Free Republic

LOS ANGELES - A disease that can cause neurological illness and meningitis in people, rat lungworm, has been found in wild opposums, rats and a zoo animal in San Diego County, indicating its establishment in California for the first time. Researchers reported their findings in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials in Hawaii have been warning residents not to touch snails or slugs with their bare hands because of an increase in cases of people coming into contact with a rare parasitic infection known as a rat lungworm. Experts are blaming its sudden spread across the United States on climate change and globalization.

An American tourist who ate a slug on a dare was among three people recently infected with rat lungworm in Hawaii, according to health officials. The three cases are isolated and occurred months apart, according to the Hawaii Department of Health (pdf). All three were visiting from the United States. As the name suggests, rat lungworm is caused by a parasitic roundworm, Angiostrongylus cantonensis, that infects rats’ lungs. The parasite then finds its way into slugs, which are then eaten by rats, completing the cycle.

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. [...snip...] The disease is also known as angiostrongyliasis, after the parasitic roundworm Angiostrongylus cantonensis whose larvae hatch in the lungs of rats and then are expelled in the rodents’ excrement. At that point, the larvae can be picked up by snails and slugs, and then passed along to humans if the snails and slugs are eaten...