Revisiting immunity vs. exposure in schistosomiasis: A mathematical modeling study of delayed concomitant immunity.

The relative contributions of exposure vs. acquired immunity to the epidemiology of human schistosomiasis has been long debated. While there is considerable evidence that humans acquire partial immunity to infection, age- and sex-related contact patterns with water bodies contaminated with infectious cercarial schistosome larvae also contribute to typical epidemiological profiles of infection.

Does infection with or vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 lead to lasting immunity?

Many nations are pursuing the rollout of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines as an exit strategy from unprecedented COVID-19-related restrictions. However, the success of this strategy relies critically on the duration of protective immunity resulting from both natural infection and vaccination. SARS-CoV-2 infection elicits an adaptive immune response against a large breadth of viral epitopes, although the duration of the response varies with age and disease severity.

Infectious Causation of Abnormal Host Behavior: and Its Potential Association With Dopey Fox Syndrome.

The apicomplexan parasite , the causative agent of toxoplasmosis, can infect all warm-blooded animals. can subtly alter host behaviors-either through manipulation to enhance transmission to the feline definitive host or as a side-effect, or "constraint," of infection. In humans, infection, either alone or in association with other co-infecting neurotropic agents, has been reliably associated with both subtle behavioral changes and, in some cases, severe neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia.

Toxoplasma gondii: AnUnderestimated Threat?

Traditionally, the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii has been thought of as relevant to public health primarily within the context of congenital toxoplasmosis or postnatally acquired disease in immunocompromised patients. However, latent T.gondii infection has been increasingly associated with a wide variety of neuropsychiatric disorders and, more recently, causal frameworks for these epidemiological associations have been proposed.

Prevalence of and risk factors for curable sexually transmitted infections on Bubaque Island, Guinea Bissau.

Objectives: Complications from sexually transmitted infections (STIs) can result in severe morbidity and mortality. To date, no STI population studies have been conducted on the Bijagos Islands, Guinea Bissau. Our objective was to estimate the prevalence of and identify risk factors for and ) on Bubaque, the most populated island.

Toward Improving Interventions Against Toxoplasmosis by Identifying Routes of Transmission Using Sporozoite-specific Serological Tools.

Background: Horizontal transmission of Toxoplasma gondii occurs primarily via ingestion of environmental oocysts or consumption of undercooked/raw meat containing cyst-stage bradyzoites. The relative importance of these 2 transmission routes remains unclear. Oocyst infection can be distinguished from bradyzoite infection by identification of immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies against T.

Sex ratios and bimaturism differ between temperature-dependent and genetic sex-determination systems in reptiles.

Background: Sex-determining systems may profoundly influence the ecology, behaviour and demography of animals, yet these relationships are poorly understood. Here we investigate whether species with temperature-dependent (TSD) and genetic sex determination (GSD) differ in key demographic traits, using data from 181 species representing all major phylogenetic lineages of extant reptiles.

Results: We show that species with TSD exhibit significantly higher within-species variance in sex ratios than GSD species in three major life stages: birth or hatching, juvenility and adulthood.

Clonal differences in Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia-associated mortality.

The bacterium Staphylococcus aureus is a major human pathogen for which the emergence of antibiotic resistance is a global public health concern. Infection severity, and in particular bacteraemia-associated mortality, has been attributed to several host-related factors, such as age and the presence of comorbidities. The role of the bacterium in infection severity is less well understood, as it is complicated by the multifaceted nature of bacterial virulence, which has so far prevented a robust mapping between genotype, phenotype and infection outcome.

Diurnal and Reproductive Stage-Dependent Variation of Parental Behaviour in Captive Zebra Finches.

Parental care plays a key role in ontogeny, life-history trade-offs, sexual selection and intra-familial conflict. Studies focusing on understanding causes and consequences of variation in parental effort need to quantify parental behaviour accurately. The applied methods are, however, diverse even for a given species and type of parental effort, and rarely validated for accuracy.