Gnatostomiasis

The causative agent is the larvae, less commonly the sexually mature nematodes Gnathostoma spinigerum .

A person usually becomes infected by drinking uncontaminated water, meat of fish, frogs, birds. Perhaps infection through the skin. Diseases were detected mainly in Thailand, as well as in India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, China, Bangladesh, and Israel.

Larvae of Gnathostoma spinigerum cause eosinophilic meningitis in a person, migratory skin edema, eye damage and damage to internal organs.

Clinical manifestations are usually associated with the migration of a single larva into the skin, into internal organs, into the central nervous system or the eyeball. During migration, local inflammatory reactions, pain, cough, hematuria, accompanied by fever and eosinophilia, can be observed. With skin lesions, painful and itchy migratory edema appears; Distal extremities and eyelids are especially affected. Manifestations usually disappear after a week, but often recur over many years. Damage to the eyeball is a danger to vision. Damage to the central nervous system is manifested by eosinophilic meningitis with encephalomyelitis. This severe complication is caused by the migration of larvae along the nerve trunks and inside the central nervous system. Attacks of excruciating radicular pain, paresthesia of the trunk and limbs are characteristic, followed by paraplegia. A brain lesion with focal hemorrhages and necrosis often ends in death.

• Invasion .

• Diseases of animals dangerous to humans. M. 1997