WHY WE SHOULD TREAT CYSTICERCOSIS

BACKGROUND: In Guadeloupe, cases of neurocysticercosis have been rarel y observed in people recently immigrated from Haiti. We followed 2 wom en with seizures, associated with meningitis or encephalitis. CASE REP ORT: Computed tomography scan and muscle Xray have displayed specific features of cysticercosis with small diffuse calcifications. This was associated with positive antibodies for cysticercosis. After respectiv ely 5 and 17 years, these patients developed recurrent manifestations of neurocysticercosis with subacute, guile silent meningitis after pre gnancy, with CSF increased cells count (180 lymphocytes/mm(3)), raised protein level (0.6g/l) and positive antibodies for cysticercosis in t he first case, and corticai granuloma with fever and repetitive seizur es in the second. DISCUSSION: These observations suggest that the pati ents were chronically infested, for more than 5 years. Although the br ain lesions were quiescent for many years, new lesions responsible for inflammatory cysts occurred while they still lived outside her native endemic area. In such cases, treatment would benefit to the patient b y breaking down the auto-infestation cycle.