During the initial stage of infection, diarrhea, nausea, and malaise are common. Some cases are complicated by urticaria, splinter hemorrhages, and angioedema. The primary symptom of laryngeal involvement is hoarseness. Trichinosis should be suspected by the history and by eosinophilia. Diagnosis can be made by serologic testing and by muscle biopsy.
Treatment is with a seven-day course of thiabendazole.
Leishmaniasis Leishmaniasis, although uncommon in the United States, is indigenous throughout the rest of the world. It is estimated that there are 12 million cases world-wide. The organism infects rodents and dogs, and transmission to man is usually from an animal, although the bite of an intermediate host, the sandfly, may cause the disease as well. While there are several clinical forms of the disease, the mucocutaneous form, caused by L. braziliensis and L. mexicana , is the one that most commonly involves the airway. Espundia, the form caused by L. mexicana , is endemic in south-central Texas.