Disease caused by Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) ranges from self-limiting diarrhea to hemorrhagic colitis and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Serotype O157:H7, the most frequently implicated STEC causing hemorrhagic colitis and HUS, has been isolated from large foodborne outbreaks, as well as sporadic cases, in North America and abroad. However, 60 STEC serotypes have been impl...

Interest in cytokines in infection is increasing exponentially both because of the central role these peptide molecules have in immune responses in a wide spectrum of human responses in health and disease1 and because they are likely to be pivotal in the development of new therapies and vaccine strategies. Immunity to infections and attempts by pathogens to avoid the host defence system provide...

s of the Fifth International Conference on Tularemia; Woods Hole (MA); 2006 Nov 1–4. [Abstract 210A]. 10. Seabra J, Santos MA, Pereira H, Vicente P, Vasconcelos O, Santo A, et al.Prevalence of Francisella tularensis antibodies in the population of North of Portugal. In: Abstracts of the Prevention and Control of Zoonoses; Cardiff, Wales, UK; 2002 Oct 21–23. Cardiff (Wales); Health Protectio...

Background The strikingly young age of new variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (vCJD) cases remains unexplained. Age dependent susceptibility to infection has been put forward, but differential dietary exposure to contaminated food products in the UK population according to age and sex during the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) epidemic may provide a simpler explanation. Methods Using rece...

Bedbugs are brown and flat hematophagous insects. The 2 cosmopolite species, Cimex lectularius and Cimex hemipterus, feed on humans and/or domestic animals, and recent outbreaks have been reported in occidental countries. Site assessment for bedbug eradication is complex but can be assured, despite emerging insecticide resistance, by hiring a pest-control manager. The common dermatological pres...

Disease ecology takes into consideration a broad spectrum of factors comprising the tapestry of a human being's day-today life experience. A disease ecology perspective is one that places human health within the context of a human being's interactions within a wide array of environments. These include the physical environment that surrounds us as well as the social and cultural environments all...

Twenty-five years ago, the development of molecular biology and recombinant DNA technology promised breakthroughs in infectious disease research. Since then, these methods have slowly teased out molecular secrets of microbial infection, gene by gene. Now, with the advent of whole-genome sequencing, a new revolution in infectious disease research has begun. Genomics is a top-down approach to the...

Address for correspondence: Andreas J. Bäumler, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Texas A&M University, 407 Reynolds Medical Building, College Station, TX 77843-1114; fax: (979) 845-3479; e-mail: [email protected]. The avian-adapted serovar Salmonella Gallinarum, which includes two biovars, Gallinarum and Pullorum, was endemic in poultry flocks in Europe and the Americas in the ...

Transmission of Lassa virus (family Arenaviridae) from its natural rodent reservoir to humans can cause hemorrhagic fever, a clinical syndrome associated with high death rates. Lassa fever is endemic in West Africa and has been reported from Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, and Nigeria (1-4). The geographically restricted occurrence of the disease is not well understood as its rodent host (Mastom...

On the cover: Calavera of the Morbid Cholera, etching on paper, 1910, by José Guadalupe Posada (Mexican,1852–1913). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. USA. Public Domain. Calaveras (Spanish for skulls), have been produced in Mexico as a form of satirical art for over a hundred years, having been popularized in this use by celebrated Mexican printmakers Manuel M...