An 18-year-old man in India died from a severe tapeworm infection that caused parasitic cysts to spread throughout his brain and other parts of the body. According to a report published in theThe New England Journal of Medicine, the man was taken to the emergency room after suffering tonic-clonic seizures, in which a person loses consciousness and experiences violent muscle contractions. Scans of his brain then revealed that both the outer layer, or cerebral cortex, and his brain stem were dotted with parasitic cysts. Doctors diagnosed the man with neurocysticercosis, a parasitic disease caused by a person ingesting microscopic eggs from a pork tapeworm. According to the World Health Organization, the larvae can travel throughout the body and form cysts. This tapeworm is commonly found in developing nations in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, and is one of the most common causes of seizures worldwide.
