Epidemiological and diagnostic findings during a 16-year-long trichinellosis surveillance in Timis County, Romania

The main source of trichinellosis in Romania is insufficiently cooked pork infected with Trichinella spiralis. Timis, the largest Romanian county, is located in the western part of the country where pork and traditional food prepared from pork are extensively consumed. The objective of the present study was to conduct a retrospective investigation of the incidence of human trichinellosis in Timis County over a period of 16 years (1990-2005). The medical records of 521 patients were used as the source of data. Patients were hospitalized at “Victor Babes” Hospital of Infectious Diseases from Timisoara during the period 1990-2005. The highest number of cases was recorded in 1994 (16.90%) and most of the patients were in the age group of 20-29 (23.22%). Males and females were almost equally affected by trichinellosis. The clinical pattern was mainly characterised by myalgia (72.55%) and edema (54.12%). Laboratory investigations included mainly elevated eosinophil and leucocyte values. In 52.02% of the patients, the hospitalization period ranged between 8 and 14 days. Most of the patients were from urban areas, but often the source of infection was found in rural areas. Hospitalization of the affected patients required considerable health care resources. The decreasing incidence of trichinellosis in Romania over the last decade has been due to sanitary education programmes for both swine breeders and consumers.