Racoon Round Worms - Emerging Zoonosis

[indigo girl]

http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2009/08/raccoon_latrines_not_in_my_bac.php#more

Who knew?

...raccoons are also frequently infected with round worms, the aforementioned B. procyonis. And if we ingest a lot of these eggs, we can get infected, too. And human infections with B. procyonis are very bad news. You can end up dead or with serious brain damage. Very young children are most likely to do this and several cases have been described that ended tragically. Human raccoon roundworm infection has been very rarely diagnosed -- only 14 cases in 30 years, but 5 cases were fatal -- but this is partly because extraordinary efforts are made to diagnose serious encephalitis when there are additional signs (e.g., certain blood tests) which suggest a parasite might be involved. How often less serious or even subclinical infection occurs we don't know, but with raccoons in densely populated areas increasing, this is an emerging zoonosis (a disease spread from animals to humans) to keep an eye on.

Reported cases have been widely distributed geographically (California, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, and Pennsylvania)...

The Editors of Effect Measure are senior public health scientists and practitioners. Paul Revere was a member of the first local Board of Health in the United States (Boston, 1799). The Editors sign their posts "Revere" to recognize the public service of a professional forerunner better known for other things.

[country mom]

Just wondering, how does one become exposed to a raccoon-borne parasite? Raccoons are not exactly a friendly animal. I know of a few people who kept orphan baby raccoons as pets, it that the most likely scenario for exposure? Or, does one become exposed after being in the woods and then not washing one's hands? Really, you don't want to get close to a wild raccoon anyway, they're very wild and not friendly to humans. Seriously, they are not a species suitable for a pet.

[Ruthiegal]

You don't have to handle them to get the round worms.... it comes from contact with their feces, and it can be in the dirt or anywhere that they travel at night. Yes they are nocturnal and if you see one in the daytime please avoid it and call animal control it is probably sick with rabies....

[indigo girl]

I could see kids infected by handling the feces, not knowing what it was, and not washing their hands before eating or putting hands in mouth.

Easy to imagine dogs ingesting undigested food present in raccoon feces. They do this all the time if they have access to cat litter boxes.

Not a common occurrence, just an interesting one...

I have been up close and personal with more than one raccoon in the past 3 years when I lived in New England. One was trapped in our attic when the roof was being redone. I woke up to find it looking in at me in my bed. It scared the heck out of me!! I had no idea that they could be so BIG.

[bekindtokittens]

There is a new show on Animal Planet called Monsters Inside Me, and it shows cases of different people who have been infected with parasites.

One of the cases was a toddler who picked up raccoon feces and ate them while outside with his parents. He became infected with Baylisascaris procyonis and ended up with brain damage. The show said he was lucky to have survived.

Here's a link.

http://animal.discovery.com/invertebrates/monsters-inside-me/baylisascaris-raccoon-roundworm/

[DeLana_RN, BSN, RN]

Great, just what I needed to read (I have young kids)... it's bad enough to worry about raccoons and rabies. I guess we'll have to get rid of the compost pile

DeLana