Patient: Female, 40-year-old
Final Diagnosis: Presence of
Urbanorum
in a woman from Ecuador
Symptoms: Diarrhea • low body weight • abdominal discomfort • fever
Clinical Procedure: Clinical finding • microscopic parasite identification.
Specialty: Laboratory Diagnostics • Infectious Diseases • General and Internal Medicine • Microbiology and Virology • Public Health • Tropical Medicine
Objective:
Rare disease
Background:
Worldwide, there are few cases of
Urbanorum
spp. in humans; however, it is associated with gastrointestinal pathologies, where humans probably acquire the disease by fecal-oral transmission, by ingesting food or water with infective cysts. The main symptoms of the patients who have this presumed parasite are fever, vomiting, colic, dyspepsia, and watery diarrhea. Since the first case of
Urbanorum
spp
.
was reported in 1994 in Colombia, cases have subsequently been reported in Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico. In Ecuador, a prevalence of 1.16% has been reported, and the objective of this study was to record another case of
Urbanorum
spp
.
infection in Ecuador.
Case Report:
A female patient (mixed race; 40 years old; and thin, weighing 57 to 62 kg) requested help from the FCI Project approved and financed by the University of Guayaquil (Ecuador). She underwent routine tests, such as direct parasitology and sedimentation with centrifugation using saline solution. Samples were observed under an optical microscope with 10x and 40x objectives and stained with and without Lugol’s solution. We detected a rounded structure with several filaments similar to light yellow pseudopods.
Conclusions:
Herein, a case of
Urbanorum
spp
.
infection in Ecuador, where current environmental and sanitary conditions have contributed to new cases, is reported, indicating that the community was exposed to this probable parasite with importance in public health. Further studies are recommended to confirm its etiology, life cycle, and epidemiology, in order to create a national registry, in case it is defined as a protozoan.