Currently the universally accepted standard procedure for characterizing and identifying strains of Leishmania is isoenzyme analysis. However, in the Mediterranean area, despite their very wide geographical distribution, most Leishmania infantum strains belong to zymodeme MON-1. In order to increase our understanding of polymorphism in strains of L. infantum, we developed PCR assays amplifying ...

Early in the history of Chagas disease it became apparent that there was considerable variation in the incidence and severity of infections with parasites classified as being Trypanosoma cruzi (see Pessoa 1960 for a review of early findings by scientists such as Carlos Chagas and Emmanuel Dias). A variety of typing schemes were developed as a means of finding the basis of this variation and mor...

Invasive zymodemes of the enteric protozoan Entamoeba histolytica infect the large intestine and cause extra-intestinal lesions such as amebic liver abscess (ALA). The clinical manifestations of ALA are protean, particularly in patients presenting in a non-endemic, desert country such as Kuwait, and diagnosis becomes problematic. In this study, we present cases of ALA to illustrate the clinical...

TO THE EDITOR—In their comprehensive cohort study, Rijal and colleagues have explored the occurrence of failure in miltefosine treatment in 120 visceral leishmaniasis (VL) patients in Nepal; they observed an initial cure rate of 95.8% with an alarming relapse rate of 10.8% and 20.0% at 6 and 12 months, respectively [1]. Similar studies in India have reported declines in the success rate of milt...

This study reports the isolation, axenization and characterization of three human isolates of Giardia duodenalis from Belo Horizonte, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The isolates were axenized from cysts obtained from the feces of symptomatic (BHRA93) and asymptomatic (BHRF92 and BHLF93) patients. The reference strain Portland-1 and one clone of each isolate were included in the study. Biologica...

In the Acknowledgements section, the name and affiliation of Gert Van der Auwera are listed incorrectly. The correct name is Gert Van der Auwera and he is currently at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium. Copyright: ß 2014 The PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases Staff. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which per...

The clonal structure of the Colombian strain of Trypanosoma cruzi, biodeme Type III and zymodeme 1, was analyzed in order to characterize its populations and to establish its homogeneity or heterogeneity. Seven isolated clones presented the basic characteristics of Biodeme Type III, with the same patterns of parasitemic curves, tissue tropism to skeletal muscle and myocardium, high pathogenicit...

Toxoplasma gondii, an apicomplexan parasite of mammals, was first identified over 100 years ago (in 1908) by Nicolle and Manceaux, who isolated tachyzoites from the gundi, a North African rodent (34). Splendore also identified this parasite in the tissue of a rabbit in 1908 (46). The genus Toxoplasma was named for its bow-like shape (from the Greek “toxo,” for bow or arc, and “plasma,” for crea...

Parasites or pests with medical significance known to have affected or are affecting the Maltese community are listed. These include several protozoan, helminth and arthropod parasite species. Other arthropod species identified as public health pests in Department of Health publications are also listed. ___________________________________________________________________________________ 1 Instit...