STUDIES ON THE INFECTION MODE OF HOOKWORMS WITH REFERENCE TO ORAL INFECTION IN HUMANS WITH LARVAE OF NECATOR AMERICANUS SOAKED IN HUMAN DEFIBRINATED BLOOD

Abstract

A considerable amount of research has been reported on the infection routes of Necator americanus and Ancylostoma duodenale in humans. The infection routes of hookworms, however, are still a matter of speculation. In order to elucidate this problem, the following experiments were carried out by the author.1) The larvae of infective N. americanus were soaked in human defibrinated blood for 96 hours at 28°C, and those larvae were examined the degree of their development and resistance to artificial stomach acid. Those larvae did not develop and their resistance to artificial stomach acid, also, was unchanged.2) Those larvae were administered into the stomachs of 4 volunteers. No one had complained of subjective symptom, and the blood pictures in 3 out of 4 volunteers showed slight eosinophilic leukocytosis.Infertilized eggs in one out of those 3 cases were found in his feces and two females of N. americanus were expelled by anthelmintic treatment.