Acute appendicitis caused by Schistosoma japonicum J L A j D a M 2 A g 2 T t t s t t t m t t r t d t r m t c f s s C a t e a h q p w n ( w t b s h 1 n ARTICLE IN PRESSG Model IPH 704; No of Pages 2 Jo[.]
G Model JIPH-704; No of Pages ARTICLE IN PRESS Journal of Infection and Public Health xxx (2017) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Infection and Public Health journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jiph Letter to the Editor Acute appendicitis caused by Schistosoma japonicum Dear Editor, We read with interest the case of a 74-year-old woman with acute appendicitis caused by Schistosoma japonicum reported by Maiti et al [1] And we have some comments on this report First, the article mentioned that ‘schistosomiasis causes around 200,000 deaths per year.’ However, we not agree with this view As an endemic communicable disease caused by blood flukes of the genus Schistosoma, schistosomiasis infection is found in more than 250 million people, with almost 800 million at risk worldwide [2] There are estimated up to 280,000 deaths annually related to schistosomiasis just in sub-Saharan Africa in the early 2000s [3,4] Also the number of deaths varies as different prevention and control strategies being applied and influenced by the climate, ecosystem and economic capability, and etc So the figure provided by the authors may not be quite exact Actually, there are six schistosome species known to infect man (S japonicum, Schistosoma mansoni, Schistosoma hematobium, Schistosoma intercalatum, Schistosoma mekongi, and Schistosoma malayensis) [5] not just ‘Five’ [1] Second, the authors put forward an important issue of ‘neglected tropical endemic disease’ which deserves to be concerned and resolved With the ease of international travel and frequent international communications, more and more neglected tropical endemic diseases had been poured into non-endemic developed countries from endemic developing countries [5] TropNetEurope had reported more than 800 imported schistosomiasis cases in 2003, most of which were immigrants and refugees, and European tourists occupied only 1/7 So schistosomiasis is arising in Western countries and may not be a unusual aetiology for acute appendicitis for the future [6] The last but not least, as a country struggling with schistosomiasis for thousands of years, China has accumulated a lot of successful experience in S japonicum control over the past decades Chinese medical literature has covered plenty of cases of acute appendicitis caused by S japonicum Compared with other others types of appendicitis, appendicitis caused by S japonicum basely exists these relatively specific characters: (1) most patients are apyrexia, less can be hyperpyrexia, while others appendicitis often has a hyperthermia more than 39 ◦ C (2) Metastatic right lower quadrant pain, the metastatic time is greatly shortened, mostly present a fixed or reiterant right lower quadrant pain accompanied with nausea, emesis, obvious tenderness and rebound tenderness in that region (3) Other abdominal sign is mild or absent (4) Usually elevated eosinophil count, normal or mildly elevated white blood count (10–15 × 109 /L), while others types usually high than (20 × 109 /L), there is no clinical significance in peripheral blood cells for end-stage schistosomiasis patients when hypersplenia is often presented (5) Abdominal ultrasonic character of Schistosomal hepatic fibrosis may add clue to diagnosis this disease (6) Higher odds of suppurated appendix or perforated appendix (28%–87%) and high risk of postoperative infection (29%) So immediate operation should be carried out once diagnosis of this disease, antibiotic application and anti-schistosomiasis treatment after surgery are recommended Funding No funding sources Competing interests None declared Ethical approval Not required References [1] Maiti A, Wanger A, Chavez V, Smith DT Acute appendicitis caused by Schistosoma japonicum J Infect Public Health 2016, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jiph.2016.05.003 [2] Sokolow SH, Wood CL, Jones IJ, et al Global assessment of schistosomiasis control over the past century shows targeting the snail intermediate host works best PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2016;10:e4794, http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0004794 [3] Olveda DU, Li Y, Olveda RM, et al Bilharzia: pathology, diagnosis, management and control Trop Med Surg 2013;1(4):1––134, http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2329-9088.1000134 [4] Maziqo HD, Nuwaha F, Wilson S, et al Epidemiology and interactions of Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 and Schistosoma mansoni in sub-Saharan Africa Infect Dis Poverty 2012;2(2):1–11, http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2049-9957-2-2 [5] Meltzer E, Schwartz E Schistosomiasis: current epidemiology and management in travelers Curr Infect Dis Rep 2013;15:211–5, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11908-013-0329-1 [6] Cenarruzabeitia ILD, Landolfi S, Carrasco MA Intestinal schistosomiasis as unusual aetiology for acute appendicitis, nowadays a rising disease in western countries Case Rep Infect Dis 2012;2012:896820, http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/896820 Xianshi Zhou a,b Pneumology Department, Bao’an TCM Hospital Group, Affiliated to Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Shenzhen, 518133, China b The Second Clinical School of Medicine, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, 510405, China a Guanghua Tang Ye Ye Banghan Ding Zhongde Zhang ∗ Jun Li http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jiph.2017.01.020 1876-0341/© 2017 The Authors Published by Elsevier Limited This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-ncnd/4.0/) Please cite this article in press as: Zhou X, et al Acute appendicitis caused by Schistosoma japonicum J Infect Public Health (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jiph.2017.01.020 G Model JIPH-704; No of Pages 2 ARTICLE IN PRESS Letter to the Editor / Journal of Infection and Public Health xxx (2017) xxx–xxx Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China ∗ Corresponding author E-mail address: 13660638204@163.com (Z Zhang) October 2016 Please cite this article in press as: Zhou X, et al Acute appendicitis caused by Schistosoma japonicum J Infect Public Health (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jiph.2017.01.020 ... (Z Zhang) October 2016 Please cite this article in press as: Zhou X, et al Acute appendicitis caused by Schistosoma japonicum J Infect Public Health (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jiph.2017.01.020