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| Raw veggies pose health hazard The Economic Times 06/12/03 Distributed by Financial Times Information Limited - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire Swear by salads? Then read this: Jayashree Kumar (name changed), a bubbly 13-year-old, was doing her homework when suddenly her mind went blank, her eyeballs rolled and her face twitched uncontrollably. Her parents rushed her to hospital where they were told she had neurocysticercosis. The cause - consumption of uncooked or undercooked pork, or unclean raw vegetables in the form of salads. Dr. H. V. Satish Babu, consultant neurosurgeon, Elbit Diagnostics, Basavanagudi, has patients with the disorder almost every other day, and in all age groups, from the early teens to the elderly. It affects patients of both sexes equally. Symptoms vary from simple chronic headache to multiple neurological problems like unconsciousness, epilepsy or weakness of the limbs.
The root cause of all this is unplanned public health sanitation and unchecked meat dispensation. Epilepsy is a serious disorder of the central nervous system, which results in sudden, violent and involuntary movements in the body along with a host of neurological disorders. These range from an innocuous fever to a brain tumor. Also, accidents, brain hemorrhages and infections. According to Dr. Satish Babu, Brain infection in the form of cysticercosis is one of the commonest causes of epilepsy, which in turn, occurs because of uncooked pork meat and unclean salads. Vegetables are sometimes grown in low-lying areas where the water source is contaminated by the excreta of animals. The larval stage of the tape worm taenia solium in pigs causes this. Human beings serve as the final host of this parasite. The larval stage enters the human body, and the intestines, into the blood stream and gets lodged in the brain, muscle or eyes. Vegetables to watch out for are carrots, radish and coriander leaves. The World Health Organization estimates that throughout the world at least 50 million people are infected by this parasite annually and results in nearly 50,000 deaths annually worldwide. However, what is heartening is that the disease is not contagious. It is totally curable and rarely if not treated well can lead to a persistent epilepsy disorder. |
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