CHAPTER LXV 

 KATAYAMA DISEASE 



Synonyms — Definition — History — Climatology — initio logy — Pathology — 

 Morbid anatomy — Symptomatology — Varieties — Complications — Diag- 

 nosis — ^ Prognosis — Treatment — Prophylaxis — References. 



Synonyms.— Urticarial fever, Asiatic schistosomiasis, Schistosomiasis japonica, 

 Kabure (cutaneous symptoms). 



Definition. — -Katayama disease is caused by Schistosoma japonicum 

 Katsurada, 1904, and is characterized by urticarial and dysenteric 

 symptoms, painful enlargement of the liver and spleen, with or 

 without fever, dropsy, progressive ancemia, and sometimes pulmo- 

 nary and brain symptoms. 



History.— In 1887 Mazimi drew attention to a peculiar form of 

 cirrhosis of the liver which was found in certain districts in Japan, 

 and was caused by the ova of some unknown parasite. His dis- 

 covery was confirmed, and the ova were found in other organs 

 besides the liver ; and the disease, which became well known among 

 Japanese medical men, was named ' Katayama disease,' from a 

 town in Bingo, one of the districts in which it is common. In 1904 

 Katsurada, who was resident in the infected area, discovered that 

 the ova were those of a Schistosoma, and, further, found the 

 adults in the portal vein of a cat. He named the parasite 

 Schistosoma japonicim. In the same year Fujinami discovered a 

 female worm in a human being. Meanwhile Catto found the same 

 parasite in a Chinaman from Fakien, and described it in 1905, and 

 in the same year Stiles and Looss gave accounts of the disease. In 

 1906 Woolley, in a most excellent paper, described its occurrence 

 in the Philippine Islands. Logan has found it in a Chinaman from 

 Hunan, and in 1909 Peake recorded three cases from a small town 

 on the Siang River, in the Hunan province of Central China. In 

 1911 Houghton, Logan, and Lambert, drew attention to cases of 

 fever with urticaria, and eosinophilia connected with infections with 

 S. japonicum. 



In the same year Edgar drew attention to this fever in the Yangtze 

 Valley, near Hankow, and noted that nearly every patient had 

 bathed or waded in marshy ground near the river. 



In 1912 Miyagawa did not beheve that the worm was the cause of 

 the dermatitis. 



In 1913 Miyairi and Suzuki noticed that the eggs of the worm, 

 when kept for one to two hours in faeces and water at a suitable 



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