New Kenyan research has shed more light on the dangers of eating pork.
The research conducted in Kiambu county by Kenyatta University indicates that most pork lovers are infected with pig tapeworm which causes epilepsy and dementia.
According to the study, the riskiest is the popular wet fry pork among Kenyan urban dwellers. The version is usually undercooked.
The study notes that infection with pork tapeworm is mostly asymptomatic for years.
However, when it affects the brain, people develop neurocysticercosis, the most severe complication of the disease.
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"It is associated with seizures, headaches, intracranial hypertension, focal neurological disorders, hydrocephalus, encephalitis, and occasionally with psychiatric manifestations and dementia," the researchers said.
The study sampled stool from 384 people selected randomly around Thika between May 2016 and June 2017.
The objective was to determine factors associated with the pork tapeworm and its prevalence in Thika. Notably, Thika town is among regions popular with pork meat.
"Majority of the cases were among participants who had lack latrine facilities and those who preferred fried pork," researchers say in the study, published by the African Journal of Rural Development.
The study notes that lack of deworming by the participants increased their chances of being infected.
Researchers also sought permission to test pigs in farms around Thika.
An inspection of the tongues of 273 pigs found that 1.81%t were infected while an antibody test confirmed that 1.83 percent of pigs in Thika were infected.
Nearly all of those pigs ate from garbage and home leftovers.
"Feeding pigs on home mixed feeds, leftover, swills from garbage and purchase of replacement pigs were found to increase the risk of pig cysticercosis (infection by the tapeworm)," the researchers said.
Typically, pork tapeworm is acquired by humans by ingesting the parasite's larval cysts in undercooked and infected pork.
