Affiliations: Department of Infectious Diseases and Child Neurology
Karol Marcinkowski, University of Medical Sciences in Poznań,
Poznań, Poland | Department of Medical Parasitology, National Institute
of Public Health – National Institute of Hygiene, Warszawa, Poland | The President Stanislaw Wojciechowski Higher
Vocational State School in Kalisz, Kalisz, Poland | Department of Patomorphology Karol Jonscher Hospital
in Poznań, Poznań, Poland
Note: [] Correspondence: Katarzyna Mazur-Melewska, Department of
Infectious Diseases and Child Neurology, Karol Marcinkowski University of
Medical Sciences in Poznań, Szpitalna Street 27/33; 60-355, Poznań, Poland.
Tel.: +48 61 8491318; Fax: +48 61 8491318; E-mail: katarzynam-m@wp.pl
Abstract: Dirofilaria (Nematoda: Onchocercidae) infections are vector-borne
parasitic diseases of wild and domestic carnivores, mainly of dogs and cats. In
Europe, mainly in Ukraine and the Mediterranean countries, they are caused by
D. repens and D. immitis. The aim of our work is to describe the
first autochthonous pediatric case of Dirofilaria repens infection in Poland.
Our patient is the first one in the western part of Poland
(52°24'N16°56'E). The diagnosis
of the parasite's species and the histopathological assessment of the altered
tissue were based on the scrutiny of paraffin slides of the surgically removed
subcutaneous nodule. The results were confirmed using PCR method. The origin of
the boy's infection in Greater Poland remains unresolved. The new trend of spreading D. repens infection in many non-endemic countries cause that
dirofilariosis should be included in the differential diagnosis of subcutaneous
nodules in children, in the whole Europe, not only in endemic areas.
