Gymnophalloides seoi eggs from the stool of a 17th century female mummy found in Hadong, Republic of Korea.
It was previously reported that paleoparasitological clues for parasites infecting humans could be found in the feces of mummies of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) in the Republic of Korea. Here, we report the presence of trematode eggs, including Clonorchis sinensis, Metagonimus yokogawai, and Gymnophalloides seoi (a human parasite known in Korea since 1993) in the feces of a recently excavated female mummy in Hadong, Republic of Korea. This is the first report of the discovery of a G. seoi infection in a human mummy. Since Hadong is currently not an endemic area for G. seoi, we speculate that the parasite might have occurred frequently along coastal areas of the Korean peninsula several hundred years ago and that the endemic areas contracted to, more or less, restricted regions since that time.
Department of Parasitology, College of Medicine, Dankook University, Chonan 330-714, South Korea.
Min
M
Seo
Dong Hoon
DH
Shin
Sang-Mee
SM
Guk
Chang Seok
CS
Oh
Eun-Joo
EJ
Lee
Myung Ho
MH
Shin
Myeung Ju
MJ
Kim
Soong Deok
SD
Lee
Yi-Suk
YS
Kim
Yang Su
YS
Yi
Mark
M
Spigelman
Jong-Yil
JY
Chai
D000818:Animals; D005243:Feces / Q000469:parasitology; D049670:History, 17th Century; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea; D009106:Mummies / Q000469:parasitology*; D010125:Ostreidae / Q000469:parasitology; D014200:Trematoda / Q000302:isolation & purification; D014201:Trematode Infections / Q000266:history* / Q000469:parasitology