[Paragonimus uterobilateralis as the cause of 3 cases of human paragonimiasis in Gabon].

During 1981, three cases of pulmonary paragonimiasis were diagnosed and successfully treated at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital, Lambarene, Gabon. Circumstances prevented our receiving eggs for identification of the lung fluke species involved. The history revealed that all the patients originated from the same small village Mitoné, some 10 km north of Lambarene. Extensive testing in the region failed to reveal further cases. Our efforts, therefore, were concentrated on the study of the intermediate crustacean hosts responsible for the human infections. We examined 90 fresh-water crabs of the species Sudanonautes aubryi and S. africanus collected from small creeks located close to the village of the patients. 14 per cent of the former species and 8 per cent of the latter contained freely moving, non-encysted metacercariae resembling those of Paragonimus uterobilateralis. A domestic cat was subsequently infected with these metacercariae. During autopsy of the cat some 260 days later, 2 adult lung flukes were recovered and clearly identified as P. uterobilateralis, confirming the diagnosis on the larval metacercariae. These findings support the surmise that the human cases of paragonimiasis in the same area could be attributed to an infection with P. uterobilateralis.