ABSTRACT
Over the last fifty years, mass transportation has allowed citizens to explore the world more than ever before. This freedom of travel not only applies to humans but also to people's food supply. Food-borne illnesses are estimated to kill more than 2 million people annually and impedes economies by removing healthy workers from the workforce and in developing countries, causing a cycle of malnutrition and illness. Anisakiasis is a parasitic disease caused by inadvertent ingestion of larval nematodes, mainly belonging to the genera Anisakis and Pseudoterranova, found in raw or improperly cooked seafood. Whilst the infection is usually self-limiting, the resemblance to bacterial and viral gastroenteritis usually results in the patient being advised to rest and the infection resolves itself with the patient expelling the parasite. The country with the highest prevalence of anisakiasis is Japan. This is due to their national dishes of sushi and sashimi where raw fish transmit the Anisakis worms to any person who ingests it.
