Recent data on a current zoonosis: alveolar echinococcosis due to Echinococcus multilocularis

Abstract

E. multilocularis is a small tapeworm which uses different species of foxes and rodents as final and intermediate hosts respectively. In humans, infection with the metacestode stage can result in a potentially lethal liver condition named alveolar echinococcosis (AE). Recent studies in central Europe have show that E. multilocularis has a wider geographic range than previously anticipated. By the end of the 1980s, endemic areas of E. multilocularis were know to exist in only four countries, but now the parasite is present in at least 14 European countries. This paper provide recent data on the biology of E. multilocularis, the epidemiology of AE and the different tools which are available to treat or prevent this disease which seems in apparent extension