TROPICAL PULMONARY EOSINOPHILIA MASQUERADING AS ACUTE BRONCHIAL-ASTHMA

With the influx of immigrants from developing countries, deployment of American troops on foreign soil, and wide-ranging travel patterns of some United States citizens, one should expect an increase in the freq uency of parasitic pulmonary diseases, We report a case of tropical pu lmonary eosinophilia in a recent immigrant to Upstate New York from In dia. Tropical pulmonary eosinophilia is unfamiliar to most physicians practicing in North America, but should be included in the differentia l diagnosis of asthmatic bronchitis with hypereosinophilia when there is a history of recent travel to or residence in endemic areas. Furthe rmore, knowledge of this entity should also help in the differential d iagnosis of other hypereosinophilic syndromes.