%0 Journal Article
%T Zoonotic helminths affecting the human eye
%A Domenico Otranto
%A Mark L Eberhard
%J Parasites & Vectors
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1756-3305-4-41
%X Homines amplius oculis, quam auribus creduntSeneca Ep 6,5Men believe their eyes more than their earsBlindness and ocular diseases represent one of the most traumatic events for human patients as they have the potential to severely impair both their quality of life and their psychological equilibrium. Although it is highly unusual, blindness has always been of great interest in human medicine. For example, the evaluation of the emotional and quality of life impacts in patients with some diseases causing blindness (e.g., macular degeneration) gave results similar to those found in diseases such as AIDS, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiac disorders and leukemia [1]. In addition, blindness has profound human and socio-economic consequences with high costs for the individual, and society, linked to lost productivity and rehabilitation estimated at $42 USD billion per year in 2000, and predicted to reach as high as $110 USD billion per year in 2020 [2].There are many causes of blindness and those induced by parasitic agents (i.e., Protozoa, Helminths and Diptera) are of major public health concern in developed and developing countries. For example, eye disease caused by river blindness (Onchocerca volvulus), affects more than 17.7 million people inducing visual impairment and blindness elicited by microfilariae that migrate to the eyes after being released by female adult worms in the subcutaneous tissues [3]. Several parasites localize in human eyes as an effect of a specific neurotropism (e.g., Toxoplasma gondii in the foetuses), larval migration (e.g., ascarids, Dirofilaria spp., Trichinella spp.) and, in a few cases, as a primary localization being released directly into the eyes (e.g., Thelazia callipaeda eyeworm and some oestrid fly larvae causing myiasis) [4].The present article focuses on those zoonotic helminths transmitted from animals to humans that affect the human eye. Undoubtedly, the parasitic zoonotic diseases and their epidemiology have been c
%U http://www.parasitesandvectors.com/content/4/1/41