ON THE HETEROPHYID TREMATODA (HETEROPHYES HETEROPHYES) INFECTION CASES IMPORTED FROM EGYPT TO JAPAN

Abstract

Ten Japanese who had come back from Cairo, Egypt to Japan after three months to two years of stay at Cairo were examined on the stools by the sedimentation mothod. The ova of heterophyid trematoda were detected in the feces of four persons. The cases were treated with Kamala (6 g/patient) and a kind of small flukes could be collected from the passed feces. On microscopical examination these small flukes were identified as H. heterophyes from their morphological characterisitcs. Especially the large number (64-82) of the spines which form a crown on the muscular gonotyle makes it distinguishable from other closely related heterophyid species.Although many patients of H. heterophyes nocens have so far been reported in Japan, H. heterophyes has not been reported yet, and H. heterophyes occurs commonly among cats, dogs, foxes and human beings at Cairo.In Cairo, a Japanese restaurant was opened at November, 1978. and in this restaurant these patients used to eat “Sashimi”, raw fishes of many kinds, including the brachish water fishes which could serve as the second intermediate hosts.This parasite is known to cause diarrhea which may occasionally be accompanied with bloody stools. Further, according to the observations of Africa et al. (1935-'37), it can produce the fatal cardiac and cerebral failure in man; the serious impairments which have never been encountered in the Japanese cases of H. h. nocens. It is highly possible that many more cases of H. heterophyes would be imported. Therefore, it is recommended to cure all these cases, desirably before they would serve as reservoir to spread this new disease in Japan.