Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (aidasyafinaz87@gmail.com; rohela@ummc.edu.my; johnjeffery4@gmail.com; yllau@ummc.edu.my; noisha@ummc.edu.my)
  • 2 Department of Medicine, University Malaya Medical Centre, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (drsridharganiga@yahoo.coml)
  • 3 Museum of Zoology, Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (johnwilson@um.edu.my)
J Med Entomol, 2016 Sep 01;53(5):1234-1237.
PMID: 27208008 DOI: 10.1093/jme/tjw071

Abstract

We report an unusual cause of gastrointestinal infection occurring in a 1-year-old infant patient who was brought to a public hospital in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Larvae passed out in the patient's feces were confirmed by DNA barcoding as belonging to the species, Lasioderma serricorne (F.), known as the cigarette beetle. We postulate that the larvae were acquired from contaminated food and were responsible for gastrointestinal symptoms in the patient. To our knowledge, this the first report of human canthariasis caused by larvae of L. serricorne.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.