An Adult GnAthostomA Worm EmErGEd from A lAotiAn WomAn Vol 49 No. 1 January 2018 1 Correspondence: Shigehisa Habe, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, Fukuoka University, Fukuoka, Japan. E-mail: shabe@vel.bbiq.jp SPONTANEOUS EMERGENCE OF A GNATHOSTOMA SPINIGERUM ADULT WORM FROM THE ABDOMINAL SKIN OF A LAOTIAN WOMAN: A CASE REPORT Rattanaphone Phetsouvanh 1 , Shigehisa Habe 2 , Poul Newton 1 , Manivanh Vongsouvaht 1 , Yoichiro Horii 3 , Pham Ngoc Doanh 4 and Yukifumi Nawa 5 1 Wellcome Trust-Mahosot Hospital–Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Collaboration, Microbiology Laboratory, Mahosot Hospital, Vientiane, Lao PDR; 2 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, Fukuoka University, Fukuoka, Japan; 3 Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitic Diseases, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Miyazaki, Japan; 4 Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; 5 Tropical Diseases Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand Abstract. Gnathostomiasis caused by infection with the Spirurine nematode, Gna- thostoma species, is a common fsh-borne parasitic zoonosis in Asia. We present here the case of the spontaneous emergence of an adult Gnathostoma spinigerum worm from the abdominal skin of a Laotian woman. We review the literature on gnathostomiasis and discover that infective G. spinigerum larvae can grow into immature and mature worms in humans more commonly than expected. Keywords: Gnathostoma spinigerum, adult worm, skin lesion, spontaneous emer- gence occurs when people ingest the intermedi- ate/paratenic hosts harboring Gnathostoma L3 (Nawa et al, 2015). Countries endemic for gnathostomiasis are found in Asia and Latin America, where people have a custom of eating raw or undercooked fsh or amphibians (Nawa et al, 2015). It is generally believed humans are not suitable defnitive hosts for Gnathos- toma species; L3 ingested by humans usually do not develop into adult worms (Nawa et al, 2015). Recovery of Gnathos- toma adult worms from humans has been reported occasionally (Daengsvang, 1980; Miyazaki, 1991). We report here the case of the spontaneous emergence of an adult Gnathostoma worm from the abdominal INTRODUCTION Gnathostomiasis is a disease caused by the nematode parasites belonging to the genus Gnathostoma (Nawa et al, 2015). It is a disease primarily of the skin and less frequently of the visceral organs (Nawa et al, 2015). The third stage larvae (L3) of Gnathostoma migrate through the tissues of the human body, preferentially to the skin, causing acute and chronic infamma- tion (Nawa et al, 2015). Human infection