infectious diseases
Clonorchiasis
Symptoms and Signs of Clonorchiasis
Light infections are usually asymptomatic; symptoms typically occur in patients with a greater worm burden and longer duration of infection. In the acute phase, heavier infections can cause fever, chills, epigastric pain, tender hepatomegaly, mild jaundice, and eosinophilia. Later, diarrhea may occur. Symptoms usually last for 2 to 4 weeks. Chronic cholangitis in heavy infections may progress to atrophy of liver parenchyma and Hepatic Fibrosis . Jaundice may occur if a mass of flukes obstructs the biliary tree. Other complications include suppurative cholangitis, cholelithiasis, pancreatitis, and, late in the course, Cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer [ 1.Xia J, Jiang SC, Peng HJ: Association between liver fluke infection and hepatobiliary pathological changes: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS One10 (7):e0132673, 2015. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0132673 2.Psevdos G, Ford FM, Hong S-T: Screening US Vietnam veterans for liver fluke exposure 5 decades after the end of the war.Infectious Diseases in Clinical Practice26(4):208–210, 2018. doi: 10.1097/IPC.0000000000000611 