Background: Climate change is driving the occurrence of several infectious diseases. Within a One Health action to complement the ongoing preventive chemotherapy initiative against human fascioliasis in the Northern Bolivian Altiplano hyperendemic area, field surveys showed a geographical expansion of its lymnaeid snail vector. To assess whether climate change underlies this spread of the infection risk area, an in-depth analysis of the long-term evolution of climatic factors relevant for Fasciola hepatica development was imperative.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA database is an essential component in almost any software system, and its creation involves more than just data modeling and schema design. It also includes query optimization and tuning. This paper focuses on a web system called GSP4PDB, which is used for searching structural patterns in proteins.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfections with herpesvirus have contributed to respiratory, enteric, and neurological disease reports in avian species worldwide. Herpesviruses have been detected in penguin species before but have not been studied extensively. To better understand the impact of these viruses in free-living populations, an initial retrospective survey was performed on a wild population of Humboldt penguins () in the Punta San Juan Marine Protected Area, Peru (15°22'S, 75°12'W) using tracheal swabs collected from 28 penguins in 2016 and 34 penguins in 2018.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Parasitol Parasites Wildl
December 2022
Avian malaria, caused by spp. and transmitted by mosquitos, is a leading cause of mortality of captive penguins. Antimalarial drugs are currently used to control infections in penguins.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Northern Bolivian Altiplano is the fascioliasis endemic area with the reported highest human prevalence and intensities. A multidisciplinary One Health initiative was implemented to decrease infection/reinfection rates detected by periodic monitoring between the ongoing yearly preventive chemotherapy campaigns. Within a One Health axis, the information obtained throughout 35 years of field work on transmission foci and affected rural schools and communities/villages is analysed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSouth American camelids are definitive hosts of . However, their capacity to participate in the transmission and epidemiology of fascioliasis has never been appropriately studied. Therefore, an isolate from Argentine llama is for the first time analyzed using lymnaeids from Bolivia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Northern Bolivian Altiplano is the human fascioliasis hyperendemic area where the highest prevalences and intensities in humans have been reported. Preventive chemotherapy was implemented in the last ten years. Surveillance showed high human infection and re-infection rates in between the annual triclabendazole monodose treatments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA One Health initiative has been implemented for fascioliasis control in a human hyperendemic area for the first time. The area selected for this multidisciplinary approach is the Northern Bolivian Altiplano, where the highest prevalences and intensities in humans have been reported. Within the strategic intervention axis of control activities concerning animal reservoirs, complete experimental studies, and field surveys have been performed to assess the fascioliasis transmission capacity and epidemiological role of the donkey for the first time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Northern Bolivian Altiplano is the human fascioliasis hyperendemic area where the highest prevalences and intensities of infection by in humans have been reported. Four animal species are the reservoir species for in this area, namely, sheep, cattle, pigs, and donkeys. Livestock for the Aymara inhabitants is crucial because vegetable cultures are not viable due to the inhospitality of the very high altitude of 3,820-4,100 m.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurrent theoretical models suggest that ankle sprain copers exhibit movement adaptations contributing to the avoidance of chronic ankle instability. However, few studies have examined adaptations at the level of biomechanical motor synergies. The purpose was to examine characteristics of the support moment synergy between individuals with chronic ankle instability, copers, and healthy individuals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Fascioliasis is a snail-borne zoonotic trematodiasis emerging due to climate changes, anthropogenic environment modifications, and livestock movements. Many areas where Fasciola hepatica is endemic in humans have been described in Latin America altitude areas. Highest prevalences and intensities were reported from four provinces of the northern Bolivian Altiplano, where preventive chemotherapy is ongoing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In the field of protein engineering and biotechnology, the discovery and characterization of structural patterns is highly relevant as these patterns can give fundamental insights into protein-ligand interaction and protein function. This paper presents GSP4PDB, a bioinformatics web tool that enables the user to visualize, search and explore protein-ligand structural patterns within the entire Protein Data Bank.
Results: We introduce the notion of graph-based structural pattern (GSP) as an abstract model for representing protein-ligand interactions.
