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Cluster of foodborne trematode infections affect more than 50 million worldwide
Fürst T. Lancet Infect Dis. 2011;doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(11)70294-8.
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Foodborne trematodiases are a significant cluster of neglected tropical diseases that infected more than 50 million people worldwide during 2005, according to recent findings published in The Lancet.
Thomas Fürst, MA, of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel, Switzerland, and colleagues pooled data from electronic databases for human foodborne trematodiasis cases from 1980 to 2008.
The data were assessed to estimate the global burden of foodborne trematodiasis, based on disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) during 2005.
Approximately 56.2 million people were identified as being infected with foodborne trematodes in 2005; 7.9 million had severe sequelae and 7,158 died. Cholangiocarcinoma and cerebral infection were the most common causes of mortality. The estimated global burden of foodborne trematodiasis in 2005 was 665,352 DALYs.
“Because consequences are not overt and morbidity often subtle, the social, economic and public health effects of foodborne trematodiasis are underestimated, which might also explain previous lack of estimates of global burden,” the researchers wrote. “Our vision is to include all relevant information on human foodborne trematodiasis in the open-access Global Neglected Tropical Diseases Database (http://www.gntd.org) and to initiate similar documentation and control efforts as those under way for schistosomiasis or soil-transmitted helminthiasis.”
Disclosure: This research was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation; Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Dr. Furst reported that he is a paid consulstant for Basel.
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