[Toxocara infections, diagnosis and occurrence in man in the Netherlands]

With the introduction of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using excretory-secretory antigens of maintained L2 of Toxocara in vitro, a sensitive and reliable diagnostic tool for the diagnosis of human toxocariasis (larva migrans syndrome), became available. Clinical toxocariasis is not common in the Netherlands and, if so, is mainly observed in children under the age of ten. On the other hand, subclinical infections which do result in antibody production are observed quite often at all ages. As antibody titres may persist for prolonged periods (years), a cumulative effect with regard to the prevalence of antibodies is associated with the age of individuals in random population surveys in the Netherlands.