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Toxocariasis in Colombia: More Than Neglected

  • Tropical Medicine Updates (ME Bottazzi and R Mejia, Section Editors)
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

In this review, we summarized information regarding human toxocariasis knowledge of disease and relevance in Colombia.

Recent Findings

Current knowledge on the epidemiology and global burden of this infection is scarce. In part, because it remains a largely underdiagnosed clinical entity, and also since many countries do not officially recognize it as endemic, this has led to a lack of surveillance and underreporting, not considering it an officially notifiable disease. Recent reports have shown broad variability of seroprevalence rates amongst different countries.

Summary

Human toxocariasis is a zoonotic parasitic disease that would represent high morbidity in many countries. Caused by Toxocara canis and Toxocara cati, clinical spectrum of this systemic helminthiasis can be extended from asymptomatic forms up to life-threating syndromes such as the visceral larva migrans.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Public Health and Infection Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia

    Alfonso J. Rodriguez-Morales, D. Katterine Bonilla-Aldana, Sofia H. Gómez-DeLaRosa, David Ricardo Murillo-García, Néstor Muñoz-Calle, Andrés Felipe Gil-Restrepo, María Alejandra Silva-Gómez, Jessica Alejandra Bastidas-Melo, Angie Camila Macías-Muñoz & Jaime A. Cardona-Ospina

  2. Committee on Tropical Medicine, Zoonoses and Travel Medicine, Asociación Colombiana de Infectología (ACIN), Bogotá, DC, Colombia

    Alfonso J. Rodriguez-Morales, D. Katterine Bonilla-Aldana & Jaime A. Cardona-Ospina

  3. Emerging Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Research Group, Instituto para la Investigación en Ciencias Biomédicas – Sci-Help, Pereira, Colombia

    Alfonso J. Rodriguez-Morales & Jaime A. Cardona-Ospina

  4. Semillero de Zoonosis, Grupo de Investigación BIOECOS, Faculty of Veterinary, Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia

    Alfonso J. Rodriguez-Morales

  5. Semillero de Zoonosis, Grupo de Investigación BIOECOS, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Fundación Universitaria Autónoma de las Américas, Pereira, Colombia

    D. Katterine Bonilla-Aldana

  6. Grupo de Investigación Biomedicina, Faculty of Medicine, Fundación Universitaria Autónoma de las Américas, Pereira, Colombia

    Valentina Gallego-Valencia, Camila López-Echeverri, Nathalia M. Peña-Verjan, Katherine Vargas-Díaz, Alejandra Ramírez, William Diaz-Henao & Jaime A. Cardona-Ospina

  7. Direction of Microbiology, Department of Pathology, Molecular and Cell-based Medicine, The Mount Sinai Hospital-Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA

    Alberto Paniz-Mondolfi

  8. Immunoparasitology Section, Instituto de Medicina Tropical “Felix Pifano”, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, DC, Venezuela

    Olinda Delgado

  9. Semillero de Investigación en Infecciones Emergentes y Medicina Tropical, Faculty of Medicine, Fundación Universitaria Autónoma de las Américas, Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia

    Valentina Gallego-Valencia, Camila López-Echeverri, Nathalia M. Peña-Verjan, Katherine Vargas-Díaz, Alejandra Ramírez, William Diaz-Henao & Jaime A. Cardona-Ospina

Authors
  1. Alfonso J. Rodriguez-Morales
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  2. D. Katterine Bonilla-Aldana
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  3. Valentina Gallego-Valencia
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  10. David Ricardo Murillo-García
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  11. Néstor Muñoz-Calle
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  12. Andrés Felipe Gil-Restrepo
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  14. Jessica Alejandra Bastidas-Melo
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  16. Jaime A. Cardona-Ospina
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  17. Alberto Paniz-Mondolfi
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  18. Olinda Delgado
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Correspondence to Alfonso J. Rodriguez-Morales.

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Rodriguez-Morales, A.J., Bonilla-Aldana, D.K., Gallego-Valencia, V. et al. Toxocariasis in Colombia: More Than Neglected. Curr Trop Med Rep 7, 17–24 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40475-020-00199-x

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