Tungiasis - A Janus-faced parasitic skin disease.

Abstract

Tungiasis is a parasitic skin disease caused by the penetration of female sand fleas (Tunga penetrans). It is acquired when people walk barefoot or rest on soil, where sand fleas have completed the off-host cycle. Tungiasis is a classic poverty-associated disease which belongs to the family of neglected tropical diseases (NTD). It has a Janus-face: while in travellers tungiasis usually is a benign self-limiting skin disease, inhabitants of endemic areas suffer from heavy infestations and severe, frequently debilitating and incapacitating morbidity. We describe the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of travel-associated tungiasis and compare these features to the situation in resource-poor communities in South America and sub-Saharan Africa.

• Authors: Hermann Feldmeier, Anne Keysers
• Journal: Travel medicine and infectious disease (Travel Med Infect Dis) 2013 Nov-Dec Vol. 11 Issue 6 Pg. 357-65 ISSN: 1873-0442 [Electronic] Netherlands
• PMID: 24211240 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Review)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Topics

• Adolescent
• Adult
• Animals
• Child
• Child, Preschool
• Endemic Diseases
• Female
• Humans
• Infant
• Kenya (epidemiology)
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Neglected Diseases (diagnosis, epidemiology, parasitology)
• Travel Medicine (methods)
• Tunga
• Tungiasis (diagnosis, epidemiology)
• Young Adult