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Strongyloides stercoralis

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Encyclopedia of Parasitology

Name

Greek: strongylus = rounded; oides = similar. Latin: sterx = terminal end; stercus = feces; stercoralis = within feces. English: dwarf round worm.

Geographic Distributions/Epidemiology

This worm is found not only in humid and tropic and subtropic regions but also in countries of South Europe, in mines as well as in zoos (since many monkeys are heavily infected). Several hundred thousands of infections occur worldwide.

Morphology/Life Cycle

S. stercoralis produces two different generations within its life cycle (Fig. 1):

  • A free-living generation with males and females

  • A parasitic generation, which consists exclusively of females which reproduce themselves parthenogenetically (without fecundation by males)

Fig. 1
figure 1

Diagrammatic representation of the life cycle of Strongyloides stercoralis (Piekarski 1987). (A) Infection; (B) development outside the body; (C) development inside the intestine. (1a) Parthenogenetic female in the intestine. (1b) Rhabditiform larva (larva 1) in fresh...

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References

  • Piekarski G (1987) Medical parasitology in plates. Springer, Heidelberg/New York

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Further Reading

  • Ahmad AF et al (2013) Serological and molecular detection of Strongyloides stercoralis infection among an Orang Asli community in Malaysia. Parasitol Res 112:2811–2816

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bisoffi Z et al (2014) Diagnostic accuracy of five serologic tests for Strongyloides stercoralis infection. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 8(1), e2640

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Janwan P et al (2011) Rapid detection of Opisthorchis viverrini and Strongyloides stercoralis in human fecal samples using a duplex real-time PCR and melting curve analysis. Parasitol Res 109:1593–1601

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Watts MR et al (2014) A loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for Strongyloides stercoralis in stool that uses a visual detection method with SYTO-82 fluorescent dye. Am J Trop Med Hyg 90:306–311

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Zoomorphologie, Zellbiologie und Parasitologie Universitätsstraße 1, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Heinz Mehlhorn

Authors
  1. Heinz Mehlhorn
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Heinz Mehlhorn .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Zoomorphology and Parasitology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Heinz Mehlhorn

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© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Mehlhorn, H. (2015). Strongyloides stercoralis . In: Mehlhorn, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Parasitology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27769-6_3024-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27769-6_3024-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27769-6

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