Neural larva migrans caused by the raccoon roundworm Baylisascaris procyonis. | Semantic Scholar (2024)

A case of Baylisascaris-induced NLM from the densely populated borough of Brooklyn in New York City is presented and urban pediatricians are alerted to consider this cause of clinical neurologic disease even in areas not typically thought to be associated with endemic risk factors.

Raccoons have increasingly become peridomestic animals living in close proximity to human residences, and the risk for human exposure and infection may be greater than is currently recognized.

Patients recovering with fewer severe sequelae have been reported in recent years, reinforcing the current recommendation that early treatment with albendazole and corticosteroids should be initiated at the earliest suspicion of baylisascariasis.

Baylisascaris procyonis, a parasitic infection of raccoons, causes severe neurologic and ocular disease in humans when infectious eggs from raccoon feces are ingested, making preventive efforts critical.

The presence of B. procyonis eggs in raccoon latrines was common, widespread, and closely associated with human habitation and where raccoon densities are high, education of the public and removal of raccoons may be necessary.

Assessment of the prevalence of human exposure to B. procyonis would be of significant public health value and would begin to answer the numerous questions that remain about the epidemiology of baylisascariasis.

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A specific parasite can be identified with certainty, however, only by morphometric analysis of larvae in tissue specimens, so the recent development of serodiagnostic tests for T.VISCERAL larva migrans is significant.

In this report, the case of a 13-month-old child who had nonfatal meningoencephalitis secondary to B. procyonis infection is presented and clinical, serological, and epidemiological evaluations established B. Procyonis as the etiologic agent.

A case of severe raccoon roundworm (B procyonis) encephalitis in a young child is reported to illustrate the unique clinical, diagnostic, and treatment aspects, as well as public health concerns of B Procyonis infection.

A boy who died from an eosinophilic meningoencephalitis, which mimicked B. procyonis infection in monkeys, is described, suggesting that this is the first recognized B. Procyonis infections in humans.

Brain biopsy, serology, and epidemiologic studies lead to the diagnosis of Baylisascaris procyonis infection, a parasitic disease contracted through exposure to soil contaminated by the eggs of a common raccoon intestinal roundworm.

Although under-recognized and under-reported, toxocaral larva migran is now recognized as a widespread and common human infection, among helminth infections in developed countries, it is perhaps second in frequency only to pinworm.

It is concluded that raccoon latrines are visited routinely by a variety of vertebrates, especially small granivorous rodents and birds which forage for seeds in raccoon feces, and that raccoons are probable sites of transmission of B. procyonis to susceptible mammals and birds.

Two noncentrifugal and 5 centrifugal flotation methods for the recovery of infective Baylisascaris procyonis eggs from contaminated soil were evaluated after an epizootic of fatal cerebrospinal nematodiasis in bobwhites, with significantly more eggs recovered by the 30-g sample centrifugal methods.

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