Prevalence of submicroscopic malaria infection in immigrants living in Spain.

Background: The importance of submicroscopic malaria infections in high-transmission areas could contribute to maintain the parasite cycle. Regarding non-endemic areas, its importance remains barely understood because parasitaemia in these afebrile patients is usually below the detection limits for microscopy, hence molecular techniques are often needed for its diagnosis. In addition to this, the lack of standardized protocols for the screening of submicroscopic malaria in immigrants from endemic areas may underestimate the infection with Plasmodium spp.

Emerging and imported diseases diagnosed in the emergency department of a hospital in Madrid.

Objectives: To describe the clinical and epidemiologic characteristics of patients diagnosed with malaria, dengue fever, and Zika or chikungunya virus infections in a hospital emergency department. To describe the usefulness of the department's diagnostic resources.

Material And Methods: Descriptive observational study of patients diagnosed with infectious tropical diseases on the basis of samples collected in the emergency department.

HDP2: a ribosomal DNA (NTS-ETS) sequence as a target for species-specific molecular diagnosis of intestinal taeniasis in humans.

Background: Taenia solium, T. asiatica and T. saginata tapeworms cause human taeniasis and are the origin of porcine and bovine cysticercosis.

[Assessment of two commercially available immunochromatographic assays for a rapid diagnosis of Giardia duodenalis and Cryptosporidium spp. in human fecal specimens].

Introduction: To assess and compare the performance of two immunochromatographic tests for the simultaneous detection of Giardia duodenalis and Cryptosporidium spp. in faeces.

Materials And Methods: In this study 254 faeces samples were tested using the two immunochromatography strips Cryto-Giardia (CerTest Biotec) and Stick Crypto-Giardia (Operon).

Tick species and tick-borne infections identified in population from a rural area of Spain.

To determine the tick species that bite humans in the province of Soria (Spain) and ascertain the tick-borne pathogens that threaten people's health in that province, 185 tick specimens were collected from 179 patients who sought medical advice at health-care centres. The ticks were identified, and their DNA examined by PCR for pathogens. Most ticks were collected in autumn and spring (59 and 57 respectively).