The discovery of Angiostrongylus cantonensis as a cause of human eosinophilic meningitis

Abstract The theoretical and subsequent confirmation in 1961 of the rat lungworm, Angiostrongylus cantonensis , as the causative agent o f eosinophilic meningitis is one o f the remarkable parasitological findings of the twentieth century. Here, Joseph Alicato briefly summarizes the early history and his epidemiological studies on the relationship between the parasite and the epidemics o f encephalitis that swept through Oceania after the Second World War.