Parasitic diseases in the central nervous system]

Along with the drastic decrease of soil-transmitted intestinal helminthiases, parasitic diseases in general are ignored, or considered as the disease of the past, in Japan. However, due to the Japanese food culture of eating raw materials, food-borne parasitic diseases are still present in Japan. The majority of food-borne parasitic diseases are zoonotic, and caused by ectopic migration of parasite larvae. They accidentally migrate into CNS to cause deleterious conditions. Clinicians should always remind about the possibility of parasitic diseases when they make differential diagnosis for CNS diseases.