Abstract
Spirocercosis is a parasitic disease caused by the nematode Spirocerca lupi that affects several canids around the world. In Costa Rica, few spirocercosis cases have been reported; however, it is suspected that the infection is currently underdiagnosed. As seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, social media has sped up the spread of scientific knowledge, raising practioner’s awareness of the epidemiology and signs and manifestations of infections. The aim of this work was to use social media as a tool for increasing awareness of spirocercosis among veterinarians and investigate the frequency of cases occurring in Costa Rica. Infographic material about the infection was disseminated by Whatsapp, Facebook, and Instagram from January 2021 to July 2022 using a public account of the Laboratory of Helminthology of the University of Costa Rica. In addition, Google Forms questionnaires were completed by veterinarians to report the number of spirocercosis cases in their clinics, associated manifestations, diagnosis, treatment, and outcome of the disease. Remarkably, since 2020, a six-fold increase in the number of cases per year was noted. Clinical manifestations matched those reported elsewhere, and one of every three dogs infected with S. lupi died spontaneously or required euthanasia because of the infection. This work suggests that S. lupi infection in Costa Rica may have been underdiagnosed in the last decade, and the knowledge and awareness of clinical personnel play a major role in the detection of this and other infectious diseases.
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All data compiled in the survey is shown in the results of the manuscript. Nevertheless, raw data can be sent upon request to the corresponding author.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank all veterinary practitioners that kindly contributed to the survey.
Funding
This work was supported by the Vicerrectoría de Investigación, University of Costa Rica under grant No. 2064.
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AR and CP-S: study conceptualization, CP-S and AS-B: data analysis, IA-H, EA, and AJ-R: obtained data about spirocercosis cases, CP-S and AR: writing original draft, all authors: writing–review and editing; AR: supervision, and funding acquisition
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Porras-Silesky, C., Solano-Barquero, A., Jiménez-Rocha, A. et al. Social media as a tool for detecting underdiagnosed parasitic infections: the case of spirocercosis. Parasitol Res 123, 29 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-023-08054-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-023-08054-4