TABLE 6.

Case definition for human trichinellosis according to the European Center for Disease Control^a

Criterion group	Prerequisites and case classificationb
Clinical	At least three of the following six: fever, muscle soreness and pain, gastrointestinal symptoms, facial edema, eosinophilia, and subconjunctival, subungual, and retinal hemorrhages
Laboratory	At least one of the following two laboratory tests: demonstration of Trichinella larvae in tissue obtained by muscle biopsy and demonstration of Trichinella-specific antibody response by indirect immunofluorescence, ELISA, or Western blot (i.e., seroconversion)
Epidemiological	At least one of the following three: consumption of laboratory-confirmed parasitized meat, consumption of potentially parasitized products from a laboratory-confirmed infected animal, epidemiological link to a laboratory-confirmed human case by exposure to the same common source

^aModified from reference 29 with permission of the publisher.

^bCase classification is as follows: possible case, not applicable; probable case, any person meeting the clinical criteria and with an epidemiological link; confirmed case, any person meeting the laboratory criteria and with clinical criteria within the past 2 months (to be reported to the European Union level).