ABSTRACT
I. BACKGROUND Echinostomiasis is a parasitic disease of birds, animals, and humans resulting from intestinal infection with distomate, digenean trematodes of the family Echinostomatidae. Although echinostomiasis occurs worldwide, most human infections are reported from East and Southeast Asia. Despite being relatively rare, at least 19 species of echinostomes from 8 genera have been reported in humans from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, Taiwan, and Thailand. Sporadic cases have also been reported from Brazil, Egypt, Italy, Mexico, and Romania (1).
