Case Report: Human Subcutaneous Sparganosis in a Thai Migrant

Abstract

Human sparganosis is a cestode infection which is neglected as a differential diagnosis outside endemic countries. Diagnosis and therapy may be challenging depending on the clinical presentation and anatomic localization. The disease manifests predominantly as subcutaneous nodule(s) or intracranial mass lesion(s). Infection is primarily acquired by ingesting raw or undercooked amphibian or reptile flesh or by drinking water containing copepods. We report an unusual case of subcutaneous Spirometra erinaceieuropaei sparganosis presenting with two nonmigratory nodules in close proximity to each other on the right thigh of a Thai woman living in Switzerland.

Occurrence ofTaeniaspecies in pigs in slaughterhouses in Phu Tho province, northern Vietnam

“…Spirometra erinaceieuropaei is a zoonotic parasite causing sparganosis in humans. It has been identified in humans in Vietnam and other countries in Asia, such as Korea, China and Thailand (Anantaphruti et al, 2011;Le et al, 2017;Tang et al, 2017;Kim et al, 2018;Muigg et al, 2019). This larva found in the pig was very small and, thus, could easily have been ignored during meat inspection.…”

“…Pork is the most popular meat type in the country; about 3.8 million tons of pork are produced annually (Vietnam Livestock Production, 2018). Small-scale traditional pig farms are still predominant, contributing to at least 80% of the total pork production (Lapar et al ., 2012; Nga et al ., 2014). The common habit of eating raw or undercooked pork and organs is one of the main risk factors for acquiring pig-related taeniasis in Vietnam (Somers et al ., 2007; Ng-Nguyen et al ., 2017).…”

Case Report: Management of Dead Intraocular Helminth Parasites in Asymptomatic Patients

“…3 Mostly human infections present as subcutaneous nodules, and the diagnosis is only made after surgical resection. 4 Drug treatment of sparganosis is restricted to cases where surgical removal of larvae is impossible, for example, in cerebral sparganosis. In such cases, antiparasitic treatment with praziquantel has shown to be effective.…”

Four Case Reports of Cutaneous Sparganosis From Peruvian Amazon

“…Only sporadic cases have been reported in South America, Europe, and Africa. [2][3][4] A patient with ocular infection by Spirometra mansonoides was described in Peru in 2015. 5 Here, we report 4 cases of cutaneous sparganosis in patients, all who had a history of visiting or living in the Peruvian Amazon region.…”