Nematodes are roundworms characterized by a tough outer cuticle, unsegmented bodies, and a fully developed gastrointestinal tract. The order Strongylida includes hookworms and lungworms. Metastrongyloidea are characterized as 2-cm-long, slender, threadlike worms that reside in the lungs of the definitive host. Angiostrongylus costaricensis is a closely related worm that causes intestinal angiostrongyliasis in Central and South America. Epidemiology and pathogenesis
Following World War II, A. cantonensis spread throughout Southeast Asia and Western Pacific Islands, including Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Cases were soon reported in New Caledonia, the Philippines, Rarotonga, Saipan, Sumatra, Taiwan, and Tahiti. In the 1960s, even more cases were reported from the region from locations such as Cambodia, Guam, Hawaii, Java, Thailand, Sarawak, Vietnam, and Vanuatu.In 1961, an epidemiological study of eosinophilic meningitis in humans was conducted by Rosen, Laigret, and Bories, who hypothesized that the parasite causing these infections was carried by fish. However, Alicata noted that raw fish was consumed by large numbers of people in Hawaii without apparent consequences, and patients presenting with meningitis symptoms had a history of eating raw snails or prawns in the weeks before presenting with symptoms. This observation, along with epidemiology and autopsy of infected brains, confirmed A. cantonensis infection in humans as the cause of the majority of eosinophilic meningitis cases in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.Since then, cases of A. cantonensis infestations have appeared in American Samoa, Australia, Hong Kong, Bombay, Fiji, Hawaii, Honshu, India, Kyushu, New Britain, Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands, Western Samoa, and most recently mainland China.
The best mechanism of prevention of A. cantonesis outbreak is to institute an aggressive control of snail and slug population, proper cooking of intermediate and paratenic hosts such as fish, freshwater prawn, frogs, molluscs, and snails along with proper food-handling techniques. The common prevention techniques for diarrheal illness are very effective in preventing A. cantonensis infection. Not much is known about why it targets the brain in humans, but a chemically induced chemotaxis has been implicated recently. Acetylcholine has been previously reported to enhance motility of this worm via nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Experimental assays in animal models are needed to validate a chemically induced chemotaxis  by use of anticholinergic drugs to prevent cerebral infection following infections by A. cantonesis. Hosts
Intermediate hosts of larvae of for A. cantonensis include:

Land snails: Thelidomus aspera from Jamaica, Pleurodonte sp. from Jamaica, Sagda sp. from Jamaica, Poteria sp. from Jamaica, Achatina fulica, Satsuma mercatoria, Acusta despecta, Bradybaena brevispira, Bradybaena circulus Bradybaena ravida, Bradybaena similaris, Plectotropis appanata and Parmarion martensi from Okinawa and Hawaii, Camaena cicatricosa, Trichochloritis rufopila, Trichochloritis hungerfordianus and Cyclophorus spp.