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+--- Thread: 30% exposed to rat lungworm (?) (/showthread.php?tid=17711)
30% exposed to rat lungworm (?) - terracore - 10-10-2016
http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/local-news/rat-lungworm-study-sheds-light-disease
"Thirty percent of the 186 people tested via dot blot came up positive, meaning they had been exposed to the rat lungworm parasite at some point in their lives."
Results from the first-ever prevalence study for exposure to rat lungworm disease in the United States are in, with Puna showing noticeably high exposure rates.
East Hawaii Island is the epicenter for rat lungworm infections, said study principal investigator Susan Jarvi, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Hawaii at Hilo College of Pharmacy. More than 90 percent of cases nationwide originate here.
Rat lungworm, caused by the parasitic nematode Angiostrongylus cantonensis, affects the central nervous system and the brain.
Its symptoms vary widely.
“Sometimes it can be as mild as an upset stomach and flu-like symptoms, and at the extreme other end, it’s coma and then death,” Jarvi said.
The parasite is found in rats; it is passed on to snails and slugs through rat feces. People can become infected after eating unwashed produce bearing slime trails from the snails and slugs.
Jarvi began researching rat lungworm disease in 2011 after attending an international rat lungworm workshop held in Honolulu. At the meeting, she met Hawaii Island resident Kay Howe, whose son Graham McCumber had contracted the disease and fallen into a coma. Though McCumber emerged from the coma, he suffered severe nerve damage and continues to be affected by the disease.
“I had heard about rat lungworm, but you read online (that) it’s a mild flu and self-resolving,” Jarvi said. “I met Kay and Graham and (thought) ‘Wow, somebody’s got to do something.’”
Jarvi and Howe formed the Hawaii Island Rat Lungworm Working Group, which now includes about 25 people.
“A lot of our workforce is volunteer,” Jarvi said.
The prevalence study was funded by the Hawaii Community Foundation and conducted in partnership with the Puna Community Medical Center and Clinical Labs of Hawaii.
Last summer, blood samples were collected from 435 volunteers. The samples were tested via a screening called ELISA, developed by Jarvi’s lab, that detects antibodies in the blood.
Those that tested positive were then tested with a screening method developed by Praphathip Eamsobhana, a faculty member at Bangkok’s Mahidol University. Thailand is one of the 30 countries where rat lungworm disease has been found.
ELISA is used as an initial screening for exposure to rat lungworm disease.
The testing kit developed by Eamsobhana uses the dot blot screening method and is “much more definitive,” Jarvi said, because it hones in on antibodies specifically deployed against Angiostrongylus cantonensis.
Thirty percent of the 186 people tested via dot blot came up positive, meaning they had been exposed to the rat lungworm parasite at some point in their lives.
And of the 126 volunteers who self-reported that they had never had rat lungworm disease, 28 percent tested positive via dot blot, which suggests that exposure to the parasite is “higher than previously thought,” Jarvi said.
Volunteers from Puna comprised the largest group in the study.
A quarter (25.3 percent) tested positive via dot blot, another noticeably high number.
Researchers have theorized that part of the reason for Puna’s rates is because of the introduction of the invasive semislug, a particuarly efficient host, to the area. It could also be because more people use catchment systems in the district.
It’s thought that the larval infective stage of Angiostrongylus cantonensis can be transmitted through water.
“There are a lot of unanswered questions, and a lack of funding,” Jarvi said.
She presented the prevalence study results last month in Brisbane, Australia, at the Fourth International Rat Lungworm Disease Symposium, part of the International Congress for Tropical Medicine and Malaria.
In Brisbane, Jarvi met Sukwan Handali of the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. That meeting led to Handali offering to help with a follow-up study.
That study will run the same blood serum samples collected last year through a new dot blot test, this one based on the antibodies specific to Hawaii’s nematodes, not Thailand’s.
There could be differences between the two, Jarvi said, so making a Hawaii-specific test could lead to more accurate results.
Handali’s lab in Atlanta will be assisting with isolating the nematode proteins that cause antibodies to be produced in the first place.
The follow-up study had already been funded — once more with help from the Hawaii Community Foundation. Now, with the CDC’s help, “It’ll go a lot faster,” Jarvi said.
In addition to the follow-up study, the working group will continue its education and outreach programs in the coming year, supported in part by a grant from the Hawaii Invasive Species Council.
