Liver Fluke, Opisthorchis viverrini, Vaccine – The Future Hope

Liver fluke, Opisthorchis viverrini, is an important parasite that can cause chronic biliary tract infestation and can further induce a deadly cancer namely cholangiocarcinoma. This infestation is endemic in Southeast Asia, at Mekong River Indochina Region. At this area, there is a very high incidence of cholangiocarcinoma.The prevention of this disease is the present public health policies of the local government. The campaign composing of abstinence from raw fish intake, routine stool examination and mass antiparasitic drug treatment is used. However, the problem is not successful managed. The use of the liver fluke vaccine is the hope for the future successful disease control. There are some recent reports on this aspect. The searching for proper antigenic proteins and epitopes is very interesting.