Onchocercosis mansonella co-infection presenting as a subcutaneous nodule in a child

A 11-year-old girl presented with a subcutaneous lesion on the forehead, thought to be an implantation dermoid cyst. Microscopic examination revealed an onchocercoma. Microfilariae were found in the blood indicating a co-infection with Mansonella perstans. This case demonstrates the diagnostic difficulties of a parasitic co-infection uncommonly encountered in Europe.

An unexpected guest in follicular fluid

Parasitic infection as the only or concomitant cause of infertility in Caucasian women is rare. A parasitic infection may also present itself quite unexpectedly as a coincidental finding as shown with this case report. Moving microfilariae of Mansonella perstans were found in the aspirated follicular fluid of a patient who underwent in-vitro fertilization (IVF) with embryo transfer because of tubal pathology due to Chlamydia trachomatis. The patient also appeared to have a Schistosoma infection. To our knowledge, the presence of parasites in follicular fluid has never been reported before. We expect that infertility physicians may be confronted with parasitic infections more often, not only in patients originating from tropical countries but also in Western women as a result of a tendency to travel more frequently to exotic and (sub)tropical countries.

Susceptibility of laboratory primates to infection with Mansonella ozzardi from man

The study was undertaken to determine primates were susceptible to infection with Caribbean and/or Amazon strains of Mansonella ozzardi of man. Twenty-three animals including three chimpanzees, four squirrel monkeys, one capuchin, five rhesus and 10 patas monkeys each received, by subcutaneous or intraperitoneal injection, 25-170 infective larvae of M. ozzardi harvested either from infected Culicoides furens collected in Haiti or Simulium sp. (sanguineum complex) collected in the Colombian Amazon and transported to our laboratories in Louisiana. Patent infections were obtained in seven of 10 patas monkeys but not in any other species of primates. The prepatent period ranged in duration from 149-186 days with a mean of 168 days. All of the patas monkeys developed modest microfilaremias that persisted for as long as 1 year, the duration of our observations. Adult worms were obtained at necropsy from three of four patas monkeys. The worms were recovered from soakings of the carcass and skin rather than from the abdominal cavity and mesenteries. However, their precise habitat was not determined.

Extended cryopreservation of Mansonella ozzardi microfilariae concentrated from human peripheral blood

Microfilariae of Mansonella ozzardi, concentrated from human blood, frozen with a cryoprotectant chemical, and stored at liquid or vapor-phase liquid nitrogen temperatures were motile when thawed after 2.5 years of preservation.