Quality assurance of serologic testing for Chagas disease in a primary care setting of rural Paraguay.

The diagnosis of Chagas disease mostly relies on the use of multiple serologic tests that are often unavailable in many of the remote settings where the disease is highly prevalent. In the Teniente Irala Fernández Municipality, in central Paraguay, efforts have been made to increase the diagnostic capabilities of specific rural health centres, but no quality assurance of the results produced has been performed. We comparatively analysed the results obtained with 300 samples tested using a commercial rapid diagnostic test (RDT) and enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) at the laboratory of the Teniente Irala Fernández Health Center (CSTIF) with those generated upon repeating the tests at an independent well-equipped research laboratory (CEDIC).

A guide for the generation of repositories of clinical samples for research on Chagas disease.

Chagas disease, caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, affects over 6 million people, mainly in Latin America. Two different clinical phases, acute and chronic, are recognised. Currently, 2 anti-parasitic drugs are available to treat the disease (nifurtimox and benznidazole), but diagnostic methods require of a relatively complex infrastructure and trained personnel, limiting its widespread use in endemic areas, and the access of patients to treatment.

A standardized clinical database for research in Chagas disease: The NHEPACHA network.

The NHEPACHA Iberoamerican Network, founded on the initiative of a group of researchers from Latin American countries and Spain, aims to establish a research framework for Chagas disease that encompasses diagnosis and treatment. For this purpose, the network has created a questionnaire to gather relevant data on epidemiological, clinical, diagnostic, and therapeutic aspects of the disease. This questionnaire was developed based on a consensus of expert members of the network, with the intention of collecting high-quality standardized data, which can be used interchangeably by the different research centers that make up the NHEPACHA network.

Cooperation for malaria control and elimination in the Guiana Shield.

The Guiana Shield, a small region of South America, is currently one of the main hotspots of malaria transmission on the continent. This Amazonian area is characterised by remarkable socioeconomic, cultural, health, and political heterogeneity and a high degree of regional and cross-border population mobility, which has contributed to the increase of malaria in the region in the past few years. In this context, regional cooperation to control malaria represents both a challenge and an indispensable initiative.

Performance evaluation of human cough annotators: optimal metrics and sex differences.

Introduction: Despite its high prevalence and significance, there is still no widely available method to quantify cough. In order to demonstrate agreement with the current gold standard of human annotation, emerging automated techniques require a robust, reproducible approach to annotation. We describe the extent to which a human annotator of cough sounds (a) agrees with herself (intralabeller or intrarater agreement) and (b) agrees with other independent labellers (interlabeller or inter-rater agreement); we go on to describe significant sex differences in cough sound length and epochs size.

Practical diagnostic algorithms for Chagas disease: a focus on low resource settings.

Introduction: Chagas disease, caused by parasite , is the most important neglected tropical disease in the Americas. Two drugs are available for treatment, but access to them is challenging, in part due to complex diagnostic algorithms. These are stage-dependent, involve multiple tests, and are ill-adapted to the reality of vast areas where the disease is endemic.

Topical repellents for malaria prevention.

Background: Insecticide-based interventions, such as long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLINs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS), remain the backbone of malaria vector control. These interventions target mosquitoes that prefer to feed and rest indoors, but have limited capacity to prevent transmission that occurs outdoors or outside regular sleeping hours. In low-endemicity areas, malaria elimination will require that these control gaps are addressed, and complementary tools are found.

State-of-the-Art in the Drug Discovery Pathway for Chagas Disease: A Framework for Drug Development and Target Validation.

Chagas disease is the most important protozoan infection in the Americas, and constitutes a significant public health concern throughout the world. Development of new medications against its etiologic agent, , has been traditionally slow and difficult, lagging in comparison with diseases caused by other kinetoplastid parasites. Among the factors that explain this are the incompletely understood mechanisms of pathogenesis of infection and its complex set of interactions with the host in the chronic stage of the disease.

Development and Application of an Assay to Evaluate the Anti-Parasitic Effect of Humoral Responses against .

Mounting a balanced and robust humoral immune response is of utmost importance for reducing the infectivity of . While the role of such a response in controlling the infection is well known, there is a lack of tools that can be used to quickly evaluate it. We developed a serum parasite inhibition assay (to evaluate changes in the parasite infection after exposing infective trypomastigotes to serum samples from infected patients).

Identification of compounds with activity against within a collection of synthetic nucleoside analogs.

Introduction: Chagas disease is caused by the protozoan parasite , and it is the most important neglected tropical disease in the Americas. Two drugs are available to treat the infection, but their efficacy in the chronic stage of the disease, when most cases are diagnosed, is reduced. Their tolerability is also hindered by common adverse effects, making the development of safer and efficacious alternatives a pressing need.

Acoustic surveillance of cough for detecting respiratory disease using artificial intelligence.

Research Question: Can smartphones be used to detect individual and population-level changes in cough frequency that correlate with the incidence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and other respiratory infections?

Methods: This was a prospective cohort study carried out in Pamplona (Spain) between 2020 and 2021 using artificial intelligence cough detection software. Changes in cough frequency around the time of medical consultation were evaluated using a randomisation routine; significance was tested by comparing the distribution of cough frequencies to that obtained from a model of no difference. The correlation between changes of cough frequency and COVID-19 incidence was studied using an autoregressive moving average analysis, and its strength determined by calculating its autocorrelation function (ACF).

Longitudinal passive cough monitoring and its implications for detecting changes in clinical status.

Research Question: What is the impact of the duration of cough monitoring on its accuracy in detecting changes in the cough frequency?

Materials And Methods: This is a statistical analysis of a prospective cohort study. Participants were recruited in the city of Pamplona (Northern Spain), and their cough frequency was passively monitored using smartphone-based acoustic artificial intelligence software. Differences in cough frequency were compared using a one-tailed Mann-Whitney U test and a randomisation routine to simulate 24-h monitoring.

Digital acoustic surveillance for early detection of respiratory disease outbreaks in Spain: a protocol for an observational study.

Introduction: Cough is a common symptom of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses. However, objectively measuring its frequency and evolution is hindered by the lack of reliable and scalable monitoring systems. This can be overcome by newly developed artificial intelligence models that exploit the portability of smartphones.

The malaria burden of Amerindian groups of three Venezuelan states: a descriptive study based on programmatic data.

Background: Fifty-three percent of all cases of malaria in the Americas in 2019 came from Venezuela, where the epidemic is heavily focused south of the Orinoco river, and where most of the country's Amerindian groups live. Although the disease is known to represent a significant public health problem among these populations, little epidemiological data exists on the subject. This study aims to provide information on malaria incidence, geospatial clustering, and risk factors associated to Plasmodium falciparum infection among these groups.

Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with malaria admitted to a hospital in Mérida, Venezuela.

Background: Malaria is expanding rapidly across Venezuela, spreading outwards from traditional high transmission regions in the southeast of the country, but the lack of official data make it impossible to understand the reasons for this expansion and to estimate its real magnitude. This study aims to evaluate the epidemiological characteristics driving the re-emergence of malaria in Mérida, a state in the west of Venezuela, where no cases have been reported since 2003, and also to study the clinical presentation of the disease in patients presenting with malaria.

Methods: Thirty-three patients who presented with anemia and fever and with a microscopic diagnosis of malaria were examined and interviewed.