An outbreak of trichinellosis caused by ingestion of raw wild boar / 대한내과학회지

ABSTRACT

Trichinellosis is one of the most widespread helminthic zoonoses. Unlike other parasitic infestation, it has been reported in advanced countries where there is a great amount of meat consumption such as Europe and America. In Korea, trichinellosis has been suspected to be prevalent for a long time, but it had not been reported up to 1997. However, three reports of human trichinellosis were published recently. An outbreak of trichinellosis caused by ingestion of raw wild boar occurred in Inje-gun, Gangwon-do, Korea, in Mar 2003. 13 people ate raw wild boar meat together, and then they had high fever, myalgia, facial edema, etc. Hematologic and biochemical examinations revealed leukocytosis, eosinophilia, and elevated AST, ALT, LDH, CPK. Muscle biopsy in rectus femoralis was performed in one index case, we detected two parasites in muscle fibers. And we measured specific antibody titers against Trichinella spiralis ES Ag in 12 patients. More than 3~4 fold higher antibody titer was noted in 11 patients compared with normal controls. We treated these cases with albendazole and steroid for 5 days.