prevalent for both diseases – Tanzania.

一年后，我在坦桑尼亚北部的一家偏远宣教医院度过了几个月，与一个大型医疗团队一起调查了一群170个受HIV感染的人，以进行神经囊肿的存在。我们使用了问卷调查，神经学检查，几项血清学检查，并且由于频繁削减功率而最具挑战性 - 计算机断层扫描。

同时，几乎每天，一个医疗团队都开车去偏远的村庄，我们的艾滋病毒患者来寻找艾滋病毒阴性对照。通过使用相同的诊断测试检查这些控件，我们希望回答一些待处理的合并症问题。

Finally, in our study,published in贫困的传染病，我们能够证明T. soliuminfections in the Northern parts of Tanzania and describe in detail the clinical presentation of identified neurocysticercosis cases. However, there was no evidence thatT. soliuminfection is more frequent or presented differently in individuals with and without HIV.

必须认为，由于财务限制，我们的研究有几个局限性，并且这种合并症的差距仍然很大。因此，应使用较大的样本量，最近诊断的艾滋病病例等进行未来的研究活动，以充分回答艾滋病毒/艾滋病背景下神经囊肿的问题。