The transition of important parasitic diseases in Korea is briefly reviewed in this article. Soiltransmitted helminthiases, such as ascariasis, trichuriasis, and hookworm infections, which had been prevalent all over the country, decreased remarkably, largely owing to the national control activities by means of mass examination-mass treatment schemes for school students. Paragonimiasis has shown significant reduction in its incidence, but clonorchiasis still remains as an important health-threatening trematode infection. Intestinal trematodiases, including metagonimiasis, heterophyidiases, and echinostomiases are prevalent, and new species, such as Gymonphalloides seoi and Neodiplostomum seoulense, have been documented as new human parasitic diseases. Tapeworm infections including larval cestodiases are also decreasing. Among the protozoan infections, amebiasis and malaria showed an apparent decreasing trend, but in recent years, vivax malaria has become a re-emerging disease. Brugian filariasis, which was prevalent in southern parts of the Korean peninsula, has been completely eliminated nowadays. In terms of the prevalence and distribution, clonorchiasis, enterobiasis, and vivax malaria are currently the major parasitoses of public health importance in Korea.
Amebiasis ; Ascariasis ; Cestode Infections ; Clonorchiasis ; Echinostomiasis ; Enterobiasis ; Filariasis ; Helminthiasis ; Hookworm Infections ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea* ; Malaria ; Malaria, Vivax ; Paragonimiasis ; Parasitic Diseases* ; Prevalence ; Protozoan Infections ; Public Health ; Trematode Infections ; Trichuriasis

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) caused by Echinococcus granulosus is a major public health problem worldwide, including Turkey. The aim of the current study was to identify the strains and to estimate the potential risk factors of E. granulosus in operated pediatric cases in eastern Turkey. Ten pediatric patients (7 boys and 3 girls) living in rural areas, with ages ranging from 3 to 15 years old and various clinical histories, were included in this study. Eight patients had only liver hydatid cyst, while 1 patient had liver and lung hydatid cyst and the other liver, lung, and spleen, together. There were 2 ruptured liver cysts. After surgery, during follow-up, no increase was observed in hemagglutination levels, there were no mortalities, and there was no evidence of recurrence at 2 years post operation in all patients. Molecular analysis was performed on hydatid cyst samples obtained from the 10 pediatric cases. According to mt-12S rRNA PCR results, all cases were found to be G1/G3 cluster of E. granulosus sensu stricto.
Adolescent ; Animals ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Echinococcosis/parasitology/*surgery ; Echinococcosis, Hepatic/parasitology/surgery ; Echinococcosis, Pulmonary/parasitology/surgery ; Echinococcus granulosus/genetics/*isolation & purification ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Turkey

Aged ; Brain ; parasitology ; Echinococcosis, Hepatic ; diagnosis ; etiology ; therapy ; Echinococcosis, Pulmonary ; diagnosis ; etiology ; therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Lymphoma, T-Cell ; complications

No abstract available.
Echinococcosis, Hepatic*

Adult ; Albendazole ; therapeutic use ; Biopsy ; Brain ; parasitology ; pathology ; Echinococcosis, Hepatic ; complications ; drug therapy ; pathology ; Echinococcosis, Pulmonary ; etiology ; pathology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged

15 patients (8 males, 7 females) with mean age of 62.9312.35 years were aspirated and injected Supramycin into hepatic cysts under the guide of ultrasound. 2-month following-up result showed the decrease in clinical symptoms. 94.7% of patients were resolved completely the symptoms. Diameter of hepatic cysts decreased significantly with p < 0.001. The size of cysts decreased in all patients, in which the size decreased by half in 64.29% of patients. The adverse effects included post-injected pain and fever. These events were resolved spontaneously. There was not any severe complication.
Liver Neoplasms ; Echinococcosis, Hepatic ; Tetracycline

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate long-term outcome of the intraoperative and perioperative albendazole (ALB) treatment on the recurrence and/or secondary hydatidosis. METHODS: One hundred and one patients with hepatic hydatidosis were treated intraoperatively and perioperatively with ALB, in addition to surgery. Perioperative ALB treatment was given in a dose of 12-15 mg/kg/day. The ALB treatment was started 13.27 +/- 14.34 days before the surgery, and it was continued for 4.39 +/- 3.11 months postoperatively. A total of 1.7 microg/mL of ALB solution was used as a protoscolidal agent. The follow-up period was 134.55 +/- 51.56 months. RESULTS: Four patients died, with only one death was secondary to hydatid disease (cerebral eccinococcus). There was only one recurrence (1%) of hepatic hydatidosis. Early and late morbidity rates were 8.91% and 7.92%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that intraoperative and perioperative ALB is effective for the prevention of hepatic hydatidosis recurrence and/or secondary hydatidosis.
Albendazole* ; Echinococcosis ; Echinococcosis, Hepatic* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Recurrence

In December 2011, we reported an autochthonous case of Echinococcus multilocularis infection in a 42-year-old woman in Korea. The diagnosis was based on histopathological findings of the surgically resected liver cyst. In the present study, we evaluated the serological and molecular characteristics of this Korean E. multilocularis case. The patient's serum strongly reacted with affinity-purified native Em18 and recombinant Em18 antigens (specific for E. multilocularis) but negative for recombinant antigen B8/1 (reactive for Echinococcus granulosus). In immunoaffinity chromatography, the serum also strongly reacted with E. multilocularis and only weakly positive for E. granulosus. We determined the whole nucleotide sequence of cox1 (1,608 bp) using the paraffin-embedded cystic tissue which was compared with E. multilocularis isolates from China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Austria, France, and Slovakia. The Korean case showed 99.8-99.9% similarity with isolates from Asia (the highest similarity with an isolate from Sichuan, China), whereas the similarity with European isolates ranged from 99.5 to 99.6%.
Adult ; Animals ; Antibodies, Helminth/*blood ; Antigens, Helminth/genetics/*immunology/metabolism ; Base Sequence ; Echinococcosis, Hepatic/*immunology/parasitology ; Echinococcosis, Pulmonary/diagnosis/genetics/immunology ; Echinococcus granulosus/genetics/immunology ; Echinococcus multilocularis/genetics/*immunology/isolation & purification ; Electron Transport Complex IV/genetics ; Female ; Humans ; Mitochondria/genetics ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Republic of Korea ; Sequence Analysis, DNA

China ; epidemiology ; Echinococcosis, Hepatic ; epidemiology ; Humans ; Prevalence

Hydatid disease is a parasitic infection that is caused by the larval stage of Echinococcus granulosus. This disease is distributed worldwide, but it is rare in Korea. A 34-year old foreign male worker from Mongolia presented with cough and chest discomfort. Computed tomography of the chest showed a cystic mass in the upper lobe of the right lung. The cyst was surgically resected, and the pathological study confirmed a hydatid cyst. The patient was given albendazole postoperatively to prevent a relapse. We report here on a surgical case of pulmonary hydatid disease along with a review of the literature.
Albendazole ; Cough ; Echinococcosis ; Echinococcosis, Pulmonary ; Echinococcus granulosus ; Humans ; Korea ; Lung ; Male ; Mongolia ; Parasites ; Recurrence ; Thorax