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Echinococcus multilocularis in North America: the great unknown
Over the last decade, studies have begun to shed light on the distribution and genetic characterization of Echinococcus multilocularis, the causative agent of alveolar echinococcosis (AE), in North America. Recent findings indicate that the parasite is likely expanding its range in the central regio...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
EDP Sciences
2014
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4273702/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25531581 http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/parasite/2014069 |
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author | Massolo, Alessandro Liccioli, Stefano Budke, Christine Klein, Claudia |
author_facet | Massolo, Alessandro Liccioli, Stefano Budke, Christine Klein, Claudia |
author_sort | Massolo, Alessandro |
collection | PubMed |
description | Over the last decade, studies have begun to shed light on the distribution and genetic characterization of Echinococcus multilocularis, the causative agent of alveolar echinococcosis (AE), in North America. Recent findings indicate that the parasite is likely expanding its range in the central region of the United States and Canada and that invasions of European strains might have occurred. In our review, we present the available data on E. multilocularis infections in wild and domestic animals and humans in North America and emphasize the lack of knowledge on the distribution of the parasite in wild and domestic hosts. Furthermore, we stress the need to better understand the complexity of host communities and their roles in shaping the transmission and distribution of the parasite. We hypothesize that a lack of knowledge about AE by North American physicians might result in the misdiagnosis of cases and an underestimation of disease incidence. The endemic presence of the parasite in urban areas and a recent human case in Alberta, Canada, suggest that the scientific community may need to reconsider the local public health risks, re-assess past cases that might have been overlooked and increase surveillance efforts to identify new cases of human AE. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4273702 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | EDP Sciences |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-42737022014-12-29 Echinococcus multilocularis in North America: the great unknown Massolo, Alessandro Liccioli, Stefano Budke, Christine Klein, Claudia Parasite Review Article Over the last decade, studies have begun to shed light on the distribution and genetic characterization of Echinococcus multilocularis, the causative agent of alveolar echinococcosis (AE), in North America. Recent findings indicate that the parasite is likely expanding its range in the central region of the United States and Canada and that invasions of European strains might have occurred. In our review, we present the available data on E. multilocularis infections in wild and domestic animals and humans in North America and emphasize the lack of knowledge on the distribution of the parasite in wild and domestic hosts. Furthermore, we stress the need to better understand the complexity of host communities and their roles in shaping the transmission and distribution of the parasite. We hypothesize that a lack of knowledge about AE by North American physicians might result in the misdiagnosis of cases and an underestimation of disease incidence. The endemic presence of the parasite in urban areas and a recent human case in Alberta, Canada, suggest that the scientific community may need to reconsider the local public health risks, re-assess past cases that might have been overlooked and increase surveillance efforts to identify new cases of human AE. EDP Sciences 2014 2014-12-23 /pmc/articles/PMC4273702/ /pubmed/25531581 http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/parasite/2014069 Text en © A. Massolo et al., published by EDP Sciences, 2014 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Review Article Massolo, Alessandro Liccioli, Stefano Budke, Christine Klein, Claudia Echinococcus multilocularis in North America: the great unknown |
title | Echinococcus multilocularis in North America: the great unknown
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title_full | Echinococcus multilocularis in North America: the great unknown
|
title_fullStr | Echinococcus multilocularis in North America: the great unknown
|
title_full_unstemmed | Echinococcus multilocularis in North America: the great unknown
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title_short | Echinococcus multilocularis in North America: the great unknown
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title_sort | echinococcus multilocularis in north america: the great unknown |
topic | Review Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4273702/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25531581 http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/parasite/2014069 |
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