The Use of Quinacrine in Nitroimidazole-resistant Giardia Duodenalis: An Old Drug for an Emerging Problem.

Background: There is little evidence regarding the management of refractory giardiasis after treatment with nitroimidazoles. This study estimates the proportion of persistent giardiasis in 3 hospitals in Barcelona, describes associated risk factors and genotype, and evaluates the efficacy rate of quinacrine in those with persistent giardiasis.

Methods: A clinical, prospective, observational study was conducted in patients with giardiasis treated with nitroimidazoles.

Controlling congenital and paediatric chagas disease through a community health approach with active surveillance and promotion of paediatric awareness.

Background: Chagas disease (CD) is endemic in countries of continental Latin America. Congenital transmission is a major concern worldwide. In 2010, the Public Health Agency of Catalonia (ASPCAT) launched a screening protocol for Trypanosoma cruzi infection in pregnant women and their newborns.

Randomized trial of posaconazole and benznidazole for chronic Chagas' disease.

Background: Current therapeutic options for Chagas' disease are limited to benznidazole and nifurtimox, which have been associated with low cure rates in the chronic stage of the disease and which have considerable toxicity. Posaconazole has shown trypanocidal activity in murine models.

Methods: We performed a prospective, randomized clinical trial to assess the efficacy and safety of posaconazole as compared with the efficacy and safety of benznidazole in adults with chronic Trypanosoma cruzi infection.

Trypanosoma cruzi infection in a non-endemic country: epidemiological and clinical profile.

Chagas disease has been increasingly diagnosed in non-endemic countries. This is a prospective observational study performed at the Tropical Medicine Units of the International Health Program of the Catalan Health Institute, Barcelona (PROgrama de Salud Internacional del Instituto Catalán de la Salud, PROSICS Barcelona, Spain), that includes all patients with Chagas disease who attended from June 2007 to May 2012. Clinical and epidemiological data were collected.

Epidemiology of imported malaria among children and young adults in Barcelona (1990-2008).

Background: Increasing international travel and migration is producing changes in trends in infectious diseases, especially in children from many European cities. The objective of this study was to describe the epidemiology and determine the trends of imported malaria in patients under 20 years old in the city of Barcelona, Spain, during an 18-year period.

Methods: The study included malaria cases that were laboratory confirmed and reported to the malaria register at the Public Health Agency of Barcelona from 1990 to 2008, residing in Barcelona and less than 20 years old.

Imported malaria among African immigrants: is there still a relationship between developed countries and their ex-colonies?

Background: The objective of this study was to compare cases of imported malaria originating from the Spanish ex-colony of Equatorial Guinea (EG) with those originating from the rest of Africa (RA).

Methods: All the African cases detected in Barcelona between 1989 and 2007 were investigated in a retrospective analysis. Clinical-epidemiological variables such as sex, age, visiting friends and relatives (VFR), species, hospital admission and chemo-prophylaxis were compared.

Imported malaria in a cosmopolitan European city: a mirror image of the world epidemiological situation.

Background: International travel and migration have been related with an increase of imported malaria cases. There has been considerable immigration to Barcelona from low-income countries (LIC) in recent years. The objective is to describe the epidemiology and to determine the trends of the disease in Barcelona.

Communicable diseases in the immigrant population attended to in a tropical medicine unit: epidemiological aspects and public health issues.

For geographical and historical reasons, Spain is receiving an increasing number of immigrants. The aim of this study was to evaluate some epidemiological aspects and the main public health issues of communicable diseases in Barcelona's immigrant population. From 2001 to 2004, a population of immigrants from tropical, subtropical regions and Eastern Europe was attended to in our centre.

[Tuberculosis in recent immigrants in Barcelona].

Background: The aim of the present was to study the prevalence of infection and tuberculous disease as well as the fulfillment of secondary antituberculin chemoprophylaxis in immigrants according to their geographic origin.

Patients And Methods: A descriptive study was carried out of 1,489 immigrants under the age of 35 years attended in the Tropical and Imported Disease Unit Drassanes in Barcelona, Spain from 1989 to 1994.

Results: The patients were from 79 countries, with 81.

[Malaria imported by immigrants in Catalonia].

Background: The aim of the present study was to analyze the epidemiologic aspects and particular features of malaria in immigrants in Catalonia, Spain.

Methods: All the immigrants who visited the Unit of Tropical and Imported Diseases "Drassanes" in Barcelona from endemic zones of malaria from 1990 to 1993 were studied. The diagnosis of malaria was based on the thick blood film, peripheral blood smear exam and, since 1991, the QBC (Quantitative Buffy Coat).

[The diagnosis of malaria by the thick film and the QBC: a comparative study of both technics].

Background: The diagnosis of paludism is important because of the severity of the clinical picture caused by Plasmodium falciparum, the increasing number of travellers to endemic zones and the emigration from these zones. A comparative study of the QBC techniques (staining with acridin orange and observation with ultraviolet light) and the thick film with Giemsa staining was carried out.

Methods: The QBC and thick film were performed parallelly for 17 months in a total of 623 samples pertaining to subjects from endemic zones of paludism (emigrants, immigrants and travellers).