‘Hydatoxi lualba’, an artefact

Blood samples from controls, pre-eclamptic patients and cord blood from their infants were examined for the so-called Hydatoxi lualba parasite. Using a further modified TBO staining technique on blood-smears made on slides cleaned manually, the ‘eggs, larva and worms’ could be demonstrated to be successive stages of artefacts originating from threads deposited by the cotton swabs used in manual cleaning. These successive stages of ‘worms’ could only rarely be found in smears made on industrially cleaned slides.