Invasive Pomacea snails as important intermediate hosts of Angiostrongylus cantonensis in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam: Implications for outbreaks of eosinophilic meningitis

The rat lungworm Angiostrongylus cantonensis causes human eosinophilic meningitis and it is endemic in Southeast Asia, but little is known about its distribution in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. We conducted a multi-country survey for A. cantonensis in these countries to estimate its prevalence in snails along the Mekong River and the east coast of Vietnam. We identified Angiostrongylus species by morphological and molecular analysis. We found A. cantonensis in the invasive snail, Pomacea spp. The wide accessibility of Pomacea snails, along with their infection by A. cantonensis, indicates that this snail species could be used in surveillance for preventing outbreaks of eosinophilic meningitis.