Hydatid Cysts Disease

Hydatid Cysts Disease is cause by the Echinococcus granulosus that uses dogs and other canines as the ultimate host but its life cycle also requires a variety of species of warm-blooded vertebrates like small game, large game, sheep, cattle, goats, and even humans as the transitional host. The adult worms are very small, usually consisting of only three proglottids (total length = 3-6 mm), and they live in the dog's small intestine. Eggs are liberated in the host's feces, and when these eggs are ingested by the intermediate host they hatch in the host's small intestine. The larvae in the eggs penetrate the gut wall and enter the circulatory system. The larvae can be distributed throughout the intermediate host's body (although most end up in the liver) and grow into a stage called a hydatid cyst. The infection is transmitted to the definitive

host when the hydatid cyst is eaten. As one might suspect, this species of parasite is more common in areas of the world where dogs are used to herd sheep or hunt wild animals. Hydatid cysts have the ability to grow quite large; cysts the size of golf balls are not uncommon, and cysts the size of basketballs are reported on rare occasions. One or two small cysts in the liver of a host might go unnoticed for years. However, a single large cyst in the liver could prove fatal. Hydatid disease is far more serious when the cysts are found in other locations, particularly the brain. Hydatid disease in humans remains a serious problem because the disease can cause such serious pathology.
The interior of a hydatid cyst is filled with "protoscolices" (singular = protoscolex), each of which has the ability to grow into an adult worm when ingested by a canine host. A small cyst might contain hundreds of protoscolices; a large cyst might contain tens of thousands! This tremendous reproductive potential poses a problem in the intermediate host (particularly in humans). If a hydatid cyst breaks open, each protoscolex could grow into a new hydatid cyst. A number of cases have been reported in which cysts have been damaged during routine surgery, allowing the cyst's contents to leak into the patient's abdominal cavity.

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