Seeking the identification ofA. cantonensis has already been found in Southeast Asia, South Pacific, Africa, India, Caribbean, Australia, North America (Pien & Pien 1999), Jamaica (Lindo et al. 2002) and Haiti (Raccurt et al. 2003).Eosinophilic meningitis is a rare clinical entity that is defined by the presence of 10 or more eosinophils/ ml in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or a CSF eosinophilia of at least 10% of the total CSF leukocyte count (Kuberski 1979). The most common cause is invasion of the central nervous system by helminthic parasites, inciting an inflammatory response that eventually kills the parasites. Clinical manifestations, which develop in humans at two to 35 days after larvae ingestion, may include headache, nuchal rigidity and visual disturbances (Koo et al. 1988). Cerebral angiostrongyliasis usually has an incubation period of about two weeks, although it may vary from 12 to 28 days (Dooley & Neafie 1976). Paresthesias of the extremities, trunk or face, are the most distinctive neurological findings and can persist for weeks to months after the other symptoms are resolved. Occasionally, infective larvae can migrate to the eye, causing retinal detachment or intraocular hemorrhage, but most patients recover completely (Alicata 1962, Sawanyawisuth et al. 2007. In Brazil, a clinical case of eosinophilic meningoencephalitis that resulted in death ten days after ingestion of three Achatina fulica snails was reported in a regional meeting in 2006 (AVS Moll, G Zanini and C Graeff-Teixeira, unpublished observations).In January 2007, two male individuals aged 21 and 39 years were admitted to the local hospital of Cariacica, state of Espírito Santo (ES), Brazil, with eosinophilic meningitis and history of ingestion of raw terrestrial slugs. By that time, a male child aged one year and eight months from the city of Vila Velha, ES, had also been admitted to the hospital with similar symptoms.A number of 270 mollusc specimens and feces from Rattus norvergicus were collected with a grasping tool, in peridomiciliary areas of the patients' houses by health agents of the Central Laboratory of the ES (LACEN-ES). The materials were sent to the Laboratory of Intestinal Helminthiasis of Instituto René Rachou-Fiocruz for mollusc morphological identification and molecular characterization of nematode larvae. The gastropods were identified as: Sarasinula marginata (Semper, 1885) (Veronicellidae), 45 specimens, Subulina octona (Bruguière, 1792) (Subulinidae), 157 specimens, A. fulica (Bowdich, 1822) (Achatinidae), 45 specimens, and Bradybaena similaris (Férussac, 1821) (Bradybaenidae), 23 specimens.
