BACKGROUND Epidemiological studies suggest that hookworm infection protects against asthma, and therefore that hookworm infection may have a direct or an indirect therapeutic potential in this disease. We now report the first clinical trial of experimental hookworm infection in people with allergic asthma. OBJECTIVES To determine the effects of experimental hookworm infection in asthma. MET...

Although hookworm is highly prevalent in the Solomon Islands, the species involved are unknown. We initiated this study in response to finding Ancylostoma ceylanicum hookworm in a peacekeeper in Australia who had returned from the Solomon Islands. Kato-Katz fecal surveys performed in 2013 and 2014 in 2 village groups in East Malaita, Solomon Islands, identified hookworm-positive samples. These ...

The interactions between gastrointestinal parasitic helminths and commensal bacteria are likely to play a pivotal role in the establishment of host-parasite cross-talk, ultimately shaping the development of the intestinal immune system. However, little information is available on the impact of infections by gastrointestinal helminths on the bacterial communities inhabiting the human gut. We use...

A study of hookworm infections of schoolchildren was conducted in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, southern Thailand. Of the 2,940 hookworms that were recovered from the children, almost all (99.9%), were Necator americanus, only three (0.1%) were identified as Ancylostoma duodenale, and all were female worms. An estimation of the worm burden of and the worm expulsion from the schoolchildren indic...

In this second of a two-part series analyzing the evidence for the use of organisms as medicine, the use of a number of different "bugs" (worms, leeches, snails, ticks, centipedes, and spiders) is detailed. Several live organisms are used as treatments: leeches for plastic surgery and osteoarthritis and the helminths Trichuris suis and Necator americanus for inflammatory bowel disease. Leech sa...

Autoimmune diseases have become a major medical problem of recent years. Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease model. The aim of our study was to follow the changes in the clinical autoimmunity picture of the celiac disease from recent years. The study of autoimmunity in celiac disease has focused on associated diseases with the aforementioned disease: type 1 diabetes mellitus, thyroid autoim...

Ancylostoma duodenale and Necator americanus are extremely common species of soil-transmitted helminth which flourish where poverty and malnutrition prevail. Hookworms contribute significantly to iron-deficiency anaemia, which remains one of the world's major nutritional problems, through the feeding activities of intestinal stages leading to chronic blood loss into the gut. In this article, a ...

The effect of fallow on Longidorus americanus, a nematode associated with stunting of loblolly pine seedlings in Georgia, USA Stephen W. FRAEDRICH 1,∗, Michelle M. CRAM 2 and Stanley J. ZARNOCH 3 1 USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, 320 Green Street, Athens, GA 30602, USA 2 USDA Forest Service, Forest Health Protection, 320 Green Street, Athens, GA 30602, USA 3 USDA Forest Service,...

Infection with Oesophagostomum sp. appears to be extremely common in man in northern Togo and Ghana. Adult specimens were recovered from the intestinal lumen by treatment with pyrantel pamoate and the morphological characteristics of oesophagostomes of man could for the first time be compared with information available on the morphology of oesophagostomes of monkeys. The observations and measur...

The male and immature stages of Pseudocheylus americanus (Ewing, 1909) (Pseudocheylidae) are described and illustrated for the first time and the female is re-illustrated. The description of Pseudobonzia reticulata (Heryford, 1965) (Cunaxidae) is modified to include the presence of dorsal setae f2, which were not reported in the original description. In addition, Bonzia yunkeri Smiley, 1992 and...