In China, between 1964 and 1998, over 20,000 people became infected with trichinosis, and more than 200 people died.Trichinosis is common in developing countries where meat fed to pigs is raw or undercooked, but infections also arise in developed countries in Europe where raw or undercooked pork, wild boar and horse meat may be consumed as delicacies.In the developing world, most infections are associated with undercooked pork. For example, in Thailand, between 200 and 600 cases are reported annually around the Thai New Year. This is mostly attributable to a particular delicacy, larb, which calls for undercooked pork as part of the recipe.In parts of Eastern Europe, the World Health Organization reports, some swine herds have trichinosis infection rates above 50%, with correspondingly large numbers of human infections. United States
Historically, pork products were thought to have the most risk of infecting humans with T. spiralis. However, a trichinosis surveillance conducted between 1997 and 2001 showed a higher percentage of cases caused by consumption of wild game (the sylvatic transmission cycle). This is thought to be due to the Federal Swine Health Protection Act (Public Law 96-468) that was passed by Congress in 1980. Prior to this act, swine were fed garbage that could potentially be infected by T. spiralis. This act was put in place to prevent trichinella-contaminated food from being given to swine.
Studies have shown that both maternal cigarette smoking and maternal exposure to secondhand smoke increased the risk for neural tube defects in offspring. A mechanism by which maternal exposure to cigarette smoke could increase NTD risk in offspring is suggested by several studies that show an association between cigarette smoking and elevations of homocysteine levels. Cigarette smoke during pregnancy, including secondhand exposure, can increase the risk of neural tube defects. All of the above may act by interference with some aspect of normal folic acid metabolism and folate linked methylation related cellular processes as there are multiple genes of this type associated with neural tube defects. Other
Folic acid supplementation reduces the prevalence of neural tube defects by approximately 70% of neural tube defects indicating that 30% are not folate-dependent and are due to some cause other than alterations of methylation patterns. Multiple other genes related to neural tube defects exist which are candidates for folate insensitive neural tube defects. There are also several syndromes such as Meckel syndrome, and triploid syndrome which are frequently accompanied by neural tube defects that are assumed to be unrelated to folate metabolism

Diagnosis
Tests for neural tube defects include ultrasound examination and measurement of maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (MSAFP). Second trimester ultrasound is recommended as the primary screening tool for NTDs, and MSAFP as a secondary screening tool. This is due to increased safety, increased sensitivity and decreased false positive rate of ultrasound as compared to MSAFP.