Lawrence Ash

Professor Emeritus Lawrence R. Ash has a long-standing interest in the diagnosis of parasitic disease infections. One of the vehicles of this interest is the development of two major reference textbooks. These two texts are: 1. Lawrence R. Ash and Thomas C. Orihel. Atlas of Human Parasitology, 5th 2. Thomas C. Orihel and Lawrence R. Ash. Parasites in Human Tissues. ed. ASCP Press, 2007. This edition has also been translated into Spanish and is published by Editorial Medica Panamericana, 2010. ASCP Press, 1995. In addition, Professor Ash has research interests encompassing nematode infections of humans. These include ascaridoid parasites, filarial infections and lungworm infections. In recent years, he has focused on infections caused by Baylisascaris procyonis, a raccoon parasite causing a larva migrans infection in children primarily, and Angiostrongylus cantonensis, a rat lungworm infection causing eosinophilic meningitis in humans throughout much of the world.

Related Tags

Areas of Interest

  • Zoonotic parasitic diseases
  • Ecology, biology, pathology and systematics of nematodes in general and filariae, metastrongylids and ascarids in particular
  • Epidemiology of parasitic infections

Selected Publications

  • Shafir SC, Wise ME, Sorvillo FJ, Ash LR Central Nervous System andEye Manifestations of Infection with Baylisascaris procyonis. Current Infectious Disease Reports 2006; 8(4): 307-313.
  • Petithory JC, Ardoin F, Ash LR. Rapid and inexpensive method of diluting Giemsa stain for diagnosis of malaria and other infestations by blood parasites. J Clin Microbiol 2005; 43(1):
  • Wise ME, Sorvillo FJ, Shafir SC, Ash LR, Berlin OG Severe and fatal central nervous system disease in humans caused by Baylisascaris procyonis, the common roundworm of raccoons: a review of current literature. Microbes Infections 2005; 7(2): 317-323.
  • Sorvillo FJ, Portigal L, DeGiorgio C, Smith L, Waterman SH, Berlin GW, Ash LR. Cysticercosis-related deaths, California. Emerg Infect Dis. 2004; 10(3): 465-9.
  • Sorvillo F, Ash LR, Berlin OG, Morse SA. Baylisascaris procyonis: an emerging helminthic zoonosis. Emerg Infect Dis. 2002; 8(4): 355-9.