Neotropical Echinococcosis: A Review

Abstract

Echinococcus vogeli (Rausch and Berstein, 1972) and Echinococcus oligarthra (Diesing, 1863) (Cestoda: Taeniidae) are the only two species known of Neotropical tapeworms, which cause Echinococcosis Polycystic (EP) and Echinococcosis Unicystic (EU), respectively, in humans and in wild rodents from Central and South America. This review applied a meta-analysis on published research about these diseases during the last decade (2010–2020) with the aim of finding out the new human cases reported on that decade on EP and EU. Several new human cases have been published in these 10 years, and important findings have been carried out on the phylogenetic taxonomy, on the genome of E. oligarthra, and on new molecular diagnostic techniques and imagenology applied upon this two neotropical echinococcosis, in particular in Argentina and Brazil. Finally, the life cycle of both Echinococcus species appears to be in a dynamic activity, apparently there is an expansion of both zoonotic diseases moving down to Southern zones of Argentina; therefore, a program of epidemiological surveillance on EP and EU is proposed to be carried out in those Patagonic regions.