Open AccessComments on human eurytremiasis in Brazil
Author(s) -
Hudson Alves Pinto,
Alan Lane de Melo
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
world journal of experimental medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2220-315X
DOI - 10.5493/wjem.v6.i2.55
Subject(s) - transmission (telecommunications) , parasitic disease , biology , habit , human disease , disease , zoology , human life , geography , medicine , political science , psychology , pathology , humanity , law , electrical engineering , psychotherapist , engineering
Eurytremiasis is an important parasitic disease of cattle that was recently suggested to be a neglected and emerging human disease in Brazil. Based on a misinterpretation of the life cycle of the parasite, it was suggested that a great number of people could be infected with this fluke in the country. In the present letter, aspects of the life cycle of Eurytrema spp. are revisited and clarified. The mechanism of transmission previously reported for the few accidental human cases involved the ingestion of raw or undercooked insects (grasshoppers and crickets) harboring the infective metacercariae. In reality, the zoonotic potential of Eurytrema species is extremely low, and human eurytremiasis is not, and probably never will be, a zoonotic disease in countries where entomophagy is not a common food habit.