Anisakis and Anisakiasis: General aspects and cu-rrent situation in Colombia

Abstract

Anisakidosis is a parasitic disease derived from the con-sumption of infective larvae from Anisakidae family. In Europe and Asia is a public health problem, howe-ver, in Colombia and South American countries is little known. The objective is to review Anikids general as-pects and find out about the current situation of this disease in Colombia. Search of MeSH and DeCS terms, through MEDLINE, Cochrane, Embase, and Scopus da-tabases, complemented with grey literature from SciE-LO and Google Scholar, was made. One case report and six host records were included. Records of fish for human consumption from Pacific Ocean parasitized by Anisakis sp., Anisakis physeteris and Pseudoterranova decipiens are described, as well as for fish from Atlantic Ocean and inland waters with genera Pseudoterrano-va and Contracaecum. Anisakidosis represents a latent risk for Colombia; it is necessary to establish effective legislations for an efficient control of the emergence of this parasitic disease, as well as to educate people about needed precautions considering fish consumption.

Keywords

• anisakis
• colombia
• emerging disease
• zoonoses