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Toxocariasis: A possible cause of the Palm Island mystery disease
Author(s) -
Moorhouse Douglas E.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1982.tb132245.x
Subject(s) - toxocariasis , outbreak , toxocara canis , palm , disease , canis , biology , medicine , environmental health , geography , virology , zoology , ecology , pathology , helminths , physics , quantum mechanics
Toxocariasis may have been the cause of the outbreak of a hepatitis‐like illness amongst residents of the Palm Island community in 1979. Baby fruit bats on the Island were infected with Toxocara pteropodis, and many eggs of this worm were recovered from mangoes. The lifecycle of T. pteropodis is described and compared with that of T. canis. If T. pteropodis was responsible, the infection could be prevented by washing the mangoes before eating them.