Experimental human infection with Fibricola cratera (Trematoda: Neodiplostomidae)

Fibricola cratera is a strigeoid trematode indigenous to North America that, heretofore, was known only to infect wild mammals. Herein, it is reported that an experimental inoculation of a human volunteer produced a patellt infection that lasted 40 months. Symptoms of epigastric discomfort, loose stools and flatulence occurred over the first year of infection and ameliorated thereafter. Eggs per gram of stool were low (${\leq}2$) throughout the course of infection and were not detected by the standard technique of formalin-ether concentration. To monitor infection, the entire stool sample was examined each month after sieving through No. 10 (pore size 2 mm) and 100 (pore size $145{\;}{\mu\textrm{m}}$) sieves and collecting eggs on a No. 325 (pore size $45{\;}{\mu\textrm{m}}$) sieve. This is the first report of a North American strigeoid trematode capable of maturing in a human and is only the second species of strigeoid known to do so. The other species is F. seoulensis which has been implicated in 26 human infections in Korea.