By Richard Bradbury, Central Queensland University

Researchers from Atoifi Health Research Group working on a recent parasite survey on Kwai and Ngongosila islands, East Malaita have reported a unique finding. Dr Richard Bradbury (CQU) and Professor Rick Speare (JCU) noted the presence of several parasite eggs that resembled hookworm or Trichostrongylus spp. eggs but they had subtle differences in size and morphology. The eggs were identified as belonging to Meloidogyne species, a worm that eats taro and other root vegetables. The interesting thing was that the people who had provided a faeces sample for testing were not actually infected with this worm. Rather, they had eaten raw vegetables and the eggs of the root-knot worm were harmlessly passing through their alimentary canal.

This curious finding was first described in American soldiers during World War 1 and Melodogyne spp. egg passage was reported in helminth surveys with decreasing regularity from that time until the early 1970s. The Melodogyne spp. eggs found in human faeces in East Malaita is the first report of this spurious (false) parasitoses since 1970. This has raised the question, have these eggs been mistaken for something else over the past 40 years or have they just been ignored? This finding was published as a research letter in the prestigious American journal, Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

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The Atoifi STH team is available to conduct surveys for gut parasites anywhere within the Solomon Islands. Please contact humpress.harrison@gmail.com to discuss this.

For more information about this article, please contact Dr Richard Bradbury r.bradbury@cqu.edu.au or Professor Rick Speare rickspeare@gmail.com.

Reference: Richard S Bradbury & Rick Speare. Passage of Meloidogyne spp. eggs in human stool - Forgotten, but not gone. Journal of Clinical Microbiology. 02/2015; http://jcm.asm.org/content/early/2015/02/06/JCM.03384-14.abstract

Photo: The Atoifi soil transmitted helminth (STH) laboratory team working at Ngongosila August 2014 (right to left): Fawcett Kilivisi, Eileen Otuana, Dorothy Esau, John Gwalaa, Dr Richard Bradbury, Nobo Harrington (Photo courtesy of Prof Rick Speare)