Relapsing Fever
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7 results
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A Personal View of How Paleomicrobiology Aids Our Understanding of the Role of Lice in Plague Pandemics
- Author: Didier Raoult
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Citation: Raoult D. 2016. A personal view of how paleomicrobiology aids our understanding of the role of lice in plague pandemics. 4(4): doi:10.1128/microbiolspec.PoH-0001-2014
- DOI 10.1128/microbiolspec.PoH-0001-2014
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Abstract:
We have been involved in the field of paleomicrobiology since 1998, when we used dental pulp to identify Yersinia pestis as the causative agent of the great plague of Marseille (1720). We recently designed a specific technique, “suicide PCR,” that can prevent contamination. A controversy arose between two teams, with one claiming that DNA must be altered to amplify it and the other group claiming that demographic data did not support the role of Y. pestis in the Black Death (i.e., the great plague of the Middle Ages). These controversies led us to evaluate other epidemiological models and to propose the body louse as the vector of this pandemic. This proposal was substantiated by experimental models, the recovery of Y. pestis from lice in the Congo, and the identification of epidemics involving both Y. pestis and Bartonella quintana (the agent of trench fever, transmitted by the body louse) in ancient corpses from mass graves. Paleomicrobiology has led to a re-evaluation of plague pandemics.
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The Kinetoplastid Infections: Human African Trypanosomiasis (Sleeping Sickness), Chagas Disease, and the Leishmaniases
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Source: Forgotten People Forgotten Diseases , pp 115-148
Publication Date :
January 2013
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Abstract:
The kinetoplastid infections are transmitted by insect vectors, and the three major kinetoplastid infections of humans, human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), Chagas disease, and leishmaniasis, kill approximately 70,000 people annually, making them among the most lethal neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). HAT, also known as sleeping sickness, is caused by two different species of trypanosomes. Trypanosoma brucei gambiense is the cause in West Africa, while T. b. rhodesiense occurs in East Africa. It results from the bite of tsetses of the genus Glossina. Control of West African HAT relies largely on case detection and treatment as well as vector control, while fighting East African HAT relies on control in animal reservoirs and vector control. Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is caused by T. cruzi, which has the ability to invade host cells and replicate as amastigotes. The infection is transmitted by kissing bugs, primarily of the genus Triatoma. Control of Chagas disease in the Southern Cone has been highly effective through indoor spraying that targets the vector, T. infestans. Leishmaniasis is transmitted by the bite of a sandfly. Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a disfiguring, pizza-like lesion, which often self-heals but can leave a scar. The scar is often deeply stigmatizing for women in developing countries. Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), or kala-azar, produces a febrile wasting syndrome with signs and symptoms that resemble leukemia. Drugs containing antimony are still widely used for the treatment of CL and VL, but are toxic and difficult to administer.
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The Kinetoplastid Infections: Human African Trypanosomiasis (Sleeping Sickness), Chagas’ Disease, and the Leishmaniases
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Source: Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases , pp 81-102
Publication Date :
January 2008
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Abstract:
The kinetoplastid infections constitute a group of three major human protozoan infections caused by single-celled parasites with a flagellum and an unusual DNA-containing cell organelle known as the kinetoplastid. Together, the three major kinetoplastid infections of humans, human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), Chagas’ disease, and leishmaniasis, kill an approximately 150,000 people annually, making them among the most lethal neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). West African HAT typically occurs around rivers, especially in areas of dense vegetation where tsetses of the Glossina palpalis group are abundant. The chapter shows how the fact that Rhodesian HAT is primarily a zoonosis, i.e., a disease transmitted from animals to humans, has important implications for controlling epidemics of this disease. In addition to melarsoprol, there are two other drugs, pentamidine and suramin, still in widespread use for the earlier stage of HAT. The treatment of the chronic complications of Chagas’ disease requires complex modalities. There are no simple preventive chemotherapy approaches for the control of Chagas’ disease, nor is it practical to apply wide-scale case detection and management with antitrypanosomal drugs such as what occurred with the pentamidization campaigns against HAT launched in the 20th century. Approximately 12 million people are infected with Leishmania parasites. There are two major forms of the disease—visceral leishmaniasis, and cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL). Both CL and VL are treatable infections, but many of the drugs used produce severe toxicities, and in many cases they are not available.
