FIVE CASES OF ASCARIASIS ENCOUNTERED FROM 1991 to 2000

Abstract

We report five cases of ascariasis encountered from 1991 to 2000. Case 1 was a 2-year-old boy with 13 worms found in the gastrointestinal tract; Case 2 was a 49- year-old man who had one worm in the gall bladder and 12 in the gastrointestinal tract; Case 3 was a 50-year-old man from whom a worm was successfully removed using a gastrointestinal fiberscope; Case 4 was a 77-year-old man who spontaneously passed a worm; and Case 5 was a 50-year-old man who vomited a worm. Cases 3, 4, and 5 were infected with only a single worm of Ascaris lumbricoides. Although ascariasis is now considered to be a very rare disease in Japan, it is still occasionally encountered. In the process of ascariasis diagnosis, a means other than the detection of eggs in feces may be required, because patients bearing only a single worm are not always positive for ascaris eggs in feces.