A Human Case of Echinococcus ortleppi Infection in Myanmar

Echinococcosis is a zoonotic disease with global public health implications. However, its prevalence in Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, remains poorly documented. In this article, a case of human cystic echinococcosis caused by Echinococcus ortleppi (E. ortleppi) is reported in a 21-year-old man from Myanmar, who had traveled to Japan for vocational training. He presented to the study hospital in Tokyo after a chest radiograph revealed the presence of a giant cyst shadow in the right middle and lower lung fields. The cysts were excised, and echinococcosis was diagnosed on the basis of the pathological findings. Sequencing of a 150 base pair fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene in a section of cyst tissue was consistent with E. ortleppi. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first documented case of human echinococcosis in Myanmar.