Author: Leah Rosenbaum / Source: Science News
Health officials have confirmed 12 cases of rat lungworm disease in the continental United States since January 2011 — including six patients who had not traveled abroad but still contracted the illness caused by a parasite endemic to tropical regions in Asia and Hawaii.
While the disease can be mild, it can become extreme and cause severe neurological problems. In most of the new cases, patients complained of headache, fever, weakness and symptoms consistent with meningitis, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports in the Aug. 3 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The disease is also known as angiostrongyliasis, after the parasitic roundworm Angiostrongylus cantonensis whose larvae hatch in the lungs…
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