RE: 30% exposed to rat lungworm (?) - Lee M-S - 10-10-2016
As I read it, 435 people were tested; 186 of them had results leading to further testing, and 30% of that 186 (56 people) tested positive.
That would be only 13% of the original 435 people tested.
I'm glad to have been among the 87% who tested negative!
><(((*< ... ><(("< ... ><('< ... >o>
RE: 30% exposed to rat lungworm (?) - MarkP - 10-10-2016
I have found what I assume is the semi-slug on my property twice. Once the slug was crawling along the ground and the other time it was crawling along the shade cloth cover on my catchment tank! Yeeech.
RE: 30% exposed to rat lungworm (?) - MarkP - 10-10-2016
Just came in from chloroxing my tank. On a lighter note though I am not too worried about getting a serious dose from my catchment water. My system will filter them out plus I think that the real problem is eating a tiny slug while consuming produce.
RE: 30% exposed to rat lungworm (?) - DoryGray - 10-10-2016
A guy named Eric from Puna was on Monsters Within Me TV show. He had rat lungworm and the disease was discussed on the 30 minute show. Hilo Hospital misdiagnosed him for months.
RE: 30% exposed to rat lungworm (?) - ElysianWort - 10-10-2016
Does anyone know anything about being re-infected? Does the human body develop any kind of immunity to it? Or how about this scenario: Say for example you're one of those who thinks you never had it but test positive. Well that means that somewhere along the line you had a minor cold or a couple of down days and had rat-lung but didn't know it. Can this type of person develop a full blown case later after eating more infected produce?
RE: 30% exposed to rat lungworm (?) - bananahead - 10-11-2016
this was said in a story last year... "....38 of the 42 reported cases of 'rat lungworm' statewide since 2007 has happened on Hawai'i Island..." so in 8 yrs with 38 cases.. thats only 4/5 /yr
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/28805733/rat-lungworm-disease-spreads-fear-across-hawaii-island
that would break down to about 4-5 cases per yr on the Big Island w/200K people that would be on average 1/40,000 chance of getting it /yr...
maybe in most people the parasite doesnt affect them at all?? ie like 99% ???
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save our indigenous and endemic Hawaiian Plants... learn about them, grow them, and plant them on your property, ....instead of all that invasive non-native garbage I see in most yards... aloha
RE: 30% exposed to rat lungworm (?) - bananahead - 10-11-2016
this story is sure going to stir up the Fear Mongers in Puna, and the lemmings they control...
control your rats via cat/trap... control your slugs via Corey's, wash your veggies...
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save our indigenous and endemic Hawaiian Plants... learn about them, grow them, and plant them on your property, ....instead of all that invasive non-native garbage I see in most yards... aloha
RE: 30% exposed to rat lungworm (?) - shockwave rider - 10-11-2016
This was not a controlled study, the people tested were all volunteers from Puna, it was not a randomized group from the whole island, so the data cannot be used to extrapolate what percentage of the 200,000 people on the Island may have had rat lungworm. I know people who tested positive who had been unable to get their medical provider to take them seriously.
RE: 30% exposed to rat lungworm (?) - Eric1600 - 10-11-2016
In general the worm (Angiostrongylus cantonensis) can be filtered out with water filters (1 micron = 0.001 mm):
quote:
First stage larvae are about 0.3 mm long and 0.015 mm in width; second stage larvae are about 0.45 by 0.03 mm; third stage larvae are similar in size, though a little thinner; fourth stage larvae reach about 1.0 by 0.4 mm. The newly molted sub-adults are about 2 mm by 0.06 mm; they grow to about 12 mm (females) and 11 mm (males) before leaving the rat’s brain and migrating to the pulmonary arteries (see the life cycle section, below), where they mature, reaching a size of up to about 35 by 0.6 mm (females) and 25 by 0.4 mm (males).
They usually infect in stage 3 when they are 450 microns by ~30 microns. A 5 micron or less filter should remove them. Most filters are specified based on their average filtration size. There are such things as "1 micron absolute" filters which guarantee a maximum size.
quote:
Banahead
that would break down to about 4-5 cases per yr on the Big Island w/200K people that would be on average 1/40,000 chance of getting it /yr...
maybe in most people the parasite doesnt affect them at all?? ie like 99% ???
The CDC found a cluster in Puna, so 200k isn't the proper population size, maybe more like 50,000 people. Any time there is an infection cluster it is cause for concern because the symptoms vary widely.