Infection with fish tapeworms of
the genus Diphyllobothrium is called diphyllobothriasis.
Humans become infected by eating raw or poorly cooked fish. The most
frequent species found in humans is the broad fish tapeworm, Diphyllobothrium
latum, geographically located in regions of North America,
especially Alaska and northern Canada, Europe, Japan, and Russia,
including Siberia. In Latin America, D pacificum has
also been found in humans on the Pacific coast of Peru, Chile, and
Ecuador (where raw marine fish are prepared with lemon as cebiche),
and Japan.1 Several other species of Diphyllobothrium also
infect humans, especially in Alaska. Usually, other definitive hosts,
such as bears, dogs, and cats, maintain the infections in nature,
and humans are incidentally involved.1,2