A case of natural human infection by Metagonimus takahashii and Heterophyes nocens was confirmed by collection of adult worms after praziquatel treatment on August, 1991, and in order to clarify the species identity, the morphological
characteristics of
M. takahashii were rediscribed.
The patient was a 27-year old male residing in Hadong-gun, Kyungnam Province, Korea. He had the clinical complaints of fatigue, indigestion and arrhythmia, and said to have eaten raw flesh of several kinds of marine and/or freshwater fish.
Praziquantel
in single dose 10mg/kg was given followed by purgation with magnesium salt, and 587 M. takahashii and 8H. nocens were collected from the diarrheal stools.
M. takahashii were dorsoventrally flattened 0.998x0.573mm in average size, and they had the following morphological of uterine tubules over the left testis and intertesticular junction; distribution of the vitellaria passing through the
posteriormost
portion of the body; larger size of the eggs.
N. nocens were also dorsoventrally flattened, 0.224x0.543mm in average size, and they had a well-developed ventral sucker and a genital sucker bearing the 54 chitinous rodlets.
From the above results, a case of human infection by B. takahashii and H. nocens was identified. This study may be the 32nd human case of H. nocens infection in the literature in Korea.
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