Human trichinellosis in Southeast Asia, 2001–2021

To present the situation of human trichinellosis in Southeast Asia in the last 20th years we analyzed outbreak data and seroprevalence studies from 2001 to 2021 for this region. We queried PubMed (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) using keywords “Trichinella”, “human” and “Southeast Asia”. In addition, we described Trichinella species circulating in this region.

In Southeast Asia, in communities eating pork, several cultural factors play important roles in the transmission of Trichinella to humans. The seroprevalences of Trichinella infection in humans are known for Laos and Vietnam to be 0–10.5% in some villages. Also, in Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam relatively few human outbreaks (13) and cases (1604) have been recorded during the last 21st years. Their associated mortality rates were low (0.75%). Trichinella spiralis and T. papuae were transmitted after consumption of raw or undercooked pork from domesticated and wild pigs. T. papuae transmission was related to consumption of wild boar. In this region, trichinellosis was frequently subclinical and clinical or severe cases were sporadic and occurred more in male patients. Nevertheless, it is likely that trichinellosis is widely under-diagnosed and is an endemic disease.