Acute scrotum: Hansen's disease versus filariasis.

Hansen's disease is caused by Mycobacterium leprae. The disease is known to involve the visceral organs including the testis apart from the skin and nerves in the lepromatous pole of leprosy due to widespread hematogenous dissemination of lepra bacilli. Furthermore, there can be testicular pain during the type 2 reaction in Hansen's disease. Filariasis is a disease caused by the parasitic nematode, Wuchereria bancrofti. This infection most commonly results in lymphedema and secondary vaginal hydrocele with an associated epididymo-orchitis. Acute epididymo-orchitis is either seen in the acute phase or as a part of secondary bacterial infections. The particular interest of this paper is to report the case of Hansen's disease who presented with testicular pain and posed a diagnostic dilemma when his pain did not respond to the standard mode of treatment and an alternate rare diagnosis was sought. This case report also emphasizes the need of reconsideration of diagnosis when the patient is not responding to standard therapy.

Tropical infections contracted in Papua New Guinea and imported into Western Australia.

Diseases contracted in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and observed in Western Australia (WA) have comprised malaria, amoebiasis, ancylostomiasis, filariasis and leprosy. This small series of cases demonstrates the prolongation of incubation periods of malaria following chemoprophylaxis, the spread of chloroquine-resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum (both to Western and Eastern regions of PNG), the ineffectiveness of chloroquine against Entamoeba histolytica in the intestine and the value of oral penicillin as a prophylactic for filarial lymphangitis.