In West Africa, Taenia solium cysticercosis in both pigs and man has been reported
in Benin, Burkina-Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Togo, and although official
data are lacking, T. solium is anticipated to be present in most of the pig-raising
regions of other West African countries as well. In some regions of Nigeria, the prevalence
of porcine cysticercosis and human taeniosis is quite high (20.5 and 8.6%, respectively).
Surprisingly, however, no cases of human cysticercosis have been reported, although
epilepsy is very common. Large epidemiological surveys have only been carried out
in Togo and Benin, where the prevalence of human cysticercosis was 2.4 and 1.3%, respectively.
In Central Africa, porcine and human cysticercosis are (hyper)-endemic in Rwanda,
Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon. The parasite also has been
reported in pigs in Chad and Angola. Cysticercosis has been shown to be one of the
major causes of epilepsy in Cameroon with figures as high as 44.6%. Cameroon is one
of the few countries where the taeniosis-cysticercosis complex has been examined more
in detail. In the Western province of Cameroon large scale surveys have shown that
active cysticercosis is present in 0.4-3% of the local population and in 11% of the
village pigs. However, the prevalence of adult T. solium was only 0.1%, which underscores
the frequency of the T. solium paradox. Based on the available information, a very
conservative economic estimate indicates that the annual losses due to porcine cysticercosis
in 10 West and Central African countries amount to about 25 million Euro. The financial
losses due to human cysticercosis are very difficult to estimate, but are certainly
exceeded by the social impact of the disease, especially because of the particular
perception of epilepsy in many African communities. It is concluded that the true
prevalence of T. solium cysticercosis in pigs and humans in Central and West Africa
remains underestimated because of unreliable slaughterhouse data and the lack of awareness
and diagnostic facilities in the public health sector.