Case study 5.
A young man from southeast Japan became alarmed when he developed a cough,
which grew more severe over a period of several weeks, and then he noted flecks
of blood in his sputum. He knew that a number of species of parasites were often
present in raw or poorly cooked crabs and other seafood. The treating physician
suspected pneumonia and obtained a chest X-ray as well as a sputum culture for
pathogenic bacteria. The sputum culture was negative for bacterial pathogens and
the chest X-ray did not reveal infiltrates suggestive of pneumonia. The physician conferred
with a particularly astute microbiologist, who suggested a wet mount of a
repeat sputum specimen and, upon examination, found helminth eggs. What is the
probable causative condition and species of the eggs of the organism represented in
the sputum?