Strongyloides fuelleborni kellyi: infection and disease in Papua New Guinea

Abstract

A series o f unexplained deaths of two-month-old babies at on isolated mission station in Papua New Guinea led to the description o f a parasitic disease with unique and intriguing features. The parasite was named Strongyloides fuelleborni kellyi; S. fuelleborni is normally a parasite of non-human primates in Africa and Asia and of humans in Africa. How did the new subspecies reach non-human primate-free New Guinea? How do infants become infected in the first few days after birth? Why is the fatal disease restricted to two small areas while the infection itself is widespread? Ten years of study have only begun to indicate answers, as discussed here by Dick Ashford, Guy Barnish and Mark Viney.