Human cystic echinococcosis: epidemiologic, zoonotic, clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic aspects

This review represents an updated scenario on the transmission cycle, epidemiology, clinical features and pathogenicity, diagnosis and treatment, and prevention and control measures of a cestode parasite Echincoccus granulosus (E. granulosus) infection causing cystic echinococcosis (CE) in humans. Human CE is a serious life-threatening neglected zoonotic disease that occurs in both developing and developed countries, and is recognized as a major public health problem. The life cycle of E. granulosus involves a definitive host (dogs and other canids) for the adult E. granulosus that resides in the intestine, and an intermediate host (sheep and other herbivores) for the tissue-invading metacestode (larval) stage. Humans are only incidentally infected; since the completion of the life cycle of E. granulosus depends on carnivores feeding on herbivores bearing hydatid cysts with viable protoscoleces, humans represent usually the dead end for the parasite. On ingestion of E. granulosus eggs, hydatid cysts are formed mostly in liver and lungs, and occasionally in other organs of human body, which are considered as uncommon sites of localization of hydatid cysts. The diagnosis of extrahepatic echinococcal disease is more accurate today because of the availability of new imaging techniques, and the current treatments include surgery and percutaneous drainage, and chemotherapy (albendazole and mebendazole). But, the wild animals that involve in sylvatic cycle may overlap and interact with the domestic sheep-dog cycle, and thus complicating the control efforts. The updated facts and phenomena regarding human and animal CE presented herein are due to the web search of SCI and non-SCI journals.