The Serological Survey for Human Cysticercosis Prevalence in Mbulu District, Tanzania

Human cysticercosis, a zoonotic disease due to Taeniasolium, is of the highly debilitating and stigmatizing neglected tropical diseases due to epilepsy, ophthalmia and dermatological disorders in endemic developing countries. Tanzania is among the sub-Saharan African countries with an average prevalence of porcine cysticercosis 17.2% [1], which increases the risk of human cysticercosis infection. Studies on people with epilepsy in northern zone of Tanzania show a 16.2% [2] to be suffering from neurocysticercosis. While this was the case, there were no single report on the prevalence of human cysticercosis neither to regular hospital visitors, admissions, and nor general public that result to insufficient deployment of intervention strategies. Study was performed to assess the prevalence of human cysticercosis in general public in Mbulu district. The cephalic venous blood was collected from assorted community members. Serum was extracted and then subjected to Cysticercus IgG Western Blot Assay for human cysticercosis sero-screening. It was found that about 16.3% of the community members had antibodies signifying infection by human cysticercosis. This is the first ever study to assess the prevalence of human cysticercosis in the country and it has revealed the problem to be very high. This study can be valuable for deployment of appropriate intervention measures on human cysticercosis in the study area and extend to the entire country.