Many Koreans usually eat raw pond smelts, Hypomesus olidus, in the winter. This study was performed to evaluate the infection status with trematode metacercariae in pond smelts from January 1998 through February 1999. Among 1,305 fish collected, 459 were purchased from wholesale dealers in Chinchon-gun, Chungchongbuk-do, and the rest of them were caught with a casting net in Soyangho (Lake), Ta...

BACKGROUND Adult Clonorchis sinensis lives in the bile duct and causes endemic clonorchiasis in East Asian countries. Phosphagen kinases (PK) constitute a highly conserved family of enzymes, which play a role in ATP buffering in cells, and are potential targets for chemotherapeutic agents, since variants of PK are found only in invertebrate animals, including helminthic parasites. This work is ...

Clonorchis sinensis is the causative agent of the life-threatening disease endemic to China, Korea, and Vietnam. It is estimated that about 15 million people are infected with this fluke. C. sinensis provokes inflammation, epithelial hyperplasia, and periductal fibrosis in bile ducts, and may cause cholangiocarcinoma in chronically infected individuals. Accumulation of a large amount of biologi...

Recent publication of the global epidemiology of clonorchiasis and its relationship with cholangiocarcinoma in the journal of Infectious Diseases of Poverty has stressed the importance of Clonorchis sinensis infection. To further demonstrate its threat on public health, especially in China, comparisons between clonorchiasis and hepatitis B are made in terms of epidemiology, clinical symptoms an...

The Kato-Katz (KK) method is a well-known method of fecal examination for helminthiases. Its diagnostic sensitivity was found very high for clonorchiasis. The present study evaluated the correlation of Clonorchis sinensis egg counts by the KK method with those by direct smear and formalin-ether (FE) technique. The egg counts obtained by the KK method (Y) were correlated with the counts by direc...

The prevalence of liver and intestinal fluke infections was determined by surveying inhabitants of Hengxuan, Fusui, and Shanglin villages which were known to be endemic for liver flukes in Guangxi, China in May 2010. A total of 718 people were examined for helminth eggs by the Kato-Katz thick smear technique, ultrasonography, immunoaffinity chromatography, and DNA sequencing. The overall egg po...

We evaluated the status of Clonorchis sinensis infection and potential risk factors among residents of riverside areas (Geumgang) in Muju-gun, Jeollabuk-do (Province), Korea. From January to February 2010, a total of 349 (171 males, 178 females) stool samples were collected and examined by the formalin-ether concentration technique. Also, village residents were interviewed using questionnaires ...

Clonorchis sinensis is currently the most important parasite affecting public health problems in the Republic of Korea. We investigated the prevalence of C. sinensis infection among residents living along 5 major rivers in Korea. A total of 42,562 individual stool samples were collected from 37 localities and examined using the formalin-ether sedimentation technique. Helminth eggs were detected...

BACKGROUND Clonorchiasis is of considerable public health importance, particularly in the People's Republic of China (PR China), where most of the 15 million individuals infected with Clonorchis sinensis are currently concentrated. Praziquantel is the drug of choice, but tribendimidine might be an alternative. METHODS We performed a randomized open-label trial in Guangxi, PR China, to assess ...

We investigated the induction of resistance to Clonorchis sinensis infection by prior infection in rat and hamster models. Animals were challenged with C. sinensis metacercariae, then treated with praziquantel and reinfected. Worm recovery rate in reinfected animals was used to estimate resistance to reinfection. The determined resistance rates to reinfection in rats and hamsters were 97.7% and...