A historical note on an imported case of loiasis in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1964.

Loiasis is a filarial disease transmitted by the Chrysops spp. tabanid flies in West and Central Africa. It is most commonly diagnosed by the clinical manifestations of Calabar swellings (transient localized inflammatory edema) or, most dramatically, by the appearance of a migrating worm through the conjunctival tissues or the bridge of the nose. We report the case of a 35-year-old resident in the city of Rio de Janeiro who displayed a moving Loa loa in the bulbar conjunctival tissue two years after returning from a six-month trip to Uganda. Surgical removal of the worm was performed.

A historical note on an imported case of loiasis in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1964 / Nota histórica sobre caso importado de loíase no Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 1964

Loiasis is a filarial disease transmitted by the Chrysops spp. tabanid flies in West and Central Africa. It is most commonly diagnosed by the clinical manifestations of Calabar swellings (transient localized inflammatory edema) or, most dramatically, by the appearance of a migrating worm through the conjunctival tissues or the bridge of the nose. We report the case of a 35-year-old resident in the city of Rio de Janeiro who displayed a moving Loa loa in the bulbar conjunctival tissue two years after returning from a six-month trip to Uganda. Surgical removal of the worm was performed.

A loaíase é uma filaríase transmitida por tabanídeos (mutucas) do gênero Chrysops na África central e ocidental, comumente diagnosticada pela apresentação clínica de edema de Calabar (edema inflamatório transitório e localizado) ou, mais dramaticamente, pela migração de um verme adulto pelo tecido conjuntival ou asa do nariz. Descrevemos o caso clínico de um paciente do sexo masculino, 35 anos, residente no Rio de Janeiro, que se apresentou com um verme adulto de Loa loa migrando sobre o tecido conjuntival bulbar dois anos após retornar de uma viagem de seis meses de duração a Uganda. Procedeu-se a remoção cirúrgica do verme.

Ocular parastrongyliasis (=angiostrongyliasis): probable first report of human infection from a patient in Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

What is considered to be the first case of human parastrongyliasis (angiostrongyliasis) worldwide is described from a patient in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1925. It also predates the description of the parasite in humans by Chen (1935).

[Human sub-conjunctival dirofilariasis: a probable case seen in France by Amatus Lusitanus in the 16th century]. / Dirofilariosi umana sottocongiuntivale: su di un probabile caso osservato in Francia da Amato Lusitano nel XVI secolo.

In the book Curationum medicinalium Centuria septima (1566) of the Portuguese physician Amatus Lusitanus (1511-1568) a curious clinical case is reported concerning a 3 year-old girl from Limoux (Aude, Southern France) affected by ocular filariasis with the worm spontaneously emerging from the eye. On the basis of the description and localisation of the parasite, and of the locality where it was observed, the nematode might be identified as Dirofilaria repens, the causative agent of canine and human dirofilariasis in the Old World. The case was reported by Ulysse Aldrovandi (1522-1605) in his book De animalibus insectis (1602) with a commentary. According to the text of Lusitanus and to Aldrovandi's commentary, it would appear that both authors had observed additional similar cases, the former referring to ocular and the latter to mammal localisations. If this identification is correct, the zoonosis may have existed in Southern France and Italy for 400 years and the report by Lusitanus may represent the first human case of dirofilariasis published in the world.