Question:hard
A 36-year-old male presents with cough, cold, fever and rusty sputum. Sputum is negative for tuberculosis. He has a history of travel to China and eating crab. Name the infection.
A 36-year-old male presents with cough, cold, fever and rusty sputum. Sputum is negative for tuberculosis. He has a history of travel to China and eating crab. Name the infection.
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Crab ingestion plus rusty sputum mimicking TB points to a lung fluke.
Updated On: Jun 23, 2026
- Paragonimus westermani
- Fasciola hepatica
- Fasciolopsis buski
- Entamoeba histolytica
Show Solution
The Correct Option is A
Solution and Explanation
Step 1: The combination of eating crab in an East Asian region plus lung symptoms is the classic clue to paragonimiasis caused by Paragonimus westermani.
Step 2: After ingestion the fluke migrates to the lungs, where it causes the most damage and produces a chronic productive cough with rust-coloured, blood-stained sputum.
Step 3: Because this mimics pulmonary tuberculosis but with TB-negative sputum, the diagnosis is supported by finding the parasite eggs in sputum, along with eosinophilia.
Step 4: The other flukes listed do not lodge in the lung and amoeba causes intestinal disease, so the lung fluke is correct and praziquantel is the drug of choice.
\[\boxed{\text{Paragonimus westermani}}\]
Step 2: After ingestion the fluke migrates to the lungs, where it causes the most damage and produces a chronic productive cough with rust-coloured, blood-stained sputum.
Step 3: Because this mimics pulmonary tuberculosis but with TB-negative sputum, the diagnosis is supported by finding the parasite eggs in sputum, along with eosinophilia.
Step 4: The other flukes listed do not lodge in the lung and amoeba causes intestinal disease, so the lung fluke is correct and praziquantel is the drug of choice.
\[\boxed{\text{Paragonimus westermani}}\]
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