Officials in the Almaty region of Kazakhstan report an unusual case of echinococcosis, a parasitic infection.


The patient, a man in his 50s, presented at the emergency department complaining of urinary retention and bursting pains of the abdominal cavity.

Surgeons at the City Clinical Hospital No. 4 of Almaty removed four giant cysts with parasites from the villager during the 6-hour operation–“Diagnosis: echinococcosis, multiple cysts of the liver of the right and left lobes, they were gigantic, three large parasitic echinococcal cysts in which there were live parasites,” said Bolat Tusupkhanov, head of the surgery department, Sputnik Kazakhstan.

Another cyst in the small pelvis squeezed both ureters, the rectum and the bladder. As a result, the patient’s kidneys began to fail and hydronephrosis developed.

What is Echinococcosis or hydatid disease?