Publications by authors named "Auwera G"

Tegumentary leishmaniasis (TL) is endemic but neglected in southern Europe. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the strains causing TL cases in northeastern Italy, where an upsurge of TL cases has been observed in the last decade. Sections from 109 formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) biopsies of skin and mucosal tissues were collected from TL cases in the selected area.

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Efficient point cloud compression is essential for applications like virtual and mixed reality, autonomous driving, and cultural heritage. This paper proposes a deep learning-based inter-frame encoding scheme for dynamic point cloud geometry compression. We propose a lossy geometry compression scheme that predicts the latent representation of the current frame using the previous frame by employing a novel feature space inter-prediction network.

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Background: Leishmaniasis is a common neglected tropical disease in Ethiopia. Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) caused by Leishmania donovani presents in the lowlands, while cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) affects people living in the highlands. Although CL is described as being caused by Leishmania aethiopica, there is also evidence of L.

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We discovered a hybrid Leishmania parasite in Costa Rica that is genetically similar to hybrids from Panama. Genome analyses demonstrated the hybrid is triploid and identified L. braziliensis and L.

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Objectives: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) in Asia, Northern, and Sub-Saharan Africa is mainly caused by Leishmania major and Leishmania tropica. We describe and evaluate the treatment outcome of CL among travelers and migrants in Europe.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of parasitological confirmed CL cases caused by L.

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Due to the increased popularity of augmented and virtual reality experiences, the interest in capturing high-resolution real-world point clouds has never been higher. Loss of details and irregularities in point cloud geometry can occur during the capturing, processing, and compression pipeline. It is essential to address these challenges by being able to upsample a low Level-of-Detail (LoD) point cloud into a high LoD point cloud.

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Article Synopsis
  • Surveillance of human leishmaniasis in Europe is mainly limited to specific countries, focusing on local infections, and lacks integrated analysis across different nations until now.
  • This study aimed to provide a broader viewpoint by analyzing cases of autochthonous and imported leishmaniasis from 15 medical centers across 11 European countries over a five-year period.
  • Results showed 1,142 diagnosed cases, with a majority being cutaneous leishmaniasis imported from outside Europe, emphasizing the need for collaborative data collection to monitor changing patterns of the disease.
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Background: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is frequent in travellers and can involve oro-nasal mucosae. Clinical presentation impacts therapeutic management.

Methodology: Demographic and clinical data from 459 travellers infected in 47 different countries were collected by members of the European LeishMan consortium.

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Article Synopsis
  • This study explores the role of asymptomatic individuals in the transmission of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) on the Indian subcontinent using a new microbiopsy device.
  • The pilot study involved different groups, including VL patients and asymptomatic individuals, to assess the correlation between skin parasite load and disease status, as well as blood parasite load.
  • Results showed a clear link between higher skin parasite loads in VL patients and asymptomatic individuals, with some correlation between samples taken from different body sites, indicating potential transmission even in asymptomatic cases.
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Background: Species-directed therapy of leishmaniasis has been recommended for travelers since 2014, but little is known about species distribution and treatment practices in non-endemic countries. We aimed to describe leishmaniasis cases in Belgium since species typing became available and evaluate its impact on patient management.

Method: Retrospective analysis of all patients diagnosed by PCR at our national reference laboratory from 2010 to 2018.

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We identified visceral leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania donovani in a previously unknown focus in northern Somalia. Clinical and epidemiologic characteristics of 118 cases during 2013-2019 in Bosaso, the region's commercial capital, have raised suspicion of visceral leishmaniasis endemicity status there.

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Background: In endemic regions, asymptomatic Leishmania infection is common. In HIV patients, detection of asymptomatic Leishmania infection could potentially identify those at risk of visceral leishmaniasis (VL). However, data on the prevalence, incidence, and determinants of asymptomatic infection, and the risk of VL are lacking.

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Background: Ochollo is a village in southern Ethiopia burdened with cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), where Phlebotomus pedifer is the only vector for Leishmania aethiopica and hyraxes are confirmed reservoir hosts. A detailed description of the different players of transmission, and the ecology and seasonality of the vector needs to be established in order to accomplish efficient control programs.