Maternal transfer of steroids to eggs can elicit permanent effects on offspring phenotype. Although testosterone was thought to be a key mediator of maternal effects in birds, we now know that vertebrate embryos actively regulate their exposure to maternal testosterone through steroid metabolism, suggesting testosterone metabolites, not testosterone, may elicit the observed phenotypic effects. To address the role steroid metabolism plays in mediating yolk testosterone effects, we used European starling () eggs to characterize the timing of testosterone metabolism and determine whether etiocholanolone, a prominent metabolite of testosterone in avian embryos, is capable of affecting early embryonic development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe steroid 17β-estradiol (herein "estradiol") is a potent regulator of sexual differentiation that exerts wide-ranging effects on the developing brain and other tissues. The developing gonads are an important source of estradiol but most, if not all, vertebrate embryos are also exposed to maternally derived estradiol during development. In birds, this maternally derived estradiol is present in the egg at the time of oviposition but very little is known about how this source of estradiol influences development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe overarching goals of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA) are to enable European citizens to lead healthy, active and independent lives whilst ageing. The EIP on AHA includes 74 Reference Sites. The aim of this study was to transfer innovation from an app developed by the MACVIA-France EIP on AHA reference site (Allergy Diary) to other reference sites.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Emergence of human fascioliasis prompted a worldwide control initiative including a pilot study in a few countries. Two hyperendemic areas were chosen: Huacullani, Northern Altiplano, Bolivia, representing the Altiplanic transmission pattern with high prevalences and intensities; Cajamarca valley, Peru, representing the valley pattern with high prevalences but low intensities. Coprological sample collection, transport and study procedures were analyzed to improve individual diagnosis and subsequent treatments and surveillance activities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The Bolivian northern Altiplano is characterized by a high prevalence of Fasciola hepatica infection. In order to assess the feasibility, safety and efficacy of large-scale administration of triclabendazole as an appropriate public health measure to control morbidity associated with fascioliasis, a pilot intervention was implemented in 2008.
Materials And Methods: Schoolchildren from an endemic community were screened for fascioliasis and treated with a single administration of triclabendazole (10 mg/kg).
Infection prevention measures, specifically targeting ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), have been purposed as quality-of-care indicators for patients in intensive care units. The authors discuss some of the recent evidence of the prevention of nosocomial infections, with a particular emphasis on VAP. Moreover, there are several pitfalls in considering VAP rates as a safety indicator.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To know the current situation on the implementation of the patient identification systems in hospital centres in Catalonia.
Methods: Interviews carried out with nurse managers of Catalonian hospitals on patient identification systems, implementation in the different hospital services and data used in the system.
Results: Of the 75 centres studied, 90.
The use of neuromuscular blockers (NMB) is a frequent practice in Intensive Care Units. However most of the experience with the use of these agents come from the operating room used to deal with patients with different characteristics from those admitted in the ICU. Recent advances on neuromonitoring and the commercialization of newer agents make necessary the update in the management of NMB in the ICU.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLung transplantation, single or bilateral sequential, is the final option for patients with emphysema. This study analyzed the outcome of lung transplants for emphysema (single or double), and evaluates the incidence, predictive factors and prognosis of lung hyperinflation (LHI) in unilateral transplants. We prospectively studied patients undergoing lung transplantation for emphysema.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe detected 10 protozoan and nine helminth species in surveys of 338 5-15 year-old Quechua schoolchildren in three communities of the Asillo zone of the Puno region, located at a very high altitude of 3910 m in the Peruvian Altiplano. The area proved to be hyperendemic for human fascioliasis with a 24.3% overall mean prevalence of Fasciola hepatica, local prevalences ranging between 18.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTrans R Soc Trop Med Hyg
September 2001
A cross-sectional study of soil-transmitted helminthiases in the Northern Bolivian Altiplano was carried out over the 6-year period 1992-97. Prevalences, intensities and associations were analysed from coprological results obtained in 31 surveys (28 in schools and 3 in individuals of all age-groups) performed in 24 Aymara communities located between the city of La Paz and Lake Titicaca, at an altitude of 3800-4200 m. Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichuris trichiura were detected, with local prevalences in the range 1.
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