ABSTRACT
Paragonimiasis, also known as pulmonary distomiasis and endemic hemoptysis, is a parasitic disease of humans and animals in various parts of the world, but principally in the Orient. The adult worms of Paragonimus and related worms belonging to the same group of flukes are usually tissue-inhabiting parasites. Thus, in the case of Paragonimus, the worms primarily inhabit host-produced pulmonary capsules, but extrapulmonary paragonimiasis is very common, where the worms elicit varied manifestations and symptomatology. In Japan, paragonimiasis is widely distributed, especially in mountainous regions, in people who live along mountain streams which harbor the crustacean hosts. Paragonimus westermani is rounded anteriorly, but somewhat more tapering posteriorly. Certain characteristics are used in the differentiation of adult worms of species of Paragonimus. Control methods for paragonimiasis are expected to be basically similar to those used for the control of other snail-transmitted helminthiases. This involves the interruption of the life cycle at one point or the other.
