Search results for "Tropical disease"
showing 10 items of 70 documents
Regression of Severe Tungiasis-Associated Morbidity after Prevention of Re-Infestation: A Case Series from Rural Madagascar
2013
Tungiasis (sand flea disease) is a neglected tropical disease. Heavy infestation results in mutilation of the feet and difficulty in walking. We identified eight individuals with extremely severe tungiasis in rural Madagascar. To prevent reinfestation, four individuals received solid shoes and four received a daily application of an herbal repellent effective against Tunga penetrans. Over a period of 10 weeks the feet were examined and the severity of tungiasis- associated morbidity was measured. Within this period, the severity score for acute tungiasis decreased 41% in the shoe group and 89% in the repellent group. The four major inflammation-related symptoms disappeared in the four patie…
Predicting dengue fever outbreaks in French Guiana using climate indicators
2016
Background Dengue fever epidemic dynamics are driven by complex interactions between hosts, vectors and viruses. Associations between climate and dengue have been studied around the world, but the results have shown that the impact of the climate can vary widely from one study site to another. In French Guiana, climate-based models are not available to assist in developing an early warning system. This study aims to evaluate the potential of using oceanic and atmospheric conditions to help predict dengue fever outbreaks in French Guiana. Methodology/Principal Findings Lagged correlations and composite analyses were performed to identify the climatic conditions that characterized a typical e…
Novel M. tuberculosis specific IL-2 ELISpot assay discriminates adult patients with active or latent tuberculosis
2018
Background Tuberculosis (TB) still is a major worldwide health problem, with 10.4 million new cases in 2016. Only 5–15% of people infected with M. tuberculosis develop TB disease while others remain latently infected (LTBI) during their lifetime. Thus, the absence of tests able to distinguish between latent infection and active tuberculosis is one of the major limits of currently available diagnostic tools. Methods A total of 215 patients were included in the study as active TB cases (n = 73), LTBI subjects (n = 88) and healthy persons (n = 54). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from each patient and the LIOSpot® TB anti-human IL-2 ELISpot assay was performed to test …
"Treatment is of primary importance, and social assistance is secondary": A qualitative study on the organisation of tuberculosis (TB) care and patie…
2018
Background Vulnerable individuals with tuberculosis (TB) struggle to access and stay on treatment. While patient-related and social barriers to TB treatment adherence are well documented, less is known about how the organisation and delivery of TB care influences adherence behaviour. Aim To examine the influence of TB service organisation and culture on patients’ experience of starting and staying on treatment in Riga, Latvia. Methods An intervention package to support adherence to TB treatment amongst vulnerable patients in Riga, Latvia was piloted between August 2016 and March 2017. Qualitative observations (5), interviews with staff (20) and with TB patients (10) were conducted mid-way a…
Proteomic analysis of Kveim reagent identifies targets of cellular immunity in sarcoidosis
2017
Background Kveim-reagent (Kv) skin testing was a historical method of diagnosing sarcoidosis. Intradermal injection of treated sarcoidosis spleen tissue resulted in a granuloma response at injection site by 4–6 weeks. Previous work indicates proteins as the possible trigger of this reaction. We aimed to identify Kv-specific proteins and characterise the ex vivo response of Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) from sarcoidosis, tuberculosis and healthy control patients when stimulated with both Kv and selected Kv-specific proteins. Methods Kv extracts were separated by 1D-SDS-PAGE and 2D-DIGE and then underwent mass spectrometric analysis for protein identification. Sarcoidosis and con…
Performance of QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus for detection of latent tuberculosis infection in pregnant women living in a tuberculosis- and HIV-endemic se…
2017
We evaluated the performance of QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus (QFT-Plus), which includes two Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigen formulations (TB1 and TB2), for detection of latent tuberculosis infection during pregnancy. Eight-hundred-twenty-nine Ethiopian pregnant women (5.9% HIV-positive) were tested with QFT-Plus, with bacteriological sputum analysis performed for women with clinically suspected tuberculosis and HIV-positive women irrespective of clinical presentation. QFT-Plus read-out was categorized according to the conventional cut-off (0.35 IU/ml) for both antigen formulations. In addition, we analysed the distribution of QFT-Plus results within a borderline zone (0.20–0.70 IU/ml), and i…
Reference set of Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical strains: A tool for research and product development
2018
TheMycobacterium tuberculosiscomplex (MTBC) causes tuberculosis (TB) in humans and various other mammals. The human-adapted members of the MTBC comprise seven phylogenetic lineages that differ in their geographical distribution. There is growing evidence that this phylogenetic diversity modulates the outcome of TB infection and disease. For decades, TB research and development has focused on the two canonical MTBC reference strains H37Rv and Erdman, both of which belong to Lineage 4. Relying on only a few laboratory-adapted strains can be misleading as study results might not be directly transferrable to clinical settings where patients are infected with a diverse array of strains, includin…
Effect of female genital schistosomiasis and anti-schistosomal treatment on monocytes, CD4+ T-cells and CCR5 expression in the female genital tract
2014
Published version of an article from the journal: PLoS One. Also available from the publisher: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098593 BACKGROUND: Schistosoma haematobium is a waterborne parasite that may cause female genital schistosomiasis (FGS), characterized by genital mucosal lesions. There is clinical and epidemiological evidence for a relationship between FGS and HIV. We investigated the impact of FGS on HIV target cell density and expression of the HIV co-receptor CCR5 in blood and cervical cytobrush samples. Furthermore we evaluated the effect of anti-schistosomal treatment on these cell populations. DESIGN: The study followed a case-control design with post treatment follow…
Cathepsin B in Antigen-Presenting Cells Controls Mediators of the Th1 Immune Response during Leishmania major Infection
2014
Resistance and susceptibility to Leishmania major infection in the murine model is determined by the capacity of the host to mount either a protective Th1 response or a Th2 response associated with disease progression. Previous reports involving the use of cysteine cathepsin inhibitors indicated that cathepsins B (Ctsb) and L (Ctsl) play important roles in Th1/Th2 polarization during L. major infection in both susceptible and resistant mouse strains. Although it was hypothesized that these effects are a consequence of differential patterns of antigen processing, the mechanisms underlying these differences were not further investigated. Given the pivotal roles that dendritic cells and macrop…
Scientometrics analysis of research activity and collaboration patterns in Chagas cardiomyopathy.
2018
Background Chagas cardiomyopathy is a serious and common complication of Chagas disease. Methods Through bibliometric and Social Network Analysis, we examined patterns of research on Chagas cardiomyopathy, identifying the main countries, authors, research clusters, and topics addressed; and measuring the contribution of different countries. Results We found 1932 documents on Chagas cardiomyopathy in the MEDLINE database. The most common document type was ‘journal article’, accounting for 79.6% of the total (n = 1538), followed by ‘review’ (n = 217, 11.2%). The number of published records increased from 156 in 1980–1984 to 311 in 2010–2014. Only 2.5% were clinical trials. Brazil and the USA …