The epidemiological picture of human fascioliasis has changed in recent yea
rs. The number of reports of humans infected with Fasciola hepatica has inc
reased significantly since 1980 and several geographical areas have been de
scribed as endemic for the disease in humans, with prevalence and intensity
ranging from low to very high. High prevalence of fascioliasis in humans d
oes not necessarily occur in areas where fascioliasis is a major veterinary
problem. Human fascioliasis can no longer be considered merely as a second
ary zoonotic disease but must be considered to be an important human parasi
tic disease. Accordingly, we present in this article a proposed new classif
ication for the epidemiology of human fascioliasis. The following situation
s are distinguished: imported cases; autochthonous, isolated, nonconstant c
ases; hypo-, meso-, hyper-, and holoendemics; epidemics in areas where fasc
ioliasis is endemic in animals but not humans; and epidemics in human endem
ic areas.