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Book Review
Cestode Zoonoses: Echinococcosis
and Cysticercosis: An Emergent and Global Problem
Philip Craig and Zbigniew Pawlowski, editors
Vol. 341 NATO Science Series, IOS Press, Amsterdam, 410 pages,
hardcover, ISBN: 1-58603-220-8, Price: $100.00
Suggested citation for this article: Richards
FO Jr. Cestode zoonoses: echinococcosis and cysticercosis: an emergent
and global problem (book review). Emerg Infect Dis [serial online] 2002
Nov [date cited];8. Available from: URL: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol8no11/02-0422.htm
This book is a collection of short articles written by the participants
in a research workshop held in Poznan, Poland, in September 2000. The
workshop, supported by NATO Scientific Affairs, focused on the
three major larval cestode diseases of humans: Taenia solium neurocysticercosis,
Echinococcus granulosus cystic hydatidosis, and E. multilocularis
alveolar hydatidosis. The format and depth of the articles are variable,
but readers familiar with these parasites will find the book to be a convenient
collection of new information on the subject. A shortcoming is that the
book’s preface and summary are each limited to a single page.
Perhaps most interesting for readers of the Emerging Infectious Diseases
Journal are the reviews of epidemiologic data related to the emergence
or reemergence of these three diseases. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example,
neurocysticercosis has emerged as being more widely distributed than previously
assumed and is a major cause of epilepsy. Surgery for pediatric cystic
echinococcosis in Kyrgystan increased threefold during the period 1993–1998
(reaching 6 cases/100,000), suggesting new transmission probably related
to worsening economic conditions after the collapse of the former Soviet
Union. Surveillance for human cases of alveolar echinococcosis (which
can have a mortality rate of 90% if untreated) is being strengthened in
western Europe, given that E. multilocularis infection rates in
foxes have increased in recent years. The book contains other valuable
updates on diagnostics, immunology and vaccines, imaging and clinical
management, geographic information systems and ecology, veterinary medicine,
and community-based control programs. Readers with an interest in helminthology
will find this book most useful.
Frank O. Richards, Jr.
The Carter Center, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
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