Islam and Neurocysticercosis

authors:

avatar Sayed Alireza Mirsane 1 , * , avatar Sayed Mojtaba Mirsane 2 , avatar Nasrin Oraei 2

Surgical Technologist, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, IR Iran
Lecturer of Education Office, Isfahan, IR Iran

how to cite: Mirsane S A, Mirsane S M, Oraei N. Islam and Neurocysticercosis. Arch Neurosci. 2016;3(4):e38060. https://doi.org/10.5812/archneurosci.38060.

Dear Editor,

We studied an interesting article in Volume 3, Number 1 (Jan 2016) in the journal of “Archives of Neuroscience” and the article’s authors were Beuy Joob, and Viroj Wiwanitkit (1). We admire the authors of this article for their excellent article. In this article, it had been explained that the main cause of cerebral neurocysticercosis (NC) is taenia solium and the transmission pathway of this parasite is via pork consumption (2, 3). Also currently, researchers suggested that unfortunately NC is the most common parasitic disease of the brain worldwide. Moreover, it is still a cause of unacceptable diseases and mortality in endemic regions and can be considered as an important public health problem in high-income countries such as non-Muslim developing countries (4, 5). According to the Holy Quran, it is not permissible for a Muslim to consume pork‎ (6); so, all Muslims are agreed that eating pork is forbidden. On the other hand, NC is almost non-existent in Islamic countries (3). In conclusion, the adherents of Quran and Islamic preachers are advised to try to eradicate the NC. Of course, NC is one of the main reasons for not eating pork meat.

References

  • 1.

    Joob B, Wiwanitkit V. Cerebral neurocysticercosis due to Taenia martis, the third species that needs attention. Arch Neurosci. 2016;3(1). ee31856. https://doi.org/10.5812/archneurosci.31856.

  • 2.

    Bouteille B. [Epidemiology of cysticercosis and neurocysticercosis]. Med Sante Trop. 2014;24(4):367-74. [PubMed ID: 25296005]. https://doi.org/10.1684/mst.2014.0378.

  • 3.

    Garcia HH, Del Brutto OH. Taenia solium cysticercosis. Infect Dis Clin North Am. 2000;14(1):97-119. [PubMed ID: 10738675].

  • 4.

    Carpio A. Neurocysticercosis. J Neurol Sci. 2015;357:465.

  • 5.

    Abdulla JK, Al-Tawari AA, Cindro-Heberle L, Gopinath MS, Neubauer D. Neurocysticercosis in non-endemic Muslim areas: a report of seven cases from Kuwait. J Pediatr Neurol. 2006;4(4):257-60.

  • 6.

    Holy Qur'an; AL-BAQARA (2); Verse No. 173.