Toxocariasis. A possible cause of the Palm Island mystery disease.

Toxocariasis may have been the cause of the outbreak of a hepatitis-like illness amongst residents of the Palm Island community in 1979. Baby fruit bats on the island were infected with Toxocara pteropodis, and many eggs of this worm were recovered from mangoes. The lifecycle of T. pteropodis is described and compared with that of T. canis. If T. pteropodis was responsible, the infection could be prevented by washing the mangoes before eating them.