Tropical Eosinophilia

Abstract

TROPICAL eosinophilia is a systemic disease consisting predominantly of respiratory symptoms, malaise, fever, and weight loss with a marked increase in blood eosinophil counts of over 3 x 109/l.56,88 It occurs in children and adults in areas of endemic filariasis, including the Indian subcontinent, South-East Asia, and South Pacific Islands, but imported cases in temperate climates are being recognized with increasing frequency. There is a spectrum of clinical disease, ranging from asymptomatic eosinophilia to a severe chronic constitutional illness with asthmatic episodes and densities in chest radiographs. The importance of the respiratory component in tropical eosinophilia is illustrated by other names for the disease which include eosinophilic lung and tropical pulmonary eosinophilia