Taenia Saginata

Question 1

Life cycle

Answer 1

1) cysticerci ingested with raw or undercooked beef
2) cystercerci released from muscle in stomach, attached to intestinal wall by scolex containing four suckers
3) worms mature and live in the upper half of the lumen of the small intestine where they achieve lengths up to 10m
4) terminal proglottids, gravid with hundreds of embryonate eggs, detach from colony and pass in faeces.
5) cows ingests embryonated eggs, hatch , oncospheres migrate to tissues, develop to cysticerci
6) the adult takes about 3 months to grow to a full length

Question 2

Patbogensis

Answer 2

Local gut inflammatory responses are minimal

Question 3

Clinical diseases

Answer 3

• usually no symptoms
• some May experience epigastric fullness
• proglottids migrate out of infected person overnight

Question 4

Diagnosis

Answer 4

• definitive diagnosis by inspection of proglottids with more than 14 uterine branches
• use of PCR
• sticky tape test

Question 5

Who, where and what?

Answer 5

• beef tape worm
• endemic in sub-Saharan Africa, Northern Mexico, Argentina, and Europe
• no reservoir host

Question 6

Taeniasis

Answer 6

• caused by:–> adult worm residing in small intestine
• adult irritates small intestine causing–> discomfort, ab pain, anorexia, chronic indigestion, diarrhoea, emaciation, eosinophilia
• patient usually asyptomatic
• only complains of passing proglottids —> caused by both taenia sp