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Procedures for Detecting Blood Parasites
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Source: Diagnostic Medical Parasitology, Fifth Edition , pp 881-909
Publication Date :
January 2007
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Abstract:
Depending on the life cycle, a number of parasites may be recovered in a blood specimen, either whole blood, buffy coat preparations, or various types of concentrations. These blood parasites include Plasmodium, Babesia, and Trypanosoma species, Leishmania donovani, and microfilariae. Blood films can be prepared from fresh, whole blood collected with no anticoagulants, anticoagulated blood, or sediment from the various concentration procedures. The recommended stain of choice is Giemsa stain; however, the parasites can also be seen on blood films stained with Wright’s stain, a Wright-Giemsa combination stain, or one of the more rapid stains such as Diff-Quik. Delafield’s hematoxylin stain is often used to stain the microfilarial sheath; in some cases, Giemsa stain does not provide sufficient stain quality to allow differentiation of the microfilariae. It is important to report the level of parasitemia when blood films are reviewed and found to be positive for malaria parasites. Due to the potential for drug resistance in some of the Plasmodium species, particularly P. falciparum and P. vivax, it is important that every positive smear be assessed and the parasitemia reported exactly the same way on follow-up specimens as on the initial specimen. Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) offer great potential to improve the diagnosis of malaria, particularly in remote areas. There are a number of new approaches to the diagnosis of malaria, including the use of fluorescent stains (QBC), dipstick antigen detection of histidine-rich protein 2 (HRP2) and parasite lactate dehydrogenase (pLDH) PCR, and automated blood cell analyzers.
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CONTENTS
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Source: Tick-Borne Diseases of Humans
Publication Date :
January 2005
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No descriptions available.
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Rosetting
- Author: J. Alexandra Rowe
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Source: Molecular Approaches to Malaria , pp 416-426
Publication Date :
January 2005
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Abstract:
The discovery that Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes can bind to uninfected erythrocytes to form rosette-like clumps of cells was first made in the late 1980s. Some of the parasite ligands and host uninfected erythrocyte receptors that mediate rosette formation have been identified, and work has begun to determine the potential for a rosette-inhibiting antidisease vaccine. Despite this progress, the function of rosetting remains unknown, and the exact role of rosetting in the pathogenesis of severe malaria remains controversial. In falciparum malaria it may be the combination of rosetting and cytoadherence, together with high parasite burdens, that is particularly obstructive to microvascular blood flow and could lead to hypoxia, tissue damage, and severe malaria. Skeptics of rosetting claim that there is no evidence that rosettes form in vivo. A number of different red blood cell rosetting receptors have been described, including CR1, heparan sulfate-like molecules, ABO blood group sugars, and CD36. The CD36 glycoprotein, which is an important endothelial receptor for cytoadherence, is expressed at low levels on red blood cells but only rarely acts as a rosetting receptor in field isolates. The development of rosette-inhibiting immune responses in natural malaria infections has received relatively little attention. There is lack of proof that rosetting causes severe malaria. However, evidence does support a direct role for rosetting in the pathogenesis of some cases of life-threatening malaria.
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Borrelia: a Diverse and Ubiquitous Genus of Tick-Borne Pathogens
- Author: Alan G. Barbour
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Source: Emerging Infections 5 , pp 153-174
Publication Date :
January 2001
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Abstract:
Although the new species associated with Lyme disease were more closely related to previously known Borrelia species than they were to treponemes, leptospires, or other spirochetes, the new species were clearly distinct from the relapsing fever species on the basis of DNA relatedness. As investigators in North America, Europe, and Asia gathered more samples from ticks and animals in the field, isolates that could not be classified as Borrelia burgdorferi, Borrelia afzelii, or Borrelia garinii were noted. The report of isolates of B. burgdorferi from Ixodes scapularis in Texas is in doubt, because similar organisms were allegedly also recovered from fleas and ticks that are incompetent as vectors. One of the isolates of B. burgdorferi from a study of I. scapularis ticks, was also highly similar to a commonly used laboratory strain of B. burgdorferi, and a study of five Texas isolates of B. burgdorferi demonstrated that the isolates were noninfectious for mice, a characteristic of serially cultivated isolates. The study of the outbreak at the summer camp in North Carolina found that 97% of 588 ticks collected from vegetation were A. americanum, 2% were Dermacentor variabilis, and only 2 (0.3%) were I. scapularis. Although it is more distant from members of the Lyme disease group than from those of the relapsing fever group, the species of the third major group are transmitted by hard ticks-prostriate ticks in the cases of B. miyamotoi and the new Borrelia sp. and metastriate ticks in the cases of B. theileri and B. lonestari.