TABLE 5.

Differential diagnosis of trichinellosis^a

Clinical finding	Disease to be differentiated
Protracted diarrhea	Salmonellosis, shigellosis, and other viral, bacterial, or parasitic infections of the gastrointestinal tract
High fever and myalgia	Influenza virus infection
Periorbital or facial edema with fever	Glomerulonephritis, serum sickness, toxic-allergic reactions to drugs or allergens, polymyositis, periarteritis nodosa, dermatomyositis
High fever and neurological symptoms without
periorbital edema	Typhoid fever
Intense headaches, fever, nuchal pseudorigidity with blurred consciousness and drowsiness, irritability,
and neurological symptoms	Cerebrospinal meningitis, encephalitis, neuroinfections
Intraconjunctival hemorrhages, intradermal petechiae, fever	Leptospirosis, bacterial endocarditis, and typhus exanthematicus
Eosinophilia combined with myalgia and an inflammatory
response	Eosinophilia-myalgia syndromes (e.g., toxic oil syndrome, trytophan intake, and eosinophilic fasciitis)
Eosinophilia combined with fever	Fasciolasis, toxocarosis, and invasive schistosomosis

^aBased on data from references 26 and 29.