[Present Situation of Opisthorchiasis in Vientiane Capital, Lao Peoples' Democratic Republic].

Opisthorchiasis is the commonest liver disease caused by Opisthorchis viverrini in Thailand, Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) and Cambodia, which will be a major cause of future human cholangiocarcinoma in these regions. In this short review, we describe the epidemic aspects of this parasite infection and the outline of results of our recent surveys of the fluke in humans and its intermediate hosts in Vientiane Capital, where information on the opisthorchiasis epidemic is insufficient. We examined the stool from a total of 296 persons living in the Phailom village (population, 1545, 1999) from 2011 to 2012. As a result, the intestinal parasitism rate was very high from 54 to 59%. Among intestinal infections, O. viverrini infection was observed at highest rates from 51 to 53%. On the other hand, the rate of infection by nematodes was very low. We also conducted intermediate-host investigations in the river and damp areas at 3 villages in the Vientiane capital and 2 villages in Vientiane Province in 2012. As shown by these results, no Opisthorchis species was detected in 147 samples of the host genus Bythinia. However, metacercariae were detected in 3 samples of Cyclocheilichthys sp. and in a Hampala sp. in 303 cyprinid fishes collected from the Haikham village area of Vientiane Capital.