Abstract

Summary

• 1.  Four unusual cases of filarial infection are reported from man.
• 2.  In one case, believed to be unique, peripheral night's blood of a Palestinian patient revealed post-microfilarial embryos and rhabditoid larvae of a filaria considered to be Wuchereria bancrofti, stages which are characteristically found only in the body of the mosquito intermediate host. It is suggested that micro-filariae which reached the skin from a visceral focus became trapped there and proceeded with their development and metamorphosis.
• 3.  In a second case (Colombia) a single fertile female (W. bancrofti?) was recovered at necropsy from a small pulmonary artery.
• 4.  In two cases single filariae were obtained from deep cutaneous nodules, one from the upper eyelid of a patient at West Palm Beach, and one from the arm of a patient at Jacksonville, Florida. The former worm was an immature female but study of the anterior end indicated that it belongs to the genus Dirofilaria and is apparently a specimen of D. conjunctivae. The second worm is a mature infertile female, of which only the middle and posterior portions were available for study; it is regarded as probably a specimen of the same species. It is suggested the D. conjunctivae may possibly be D. immitis in an inappropriate host.