Research Articles

Human Gongylonema infection in a resident of New York City

A case of infection with Gongylonema is described in a 41-year-old woman living in New York City. The patient sought medical attention with the complaint of a sensation of 1-year duration of something moving in her mouth. On two occasions she removed worms from her mouth, once from her lip, once from the gum. One of the specimens submitted for examination was an adult female Gongylonema. It is not possible to say whether the infection was acquired in New York City, or elsewhere, since the patient traveled frequently to Mississippi to visit relatives. As cases of delusional parasitosis continue to increase, clinicians and laboratorians alike need to be alert to the possibility that foreign objects removed from the mouth, or elsewhere, may indeed represent unusual parasitic infections, and that these objects should be examined before being discarded.