[A family outbreak of trichinosis acquired in Israel]

Trichinosis is a parasitic disease transmitted to man by ingestion of contaminated raw meat, usually pork, containing cysts of Trichinella spiralis. Formerly appearing as serious epidemics, it has now become uncommon due to public health control measures. Since the Jewish and Moslem religions forbid consumption of pork, the disease is even rarer in Israel. The literature indicates that all the cases of trichinosis hospitalized in Israel were contaminated abroad. We describe an Israeli family in which trichinosis following the eating of boar meat, hunted along Israel's northern sea coast (Hof HaCarmel). We believe that this is the first report of trichinosis acquired in Israel. Only family members who ate the meat raw became ill, while those who ate it well-cooked were spared. However, not all of our cases were symptomatic, some showing only laboratory evidence (eosinophilia and a rise in CPK). In accord with postmortem data in the USA, this indicates that trichinosis is probably more common than estimated due to the many asymptomatic cases (about 4% of all Americans).