Commentary: Human Liver Flukes

Abstract

Free PMC Article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5936791/pdf/fpubh-06-00122.pdfA commentary on: Human Liver Flukes by Harrington D, Lamberton P, McGregor A. Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol (2017) 2:680–9. doi: 10.1016/S2468-1253(17)30111-5We read with interest the paper by Harrington et al. on “human liver flukes,” recently published in the Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology. They report that the prevalence of Fasciola hepatica in the inner Porto area of Portugal is 3.2%. These authors also state that this is a notably high prevalence. Fascioliasis, as a neglected tropical disease, commonly affects poor people from developing countries and occurs sporadically in Europe. In 1996, Dias et al. reported a case of chronic fascioliasis in a patient with a 6-year history of intermittent biliary colic after having ingested uncooked wild watercress. Our group has performed a search in the database of Centro Hospitalar de S. João (CHSJ), from 1997 to 2017. CHSJ is the biggest hospital in the North of Portugal. This hospital is located in the city of Porto and serves a population of 1,700,000 inhabitants distributed by an approximate area of 2,040 km2. The results we have obtained diverge from the figures reported by Harrington et al.: during the last 20 years only four cases of fascioliasis have been recorded: one case in 1998, one case in 2003, and two cases in 2014.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio