Authors

Discussion

The cestode parasite Taenia solium is the causative agent of taeniasis, cysticercosis and neurocysticerosis in humans, which cause a significant public health burden in low and middle -income countries. Under the World Health Organization 2012 roadmap on Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), T. solium taeniasis/cysticercosis has been prioritised as one of 17 key NTDs, targeted with the aim of achieving control and elimination in selected countries by 2020. 

We have developed a deterministic, compartmental transmission model (EPICYST) to capture the dynamics of the taeniasis/cysticercosis disease system in both the human and pig hosts alongside parasite transmission stages in the environment. EPICYST was used to compare the effectiveness of a range of human-, porcine-, and environment-targeted interventions. Model outputs indicate that annual chemotherapeutic intervention targeted at humans or pigs would be highly effective at reducing taeniasis and cysticercosis prevalence. Improved sanitation, meat inspection, and animal husbandry are less effective but are still able to reduce prevalence singly or in combination. We will also discuss ongoing refinements of EPICYST, including model fitting to longitudinal epidemiological data in distinct epidemiological settings.