Echinococcus multilocularis in Northern Hungary.

Abstract

To the Editor: Echinococcus multilocularis infection is one of the most dangerous zoonoses in the Northern Hemisphere and causes more human death than rabies in Europe. Recent data indicate that E. multilocularis infection is spreading geographically and is being transmitted at an increasing rate in Europe (Figure). Since 1995, the parasite has been found in Poland, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Belarus, Hungary, and Romania; infections in humans have been increasing in frequency in central eastern Europe since the late 1990s (1–4). Since the 1990s, similar infection trends in foxes and humans have been observed in central western European countries, including eastern Austria, northern Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium (1,2,5). Despite the increasing prevalence of E. multilocularis infection in foxes, the number of human cases did not vary in the historically known area (eastern France, Switzerland, southern Germany, and western Austria) during the 1990s (1), probably because of increased public awareness and control measures. In our previous study (2), the parasite was detected only in foxes in the Hungarian-Slovak border area in northeastern Hungary. In the current study, we found the parasite distributed along the watershed area of the River Danube in northern Hungary.