Abstract
Fasciolopsiasis, endemic to the Orient and Southeast Asia, is a snail-transmitted, intestinal, food-borne parasitic zoonosis caused by a trematode, Fasciolopsis buski, which also infects farm pigs. Fasciolopsiasis remains a public health problem despite changes in eating habits, alterations in social and agricultural practices, health education, industrialization, and environmental alterations. The disease occurs focally and is most prevalent in school-age children. In foci of parasite transmission, the prevalence of infection in children ranges from 57% in mainland China to 25% in Taiwan and from 50% in Bangladesh and 60% in India to 10% in Thailand. Control programs implemented for food-borne zoonoses are not fully successful for fasciolopsiasis because of century-old traditions of eating raw aquatic plants and using untreated water. Fasciolopsiasis is aggravated by social and economic factors such as poverty, malnutrition, an explosively growing free-food market, a lack of sufficient food inspection and sanitation, other helminthiases, and declining economic conditions.
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Received: 19 May 2000 / Accepted: 19 July 2000
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Graczyk, T., Gilman, R. & Fried, B. Fasciolopsiasis: is it a controllable food-borne disease?. Parasitol Res 87, 80–83 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/s004360000299
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s004360000299