TABLE 2.

Parasite taxa newly described or reported from humans from January 2016 through December 2017^a

Category	Scientific name	Source(s)	Defining laboratory characteristics	Clinical relevance	Reference
Tissue protozoa	“Tetratrichomonas empyemagena”	Pleural fluid, oral cavity	Sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1)-5.8S rRNA-ITS2 region	Detected in pleural empyema fluid in conjunction with bacteria; clinical relevance not well understood.	11
Tissue nematodes	Thelazia gulosa	Conjunctiva	Morphologic features of the female reproductive tract and the form of the buccal cavity	Thelaziasis, zoonotic ocular nematode infection associated with conjunctivitis, foreign body sensation, and excessive lacrimation	10
	“Dirofilaria hongkongensis”	Cervical lymph nodes, abdominal and subconjunctival subcutaneous masses	Sequence analysis of cox1 gene and the 18S-ITS1-5.8S gene	Subcutaneous dirofilariasis (tender, erythematous nodule) and cervical lymphadenopathy	13

^aAlso included in this table are clinically important revisions that were not addressed in Simner (2).