Human conjunctivitis caused by the bird parasite Philophthalmus

We removed a trematode of the species Philophthalmus from under the left upper eyelid of a 66-year-old man who had follicular conjunctivitis for three weeks. After removal of the parasite, the conjunctivitis resolved.

Improvements in the serodiagnosis of helminthic zoonoses

Remarkable progress has been achieved in developing improved serodiagnostic assays for a group of diseases for which other diagnostic methods are often lacking. Toxocariasis, trichinellosis, dirofilariasis, Taenia solium cysticercosis and the cystic and alveolar forms of hydatid disease are occult infections in humans and sometimes in lower animal hosts. Although Strongyloides stercoralis achieves patency in humans, parasitologic diagnosis is often very difficult. Efforts to develop reliable immunodiagnostic methods have spanned several decades but progress had been slow until recently. The complexity and nonspecificity of helminth antigens were major problems which prevented the full realization of the benefits of the highly sensitive assay systems now available. Modern immunologic methods including hybridoma technology, immunoaffinity chromatography and immunoblotting, however, have yielded improved reagents and the means to characterize their nature and function. The outcome of this research has been more sensitive and specific serologic tests based on measurement of both circulating antigens and antibodies as well as improved understanding of the nature of host-parasite interactions. Although much remains to be done, many improved immunodiagnostic procedures are already being applied in clinical diagnosis, epidemiologic studies and control programs directed against the helminthic zoonoses.

[Geographical variability of the causative agent of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis]

A study of the phenetics of the zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis agent in Uzbekistan and subzone of southern and northern deserts has made it possible to separate a northern population (or a group of populations) of the agent. It differs from the southern population (or southern ones) in having smaller sizes of the amastigote stage, greater abundance of parasites in cutaneous affections of gerbils, milder progress of leishmaniasis in white mice and great gerbils. This population can be called priaral, i.e. belonging to the subzone of northern deserts of the Turan lowland.

[Pathogenic effect of the trematode Cyclocoeloidea on its hosts]

A study of the ecology of Cyclocoeloidea has shown that true pathogenicity of this group of trematodes is much higher than the known one. In addition to the mechanical damage done by marites of cyclocoeloids to the host, migrations of cyclocoeloid larvae in the definitive host's body are a great threat to the latter as well as processes connected with the removal of sexual production by adult worms outside that results usually in a serious damage to the host's organs and tissues.

Zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis in Saudi Arabia: lesions healing naturally in man followed by a second infection with the same zymodeme of Leishmania major

A patient with a previous history of an infection with Leishmania b. braziliensis contracted zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) in the Al-Hassa oasis, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. Five lesions healed spontaneously over a period of 40 weeks without treatment. A year after acquiring ZCL he became infected again in the same focus. Isolates of parasites at both episodes were identified as L. major, zymodeme LON-4. Compared with the first infection of ZCL, parasites were fewer in the lesions on the second occasion, the lesions were smaller and healing was quicker (10 weeks). This work and a previous report of patients with active lesions and leishmanial scars suggest that second infections of L. major are not uncommon in the oasis where no autochthonous infections of other species of Leishmania have yet been recorded in man and only one species of Phlebotomus (P. papatasi) is known.

Breast nodule produced by Dirofilaria tenuis

A case of Dirofilaria tenuis presenting as a breast nodule is reported in a patient who traveled to the southeast United States 6 months before the nodule was noted. It illustrates an unusual diagnostic problem, especially since it presented in a nonendemic area. The morphological criteria for diagnosis of D. tenuis in tissue sections are noted.

Isolation of human serum resistant Trypanozoon from cattle in Nigeria

Four trypanosome stocks of the subgenus Trypanozoon were isolated from a herd of cattle in the Jos Plateau of Nigerian during a study on the epizootiology of trypanosomiasis. One of the stocks was repeatedly highly resistant to normal human serum (Blood Incubation Infectivity Test), indicating potential human infectivity. These observations suggest that the domestic cattle might act as reservoir hosts for the causative agent of human trypanosomiasis.

Improved method for recovering ascarid and other helminth eggs from soil associated with epizootics and during survey studies

Two noncentrifugal and 5 centrifugal flotation methods for the recovery of infective Baylisascaris procyonis eggs from contaminated soil were evaluated after an epizootic of fatal cerebrospinal nematodiasis in bobwhites. All involved the use of inexpensive, readily available materials and routine procedures. In all but 1 of the methods, sizes of the soil samples were 30 g; in 1 centrifugal method, the sample size was 1 g. The centrifugal methods included various combinations of (i) anionic detergent (Tween) pretreatment of the soil, (ii) 3 X washing of the sediment, (iii) NaNO3 or ZnSO4 flotation solution, and (iv) resuspension and reexamination of the sediment. By the 30-g sample centrifugal methods, significantly more eggs (av 251 to 448) were recovered than by the noncentrifugal methods (av 7 and 12) or the 1-g sample method (av 44). In the most efficacious method, the combination of Tween pretreatment, washed sediment, NaNO3 flotation solution, and resuspension/reexamination of the sediment was used. This method was tested against the 1-g sample method on soil from a naturally occurring infection of Toxocara cati visceral larva migrans in a child. On initial examination of 5 areas, 3 to 10 eggs were recovered by the 30-g sample method vs 0 eggs by the 1-g sample method. Using sandbox soil and 10 replicates each, recoveries by the 30-g sample method averaged 9.2 eggs/replicate (range 5 to 12) and those by the 1-g sample method, 0.1 eggs (range 0 to 1).

[Capillaria hepatica: an evaluation of its pathogenic role in man]

Capillaria hepatica é considerado um parasito que excepcionalmente afeta o homem. Levando-se em conta a elevada prevalência desta parasitose em roedores domesticos e as baixas condições de higiene e moradia entre a população de baixa renda, existe a possibilidade de que a capilariase hepatica tenha um papel na patologia humana maior que o comumente admitido. São apresentados neste trabalho dados acerca do parasito, sua biologia e seu papel patogênico, bem como os resultados de estudos experimentais e humanos que revelam aspectos imunopatológicos indicativos de sensibilização e resistência face a esta parasitose.

Is encephalitozoonosis a zoonosis?

Encephalitozoon cuniculi has often been cited as a human pathogen although few cases (of disease) have been described in the literature. A discussion of these cases suggests that this microsporidium should not be regarded as a pathogen of man.

Some helminthozoonotic infections in Zambia

Parasitic infections constitute an important group of zoonoses. Stool examination of inpatients, medical examinees and out-patients in a sub-tropical environment established that Inermicapsifer madagascariensis and Schistosoma mattheei are occasionally anthropozoonotic in Zambia. Strongyloides fülleborni, a species normally parasitic in primates is not uncommon in man; whether it is anthropozoonotic or a parasite well adapted to man in this part of Africa needs further investigation. The finding of unidentified spiruroid ova was considered to be due to a spurious infection. The need for the differentiation of such organisms from those commonly infecting man is emphasized especially since the literature on such a subject is so sparse in the country and on the continent.