Gnathostoma spinigerum Infection in the Upper Lip of a Korean Woman: An Autochthonous Case in Korea

Autochthonous human gnathostomiasis had never been reported in the Republic of Korea. We report here a case of Gnathostoma spinigerum infection in a 32-year-old Korean woman, presumed to have been infected via an indigenous route. The patient had experienced a painful migratory swelling near the left nasolabial fold area of the face for a year, with movement of the swelling to the mucosal area of the upper lip 2 weeks before surgical removal of the lesion. Histopathological examinations of the extracted tissue revealed inflammation with heavy eosinophilic infiltrations and sections of a nematode suggestive of a Gnathostoma sp. larva. The larva characteristically revealed about 25 intestinal cells with multiple (3-6) nuclei in each intestinal cell consistent with the 3rd-stage larva of G. spinigerum. The patient did not have any special history of travel abroad except a recent trip, 4 months before surgery, to China where she ate only cooked food. The patient is the first recorded autochthonous case of G. spinigerum infection in Korea.

Gnathostoma binucleatum (Spirurida: Gnathostomatidae) en peces dulceacuícolas de Tabasco, México / Gnathostoma binucleatum (Spirurida: Gnathostomatidae) from the freshwater fish in Tabasco, Mexico

Human gnathostomiasis is a food-born parasitic disease of relative importance in many countries in Southeast Asia. It is caused by several species of nematodes of the genus Gnathostoma. In Mexico is an emerging public health problem since 1970, when first cases were reported. Until today, larval morphometric characters that have been proposed to differentiate between the three species of Gnathostoma present in this country, are not satisfactory. Recently, the presence of advanced third-stage larvae AdvL3 (infective form for humans) in freshwater fishes from Pantanos de Centla, Tabasco. was recorded but their specific identity was not clarified . Examination of four species of freshwater fishes from the same locality revealed that three of them: Petenia splendida (n=58), Cichlasoma managuense (n=35) and Gobiomorus dormitor (n=9) were infected by 15 AdvL3 of Gnathostoma binucleatum. Specific identity was obtained comparing the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) of the ribosomal DNA with sequences reported in Genbank. This is the first record of G. binucleatum in P. splendida and G. dormitor from Tabasco and the first specific determination of the parasite in the locality.