Trichinellosis Outbreak

摘要

To the Editor: Trichinellosis is azoonotic disease caused by the nema-tode Trichinella. Although nowuncommon as a result of public healthcontrol measures, trichinellosis out-breaks have been reported in theUnited States (1), Europe (2,3),Mexico (4), Thailand (5), Canada (6),Lebanon (7–10), and elsewhere.In Israel, the disease is rarebecause most Jewish and Muslim cit-izens avoid eating pork. Until 1997,only 6 small outbreaks were reportedin humans; they occurred mostly inthe Christian Arab population.However, from 1998 to 2004, 10 sim-ilar trichinellosis outbreaks involving200 Thai migrant agricultural workersoccurred. The workers all took part infestive meals whose main dish wasuninspected wild boar, hunted in theUpper Galilee in northern Israel, nearthe Lebanese border. Wild boar wasalso the source of several large out-breaks that were reported from 1975to 1997 in southern Lebanon (7–10).