Cisticercosis: Guía para Profesionales de la SaludEditor's Note …

摘要

Cisticercosis: Guı´a para Profesionales de la Salud, 2007. Edited bynCarlos Larralde and Aline S. de Aluja. Published by FCE, Secretariande Salud, Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica, Fundacion Mexicana paranla Salud, 252 p. ISBN 968-16-8138-X.nI first became aware of the tapeworm and its incredible life stylenduring my entry into puberty. Coincidence? Perhaps yes, but certainlynunder the influence of my new and confused hormone balance. At thentime, I was reading Miriam Rothschilds marvelous book Fleas, Flukesnand Cuckoos, which provoked my imagination and stimulated a lastingninterest in parasitic worms, later to be rekindled in 1976–1977 when Inspent a year in Mexico and met Carlos Larralde, a pioneer in the studynof the tapeworm in Mexico. Now, he and his distinguished co-editor,nDr. Aline Aluja, have assembled an impressive team of contributors tonthis new book focusing on the human tapeworm Taenia solium in generalnand in Mexico in particular.nA major reason for my original fascination remains with me still.We,nas human beings, go through an elaborate period of psychological stress,nsometimes called ‘‘love,’’ to find a partner, then, during a lifetime, producenan average of 2 new human beings. In contrast, consider the reproductivenstrategy and almost unimaginable and profligate fecunditynof the tapeworm. This amazing, and usually solitary, inhabitant of thenhuman intestine is a hermaphrodite, and thus has no need to seek anpartner. Such a worm may produce 100,000 fertilized, viable eggs a daynfor up to 20 years in order to perpetuate itself, in spite of its wildlynimprobable life style.