Blair, David, Agatsuma, Takeshi, and Wang, W.L. (2007) Paragonimiasis. In: Murrell, K. Darwin, and Fried, Bernard, (eds.) Food-Borne Parasitic Zoonoses: fish and plant-borne parasites. World Class Parasites, 11 . Springer, New York, NY, USA, pp. 117-150.

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Abstract

Paragonimiasis is the disease caused by lungflukes of the genus Paragonimus. Despite that fact that some 293 million people are at risk of paragonimiasis (Keiser and Utzinger, 2005), and several million are actually infected, the condition is not likely to feature in the curriculum of medical colleges in economically developed countries. Even medical practitioners who are aware of the disease are likely to dismiss it as just another member of the constellation of zoonotic parasitic infections, seen only in the least developed corners of the planet, that are rapidly yielding to advances in primary health care. They are correct-to an extent. However, paragonimiasis is also one of the reemerging parasitic diseases destined to confound the ill-prepared diagnostician in the wealthiest cities and the poorest villages alike. Paragonimiasis can present with an extraordinary array of signs and symptoms. These are a function of the exact species of lung fluke responsible and its interaction with the host. Public health workers are increasingly finding that lung flukes are the agents actually responsible for "nonresponsive tuberculosis" in remote tropical and subtropical areas. Urban clinicians, similarly, are encountering, and failing to recognize, paragonimiasis in their relatively affluent and mobile clientele. Easy and rapid long-distance movement of people and fresh foods harboring infective stages will force attention onto such diseases even in places where they have been disregarded for so long. At least one new journal will focus on "neglected tropical diseases" such as paragonimiasis (see PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases; www.plosntd.org).

Item ID:	3010
Item Type:	Book Chapter (Research - B1)
ISBN:	978-0-387-71357-1
Keywords:	food-borne; parasites; infections of animals; fish and plant-borne; paragonimiasis
Date Deposited:	07 Dec 2009 05:59
FoR Codes:	11 MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES > 1108 Medical Microbiology > 110803 Medical Parasitology @ 100%
SEO Codes:	92 HEALTH > 9204 Public Health (excl. Specific Population Health) > 920404 Disease Distribution and Transmission (incl. Surveillance and Response) @ 100%
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