BACKGROUND Sparganosis is a neglected but important food-borne parasitic zoonosis. Clinical diagnosis of sparganosis is difficult because there are no specific manifestations. ELISA using plerocercoid crude or excretory-secretory (ES) antigens has high sensitivity but has cross-reactions with other helminthiases. The aim of this study was to characterize Spirometra erinaceieuropaei cysteine pro...

Infective third-stage larvae (L3i) of the human parasite Strongyloides stercoralis share many morphological, developmental, and behavioral attributes with Caenorhabditis elegans dauer larvae. The 'dauer hypothesis' predicts that the same molecular genetic mechanisms control both dauer larval development in C. elegans and L3i morphogenesis in S. stercoralis. In C. elegans, the phosphatidylinosit...

Worldwide, more than 1 billion people are affected by infestations with soil-transmitted helminths and also in veterinary medicine helminthiases are a severe threat to livestock due to emerging resistances against the common anthelmintics. Proanthocyanidins have been increasingly investigated for their anthelmintic properties, however, except for an interaction with certain proteins of the nema...

Helminthiases, which are highly prevalent in areas where malaria is endemic, have been shown to modulate or suppress the immune response to unrelated antigens or pathogens. In this study, we established a murine model of coinfection with a gastrointestinal nematode parasite, Heligmosomoides polygyrus, and the blood-stage malaria parasite Plasmodium chabaudi AS in order to investigate the modula...

Morbidity and mortality patterns were examined among 968 pediatric patients on the island of Dominica. These children, whose ages ranged from newborn to 13 years, were seen by the consulting pediatrician at Princess Margaret Hospital during a 9-month period in 1978-79; 852 children were seen as inpatients. A total of 477 cases of infectious disease were diagnosed among inpatients alone. Stoo...

An increasing number of cases of echinococcosis in Thailand have been imported, probably native infections and medical transfers. Serodiagnosis is one diagnostic choice for interpreting infections before a further step is done. Due to limited antigen, indirect ELISA has been used as a negative screening test for IgG-detection to rule out echinococcosis. Native hydatid cystic fluid (HCF) antigen...

BACKGROUND Blood eosinophilia is a common laboratory abnormality, and its characterization frequently represents a quandary for primary care physicians. Consequently, in France, specialists and particularly hematologists, often must investigate patients who present with blood eosinophilia that often, but not always, occurs because of allergic causes. Both the Departments of Hematology and Paras...

BACKGROUND Preventive chemotherapy and transmission control (PCT) by mass drug administration is the cornerstone of the World Health Organization (WHO)'s policy to control soil-transmitted helminthiases (STHs) caused by Ascaris lumbricoides (roundworm), Trichuris trichiura (whipworm) and hookworm species (Necator americanus and Ancylostama duodenale) which affect over 1 billion people globally....

BACKGROUND Helminth infection and malaria remain major causes of ill-health in the tropics and subtropics. There are several shared risk factors (e.g., poverty), and hence, helminth infection and malaria overlap geographically and temporally. However, the extent and consequences of helminth-Plasmodium co-infection at different spatial scales are poorly understood. METHODOLOGY This study was c...

Eukaryotic parasites and pathogens continue to cause some of the most detrimental and difficult to treat diseases (or disease states) in both humans and animals, while also continuously expanding into non-endemic countries. Combined with the ever growing number of reports on drug-resistance and the lack of effective treatment programs for many metazoan diseases, the impact that these organisms ...