A Rare Human Case of Dirofilaria repens Infection in the Subcutaneous Posterior Thorax with Molecular Identification

The emergence of Dirofilarial infections in Asia including Vietnam is a clinically significant threat to the community. We here report a rare case of subcutaneous Dirofilaria repens infection on the posterior thoracic wall in a young woman presenting a painful, itchy, and palpable nodule. The adult worm was identified by mitochondrial cox1 and nuclear ITS-2 sequence determination. The diagnosis was additionally confirmed by 16S rRNA sequencing of the endosymbiont Wolbachia pipientis commonly co-existing with D. repens. This is a rare case of subcutaneous human infection on the posterior thoracic region caused by D. repens.

Malaria Vector Surveillance in Ganghwa-do, a Malaria-Endemic Area in the Republic of Korea

We investigated the seasonality of Anopheles mosquitoes, including its species composition, density, parity, and population densities of mosquitoes infected with the parasite in Ganghwa-do (Island), a vivax malaria endemic area in the Republic of Korea. Mosquitoes were collected periodically with a dry-ice-tent trap and a blacklight trap during the mosquito season (April-October) in 2008. Anopheles sinensis (94.9%) was the most abundant species collected, followed by Anopheles belenrae (3.8%), Anopheles pullus (1.2%), and Anopheles lesteri (0.1%). Hibernating Anopheles mosquitoes were also collected from December 2007 to March 2008. An. pullus (72.1%) was the most frequently collected, followed by An. sinensis (18.4%) and An. belenrae (9.5%). The composition of Anopheles species differed between the mosquito season and hibernation seasons. The parous rate fluctuated from 0% to 92.9%, and the highest rate was recorded on 10 September 2008. Sporozoite infections were detected by PCR in the head and thorax of female Anopheles mosquitoes. The annual sporozoite rate of mosquitoes was 0.11% (2 of 1,845 mosquitoes). The 2 mosquitoes that tested positive for sporozoites were An. sinensis. Malarial infections in anopheline mosquitoes from a population pool were also tried irrespective of the mosquito species. Nine of 2,331 pools of Anopheles mosquitoes were positive. From our study, it can be concluded that An. sinensis, which was the predominant vector species and confirmed as sporozoite-infected, plays an important role in malaria transmission in Ganghwa-do.

Human dirofilariasis due to dirofilaria repens in Ahvaz-Iran: a report of three cases

Zoonotic filariasis due to Dirofilaria repens is prevalent in several regions of the world and because of recent rise in the number of human infections in countries of Europe, Africa and Asia, it is considered an emerging zoonoses in these continents. In 2002 three cases of dirofilariasis were diagnosed. The first case was a 34 year old man from Ahvaz referred to dermatologist with a nodule on the right cheek. During the excisional biopsy an adult dirofilaria measured 120 mm in length with white color was removed. The second case was a 37 year old man from a village around Ahvaz city who noticed a single moveable nodule with itching, irritation and swelling, 1.5 cm in diameter on his chest. The patient pressed the nodule and a white worm with 130 mm in length was revealed. The third case was a 35 year old man from Ahvaz presented at Imam Khomeini hospital because of eye irritation with symptoms and signs of itching, swelling and redness of the right eye. Examination noticed a living worm with the length of 110 mm which removed from the subconjunctival space. The worms were examined in parasitology department and based on morphological characters and microscopical identified as Dirofilaria repens. This is the second report of subcutaneous and the first report of subconjunctival dirofilariasis from Iran

Culex quinquefasciatus in Phitsanulok as a possible vector of nocturnally periodic Wuchereria bancrofti transmission in Myanmar immigrants.

The present study was undertaken in order to study whether Culex quinquefasciatus collected in Phitsanulok Province can be an insect host for the development of Wuchereria bancrofti larvae. W. bancrofti infected blood from Myanmar workers in Mae Sot, Tak Province was fed to mosquitoes by using the artificial membrane feeding. An infection of W. bancrofti was found with the highest density of L3 in the mosquito thorax on the 14th day after feeding. The infection rate also correlated to the density of microfilaria found in the donor's blood. Our results showed that Cx. quinquefasciatus in Phitsanulok is a possible vector of nocturnally periodic W. bancrofti.

Prevalence of two species of Litomosoides (Nematoda: Filarioidea) parasites of Akodon cursor (Rodentia: Muridae) from southeastern Brazil

Two species of filariids, Litomosoides silvai and Litomosoides chagasfilhoi, were collected from the thoracic and abdominal cavities, respectively, of Akodon cursor, from Catimbau Grande, Rio Bonito, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Fifty-eight rodents were necropsied and 15 (25.9) were parasitized. Four of the 15 infected rodents (26.7) presented concurrent infections, but each species had separate and specific sites of infection. This is the first report of a rodent species parasitized with naturally occurring, concurrent infections with two species of filarial worms.