Sylvatic typhus associated with flying squirrels (Glaucomys volans) in New York State, United States.

Sylvatic typhus is an infrequent, potentially life-threatening emerging zoonotic disease. In January of 2009, the New York State Department of Health was notified of a familial cluster of two suspected cases. Due to the paucity of typhus cases in New York, epidemiologic and environmental investigations were conducted to establish rickettsial etiology and determine potential sources of infection.

A national case-control study identifies human socio-economic status and activities as risk factors for tick-borne encephalitis in Poland.

Background: Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is endemic to Europe and medically highly significant. This study, focused on Poland, investigated individual risk factors for TBE symptomatic infection.

Methods And Findings: In a nation-wide population-based case-control study, of the 351 TBE cases reported to local health departments in Poland in 2009, 178 were included in the analysis.

In vivo phosphorylation of CFTR promotes formation of a nucleotide-binding domain heterodimer.

The human ATP-binding cassette (ABC) protein CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) is a chloride channel, whose dysfunction causes cystic fibrosis. To gain structural insight into the dynamic interaction between CFTR's nucleotide-binding domains (NBDs) proposed to underlie channel gating, we introduced target cysteines into the NBDs, expressed the channels in Xenopus oocytes, and used in vivo sulfhydryl-specific crosslinking to directly examine the cysteines' proximity. We tested five cysteine pairs, each comprising one introduced cysteine in the NH(2)-terminal NBD1 and another in the COOH-terminal NBD2.

West Nile virus surveillance in mosquitoes in New York State, 2000-2004.

A West Nile virus (WNV) surveillance system was created and implemented in New York State (NYS) in 2000 and described previously (White et al. 2001). We examine and evaluate the results of mosquito and virus surveillance for 2000 through 2004 exclusive of New York City.

Prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi in small mammals in New York state.

Intensive small mammal trapping was conducted in 12 counties in New York state during 1998-2000 to investigate the prevalence and site specificity of the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi in, and presence of the blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis Say on, the wild mice Peromyscus leucopus Rafinesque and Peromyscus maniculatus Wagner and other small mammal species. Previously captured mice (1992-1997) from throughout New York state also were recruited into the study, providing a total of 3,664 Peromyscus from 107 sites in 31 counties. Infection with B.

Spatiotemporal Bayesian analysis of Lyme disease in New York state, 1990-2000.

Mapping ordinarily increases our understanding of nontrivial spatial and temporal heterogeneities in disease rates. However, the large number of parameters required by the corresponding statistical models often complicates detailed analysis. This study investigates the feasibility of a fully Bayesian hierarchical regression approach to the problem and identifies how it outperforms two more popular methods: crude rate estimates (CRE) and empirical Bayes standardization (EBS).

Epidemic and spatial dynamics of Lyme disease in New york State, 1990-2000.

Lyme disease (LD) occurrence in New York State (NYS) has not only increased over time but also spread throughout the state from the original disease focus in southeastern NYS. Few studies have investigated this epidemic and spatial dynamic in great detail. Using data from the NYS Department of Health Lyme Registry Surveillance System, we summarized epidemic and spatial characteristics of LD in NYS for the 11-yr time period from 1990 through 2000.

Survey of repellent use by service members arriving in Kuwait for Operation Iraqi Freedom 2.

The 8th Medical Brigade, deployed to Kuwait in January 2004 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom provided theater-wide health service support and medical command and control. An historic "surge" of troops and equipment occurred during our deployment as 140,000 service members (SMs) redeployed out of theater and 110,000 arrived to take their place. The brigade's preventive medicine personnel conducted a questionnaire-based survey at military camps in northwestern Kuwait in mid-March to determine whether SMs had been provided with supplies and information to protect them against endemic vector-borne diseases.

Babesia microti, upstate New York.

Five cases of human babesiosis were reported in the Lower Hudson Valley Region of New York State in 2001. An investigation to determine if Babesia microti was present in local Ixodes scapularis ticks yielded 5 positive pools in 123 pools tested, the first detection of B. microti from field-collected I.

Lyme disease trends--Dutchess County, New York, 1992-2000.

Background: Lyme disease is a vector-borne infectious disease, accounting for more than 95% of all reported vector-borne illness in the United States. From 1992 2000, Dutchess County reported more cases of Lyme disease than any other county in the United States, consistently ranking among the top ten in incidence rates. We analyzed 1992-2000 Dutchess County Lyme disease surveillance data to characterize Lyme disease trends, identify high-risk populations, and examine the frequency of the characteristic lesion, erythema migrans.

Telomere biology and cellular aging in nonhuman primate cells.

To determine how cellular aging is conserved among primates, we analyzed the replicative potential and telomere shortening in skin fibroblasts of anthropoids and prosimians. The average telomere length of the New World primates Ateles geoffroyi (spider monkey) and Saimiri sciureus (squirrel monkey) and the Old World primates Macaca mulatta (rhesus monkey), Pongo pygmaeus (orangutan), and Pan paniscus (pigmy chimpanzee) ranged from 4 to 16 kb. We found that telomere shortening limits the replicative capacity of anthropoid fibroblasts and that the expression of human telomerase produced telomere elongation and the extension of their in vitro life span.