Methods And Findings: Between March 2017 and February 2018, a monthly sandfly collection was carried out in different habitats and records of temperature and humidity were taken.

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is the main causative species for cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) in Ethiopia. Despite its considerable burden, has been one of the most neglected species. In this review, published evidence on history, geography, vector, reservoir, epidemiology, parasitology, and immunology is discussed and knowledge gaps are outlined.

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In rural areas in Morocco, diagnosing cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) can be challenging. We evaluated the accuracy of a rapid diagnostic test (RDT) based on antigen detection, CL Detect Rapid Test (Inbios International Inc., Seattle, WA), in this setting.

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Article Synopsis
  • Leishmaniasis is a disease caused by Leishmania parasites transmitted by sandflies, and can manifest as cutaneous, mucocutaneous, or visceral forms, making diagnosis difficult due to similarity with other diseases.
  • A 52-year-old immunosuppressed Belgian woman with rheumatoid arthritis was diagnosed with visceral leishmaniasis and treated successfully, but later experienced relapses and progressed to cutaneous forms and lymphadenopathy.
  • Clinicians should consider the possibility of multiple forms of leishmaniasis in immunosuppressed patients, as demonstrated by the patient's complex case and eventual complications leading to her death.
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Leishmaniasis is highly prevalent in New World countries, where several methods are available for detection and identification of Leishmania spp. Two hsp70-based PCR protocols (PCR-N and PCR-F) and their corresponding restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP) were applied for detection and identification of Leishmania spp. in clinical samples recruited in Colombia, Guatemala, and Honduras.

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Background: We designed a straightforward method for discriminating circulating Leishmania populations in the Indian subcontinent (ISC). Research on transmission dynamics of visceral leishmaniasis (VL, or Kala-azar) was recently identified as one of the key research priorities for elimination of the disease in the ISC. VL in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal is caused by genetically homogeneous populations of Leishmania donovani parasites, transmitted by female sandflies.

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Leishmaniasis is endemic in southern Europe, and in other European countries cases are diagnosed in travellers who have visited affected areas both within the continent and beyond. Prompt and accurate diagnosis poses a challenge in clinical practice in Europe. Different methods exist for identification of the infecting Leishmania species.

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Immunologically, active visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is characterized by profound immunosuppression, severe systemic inflammatory responses, and an impaired capacity to control parasite replication. Neutrophils are highly versatile cells, which play a crucial role in the induction as well as the resolution of inflammation, the control of pathogen replication, and the regulation of immune responses. Neutrophil functions have been investigated in human cutaneous leishmaniasis; however, their role in human VL is poorly understood.

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Introduction: Leishmaniasis is highly prevalent in Colombia, where at least six different species can cause disease of varying clinical presentations in humans. The identification of the infecting species is quite important for prognosis, therapeutics and epidemiology. Different techniques with variable discriminatory power have been used for the identification.

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Trypanosome evolution was so far essentially studied on the basis of phylogenetic analyses of small subunit ribosomal RNA (SSU-rRNA) and glycosomal glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gGAPDH) genes. We used for the first time the 70kDa heat-shock protein gene (hsp70) to investigate the phylogenetic relationships among 11 Trypanosoma species on the basis of 1380 nucleotides from 76 sequences corresponding to 65 strains. We also constructed a phylogeny based on combined datasets of SSU-rDNA, gGAPDH and hsp70 sequences.

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Background: In the Indian subcontinent, Visceral leishmaniasis is endemic in a geographical area coinciding with the Lower Gangetic Plain, at low altitude. VL occurring in residents of hill districts is therefore often considered the result of Leishmania donovani infection during travel. Early 2014 we conducted an outbreak investigation in Okhaldhunga and Bhojpur districts in the Nepal hills where increasing number of VL cases have been reported.

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Leishmania is an infectious protozoan parasite related to African and American trypanosomes. All Leishmania species that are pathogenic to humans can cause dermal disease. When one is confronted with cutaneous leishmaniasis, identification of the causative species is relevant in both clinical and epidemiological studies, case management, and control.

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