Clinical varieties of Toxocariasis canis in Children's Hospital, Mansoura University: is it an underestimated problem?

Human toxocariasis is a worldwide parasitic disease. Children are more frequently infected because of the closer contact with contaminated soil and relatively frequent geophagia. Toxocariasis in children has variable modes of presentation but clinical diagnosis is difficult. Various clinical phenotypes of toxocariasis in symptomatic children attending Children's Hospital Mansoura University were studied. A total of 480 children were included in the study with mean age 7.24 +/- 4.22 years, 61.9% were boys and 200 age-sex-matched healthy controls. Patients were examined clinically, and the anti-Toxocara antibodies in the blood of children were performed by ELISA using T. canis larval excretory-secretory products as antigen. Eosinophils level in peripheral blood was measured. Sero-positive cases were 12 % of patients and only 3.5% of controls. Statistical analysis showed a significant association between infection and male sex (P <0.001). Sero-positive children were older than the sero-negative (P <0.001). Eosinophilia was detected in 86.2% of sero-positive children. Sero-positivity and degree of eosinophilia were more frequently detected among patients with allergy (bronchial asthma and urticaria). Degree of eosinophilia was found to be positively correlated to the optical density (OD) ELISA of anti-Toxocara IgG.