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Third
General Assembly of the Cysticercosis Working Group
in Eastern and Southern Africa Meets in Mozambique.
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Cysticercosis Working Group in Eastern and Southern
Africa
3rd General Assembly Meeting
11–13 November 2004
Faculty of Medicine, Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique
The
third general assembly meeting on cysticercosis, a parasitic disease emerging in
eastern and southern Africa, was held in Maputo, Mozambique, in November, 2004.
The organiser, the Cysticercosis Working Group in Eastern and Southern Africa (CWGESA),
was established to promote communication,
collaboration and coordination of integrated research and control activities
to combat cysticercosis, a neurological and sometimes fatal disease
transmitted between pigs and people by a zoonotic tapeworm (Taenia solium).
Both
pig keeping and pork consumption have increased significantly in this region
over the past decade, especially in rural smallholder communities supplying pork
to meet increasing urban demands. Poverty is a main reason for the concommittant
increase in the disease. Inadequate sanitation, meat inspection, disease control
and pig management have led to an increase in the incidence of cysticercosis.
Cysticercosis is becoming a serious public health risk not only in rural areas
where pigs are raised but also in urban areas where infected pigs are
transported and consumed. Besides damaging people’s health and productivity,
cysticercosis hurts smallholder farming communities economically, by
constraining their sales of pigs, and nutritionally, through the condemnation
of pig carcasses.
This third regional meeting of the CWGESA, in
Mozambique (previous meetings were held in Tanzania in 2002 and 2003), was
attended by more than 30 people from 13 countries: Burundi, Denmark, Kenya,
Madagascar, Mozambique, Portugal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and
Zimbabwe, as well as Angola and Rwanda, which were taking part for the first
time. CWGESA aims to improve human health and well-being through increased awareness
of cysticercosis and improved surveillance, prevention and control of this human
and pig disease. Meeting these objectives will in turn help the countries of
eastern and southern Africa improve their pig production, domestic food supply
and export opportunities for pork.
Meeting
participants updated the status of human and porcine cysticercosis in the 11
endemic eastern and southern African countries represented at the meeting,
including current or planned research and control
efforts; discussed
implementation of the Regional Action Plan for Combating Cysticercosis in
Eastern and Southern Africa formulated in Arusha in 2002; finalised the governance structure of CWGESA
(including a constitution); and made plans for increasing public awareness of
cysticercosis and securing long-term support for CWGESA, including a CWGESA
Internet website.
International
cysticercosis activities impinging on eastern and southern Africa were
discussed. These include a new global initiative of the World Health
Organization (WHO) to assess the burden and impact of cysticercosis and a
conference on “Establishing a Global Campaign for Combating Cysticercosis”
held at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Conference Centre in Bellagio,
Italy, this past September. Importantly, participants at this third general
assembly meeting represented the veterinary, agriculture and health sectors,
making this meeting a first step towards the formation of multidisciplinary
teams needed to combat this growing disease threat.
The
Maputo meeting was organised by CWGESA with support from the Danish Bilharziasis
Laboratory, the World Health Organization (WHO)/Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) Collaborating Centre for Parasitic Zoonoses in Denmark, the
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), headquartered in Nairobi, and
offices of the Medical Research Council (MRC) and United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) in South Africa.
Background Information
Taenia solium is a parasite transmitted between humans and pigs.
People become infected with the adult tapeworm form of the parasite (taeniosis)
by eating infested raw or undercooked pork. Eggs of the tapeworm pass out with
the infected person’s stool and can be ingested by free-roaming pigs if people
defecate outdoors. Pigs develop the immature larval form of the parasite (cysticercosis)
with hundreds to thousands of small cysts forming in their muscles, heart and
brain, rendering the pork unfit for consumption. People can also become infected
with the cystic larval form of the parasite by ingesting T.
solium eggs either from direct contact with a human tapeworm carrier or from
contaminated food or water (thus one does
not need to raise pigs or consume pork to become infected with cysticercosis).
In humans the cysts often develop in the brain causing a condition called
neurocysticercosis, which can cause severe headaches, epileptic seizures and
sometimes death. Neurocysticercosis is considered to be a common preventable
cause of epilepsy, rendering people
incapacitated and unproductive.
For further
information, please contact:
Dr
Mathias Boa
Chairperson, Cysticercosis Working Group in Eastern & Southern Africa
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Morogoro, Tanzania
E-mail: mathiasboa@yahoo.com
Dr
Samson Mukaratirwa
Vice-Chairperson, Cysticercosis Working Group in Eastern & Southern Africa
University of Zimbabwe
Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe
E-mail: smukarati@vet.uz.ac.zw
Prof RC
“Tammi” Krecek
Chairperson, CWGESA Task Force for Advocacy and Resource Mobilisation
Krecek and Krecek CC and University of Pretoria
Pretoria, South Africa
E-mail: krecek@icon.co.za
and
see:
Acta Tropica 2003, 87: 1-191
Jl S. Afr. Vet. Ass.
2003, 74: 3