Polymerase Chain Reaction: A Better Method for Diagnosing Chronic Schistosoma mansoni Infections.

For more effective diagnosis of the acute and chronic stages of Schistosoma mansoni infection in humans, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique was compared with the Kato-Katz method. A total of 150 stool samples were collected from inpatient and outpatient clinics at the Department of Tropical Medicine, Minia University Hospital, Egypt. Three groups of patients, 50 with acute intestinal schistosomiasis, 70 with chronic intestinal schistosomiasis and 30 normal healthy controls were studied.

Breast-feeding protects infantile diarrhea caused by intestinal protozoan infections.

This study investigated the effect of breast-feeding in protection against protozoan infection in infants with persistent diarrhea. Infants were classified into 2 groups; 161 breast-fed infants and the same number of non-breast-fed infants. Microscopic examinations of stool were done for detection of parasites and measuring the intensity of infection.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Nalut District, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya: a clinico-epidemiologic study and Leishmania species identification.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), an endemic disease in the littoral zones of the Mediterranean area, the Middle East, East Africa, and especially in Libya, has not been fully documented. The present study clarifies the clinico-epidemiologic profile of CL and the molecular genotyping of the Leishmania spp. in the Nalut district, Libya.

Transplantation of skin grafts and organs infected with Toxoplasma gondii as a source of toxoplasmosis in immunocompromised mice.

The possibility of Toxoplasma gondii infection resulting from transplantation of a skin graft and various organs has been investigated. The parasite was detected in very low numbers in all organs examined in wild-type (WT) BALB/c (B/c) mice that received skin grafts from infected interferon gamma knockout (GKO) B/c mice both with and without sulfamethoxazole treatment; all recipient mice survived. In contrast, transplantation of skin grafts from untreated infected WT B/c mice to naïve GKO B/c mice led to the death of all recipients within 20 days post-transplantation; T.

In vivo study of toxoplasmic parasitemia using interferon-gamma-deficient mice: absolute cell number of leukocytes, parasite load and cell susceptibility.

Toxoplasma gondii infection was induced in wild type (WT) C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice and same-background interferon-gamma knockout (GKO) mice by peroral inoculation of Fukaya strain cysts. We studied parasitemia, absolute cell number of leukocytes, and cell susceptibility in peripheral blood leukocyte (PBL) subsets in vivo. Parasitemia was observed in both WT and GKO mice, although the pattern of the parasite load was totally different among them.

A theoretical analysis of the relations between the risk of congenital toxoplasmosis and the annual infection rates with a convincing argument for better public intervention.

In a theoretical analysis of the present study, we quantitatively indicate a potential threat of congenital toxoplasmosis to Japanese young women by the use of a simple mathematical model or a special case of the well-known catalytic infection model. For introducing a risk function of congenital toxoplasmosis, an annual infection rate, r, was divided into r(1), the rate before age a(0 < a < 15), and r(2), the rate after age a. Presuming the values of r(1), r(2) and a on the basis of the current situation of Toxoplasma infection in Japan, simulation analyses were performed with the mathematical model.