Diagnosis, treatment, and management of echinococcosis

Summary pointsEchinococcosis (hydatid disease) is caused by the larvae of dog and fox tapeworms (cestodes) of the genus Echinococcus (family Taeniidae).1 2 3 This zoonosis is characterised by long term growth of metacestode (hydatid) cysts in humans and mammalian intermediate hosts. The two major species that infect humans are E granulosus and E multilocularis , which cause cystic echinococcosis (CE) and alveolar echinococcosis (AE). A few reported cases of polycystic echinococcosis in Central and South America are caused by E vogeli and E oligarthrus .2 w1 w2 The clinical potential of two other Echinococcus species ( E shiquicus and E felidis ) is unknown.1 2 Sources and selection criteriaWe obtained information from personal reference archives, personal experience, and extensive literature searches of the PubMed and Cochrane databases. We sourced English language papers that were fully published mainly between 2000 and March 2012 using appropriate index terms. …