Q My wife and mother do not eat pork because they are afraid of worms. They saw a news report about a woman in Phoenix who was thought to have a brain tumor, but it turned out to be a brain worm from undercooked pork. The report said that these worms are a growing problem. But in a recent column you said that trichinosis isn't a problem in pork anymore. What's the deal?
A The woman in the news report did not have trichinosis. What was removed from the woman's brain was a pork tapeworm (taenia solium). This is a different parasite and infection.
Both parasites have been eradicated from U.S. pork supplies, according to the Minnesota Department of Health and the pork industry. However, you can still contract them in foreign travels and, under certain circumstances, contract pork tapeworm even if you stay in the United States and never eat pork.
Pork tapeworm can be acquired by eating the undercooked meat of an infected pig. The person can have few or no symptoms of the parasite. The worm lives in the intestinal track, sometimes for years, not doing much damage.
You can also can get a pork tapeworm infection even if you never eat pork. People infected with tapeworm pass tapeworm eggs in their bowel movements. If you eat food handled by an infected person who didn't wash his hands, you can ingest these eggs and become infected with tapeworm larvae.
In this case, the egg hatches, penetrates the intestine and travels through the bloodstream to the muscles, eyes or, as in the case of the Phoenix woman, the brain, which can be a serious, if not lethal, infection. This type of tapeworm infection is called cycsticercosis; or, in the brain or spinal cord, neurocycsticercosis. Treatment typically involves medication to kill the parasite or surgery to remove it.
Local pork is safe Because of animal feeding and inspection practices, pork tapeworm is not an issue in U.S. pork. But it is in underdeveloped areas of Mexico, Latin and South America, Africa and Asia -- places where pigs run free and sanitation is poor. With more people crossing the border to and from areas where pork tapeworm is endemic, it's possible, and it has happened, that a person contracts tapeworm and then spreads infection in this country.
Pork tapeworm infection is a small but growing problem in some areas of the United States, such as California, but it remains rare. There have been no reported cases in Minnesota, according to the State Health Department.
