Lung flukes of the genus Paragonimus cause paragonimiasis
which affect human and animal health. The main reason of infection
is due to ingestion of metacercariae from second intermediate host or
juvenile flukes from paratenic host. Symptoms of lung fluke are
more likely to be misdiagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis or other
pulmonary disease, producing difficulties to diagnose and treat the
disease (Blair et al., 1999).
In Vietnam, Paragonimus and paragonimiasis have been studied
for more than 20 years (Vien et al., 1994; De et al., 1998-2003;
Doanh et al., 2005-2013). To date, 7 Paragonimus species have been
reported (Doanh et al., 2013). Of which, P. heterotremus is prevalent
in the north provinces and P. westermani is prevalent in the north
central provinces. Both species can infect humans. However, many
issues of two species have not been unknown. Therefore, we
conducted a study on “Lung flukes, Paragonimus heterotremus and
Paragonimus westermani, in Vietnam: morphology, molecular
biology and immunological diagnosis”
