Tropical pulmonary eosinophilia masquerading as acute bronchial asthma

With the influx of immigrants from developing countries, deployment of American troops on foreign soil, and wide-ranging travel patterns of some United States citizens, one should expect an increase in the frequency of parasitic pulmonary diseases. We report a case of tropical pulmonary eosinophilia in a recent immigrant to Upstate New York from India. Tropical pulmonary eosinophilia is unfamiliar to most physicians practicing in North America, but should be included in the differential diagnosis of asthmatic bronchitis with hypereosinophilia when there is a history of recent travel to or residence in endemic areas. Furthermore, knowledge of this entity should also help in the differential diagnosis of other hypereosinophilic syndromes.