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A souvenir from the Pacific Islands

Consultant Neurologist, Tauranga Hospital, Pvt Bag 12024, Tauranga, New Zealand; andrew.chancellor@bopdhb.govt.nz

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The paper "Eosinophilic myelitis, a souvenir from South East Asia" in the February issue,¹ describes a patient with Gnathostoma spinigerum infection. Although, quite rightly, Dr Schmutzhard alerts physicians to this possibility in travellers returning to Europe from South East Asia, for those of us in the Antipodes, most cases of eosinophilic meningitis come from the Pacific Islands and the causative agent is mainly Angiostrongylus cantonensis.

I have seen two patients with this form of meningitis over recent years, both of whom acquired the infection in Fiji. One, with very striking sensory symptoms, was included in this journal in December 2005.² The second presented in the past month—a New Zealand resident who is establishing a resort in Fiji and was forced to return to family here, most unwell, with headache of raised intracranial pressure, meningitic symptoms and milder sensory features. Subsequent CSF serology confirmed Angiostrongylus exposure.

The South Pacific is . . . [Full text of this article]