Lagoquilascaríase humana e dos animais domésticos

• Autor(a) principal: Fraiha Neto, Habib
• Data de Publicação: 1989
• Outros Autores: Leão, Raimundo Nonato Queiroz de, Costa, Fátima do Socorro Alcântara da
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Digital do Instituto Evandro Chagas (Patuá)
• Texto Completo: https://patua.iec.gov.br/handle/iec/2816
• topic: Nematoides; Ascaris; Infecções por Nematoides; Animais Domésticos

Human infection by Lagochilascaris has been linked until today to only one species: L. minor. Parasitic tumoral lesions are frequent in the neck or the ear, with possible invasion of the central nervous system or lungs. There is one case of sacral metastatic lesion. The death rate is estimated to be at least 6,5%. Treatment is difficult and at the present the drugs of choice are cambendazole, levamisole and diethylcarbamazine. Geographical distribution is limited to the Neotropical area, from south Mexico to south Brazil. There are 62 human cases reported till now, 46 from Brazil (43 from the Amazon Region). The majority of cases are from the southeast of Pará State and the north of Tocantins State, in the Tocantins and Araguaia river valleys. A domestic dog from Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná State, Brazil, and another one from near Houston, Texas, EUA, were found naturally infected respectively by L minor and L. major, with mediastinal and oesophagic lesions (the first one) and subcutaneous abscess with a tract for the peritoneal cavity (the last one). The domestic cat has been found infected with two species: L. major (one case from Argentina, with oesophagic, tracheal and gastric lesions and two cases in Rio de Janeiro State, both with cervical lesion) and L. minor (one single case from south Pará State, with cervical lesion too). From the bibliographic data it is possible to suggest a hypothesis for the transmission of L. minor. It is based on: a) the natural reservoirs are probably wild felines; b) the natural enzootic cycle seems to need intermediate hosts for the larval fase; c) these animals are probably the source of infection for the definitive natural hosts; d) man and domestic animals are mere accidental hosts; e) man and domestic animals probably become infected due to oral ingestion of water containing infectant larvae, not embrionated eggs.