• DOI:10.1056/NEJMicm1606747
• Corpus ID: 205087671

Taenia solium.

@article{Philips2017TaeniaS,
  title={Taenia solium.},
  author={Cyriac A Philips and Amrish Sahney},
  journal={The New England journal of medicine},
  year={2017},
  volume={376 4},
  pages={
          e4
        }
}

• Cyriac A Philips, Amrish Sahney
• Published 2017
• Biology
• The New England journal of medicine

Taenia solium (pork tapeworm) is 3-4m long and is thus smaller than Taenia saginata. The scolex has a rostellum armed with two rows of hooks in addition to the four suckers. Inside the gravid segments, the number of lateral uterus branches is usually 7-13 (see fig.). The proglottids at the posterior end of the chain are longer than wide and each contains a treelike branched uterus containing 80.000-100.000 eggs. The eggs are released when a proglottid detaches from the tapeworm in the intestinal lumen or when a segment disintegrates outside the host. The eggs are highly resistant and can remain infective in a moist environment for weeks or months. Carried by feces of humans infected with Taenia solium, they contaminate pastures or feet either directly or via sewage. When pigs ingest the eggs, the oncospheres hatch in the small intestine, migrate into the intestinal wall and are transported with the bloodstream into the striated musculature, in which they develop into the infective metacestodes or cysticerci within two to three months. Humans are infected by ingesting raw or undercooked pig containing cysticerci. In the small intestine the cysticercus evaginates the scolex, attaches to the mucosa of the upper small intestine, and develops into the adult tapeworm, which can live for years or even decades.