Publications by authors named "L Carruth"

Management of what Somalis call "" - translated as digestive bile, bitterness, aloe, and masses of tiny beings in the gut - is key to popular health cultures and ethnophysiologies in eastern Ethiopia. Managing bodily requires cultivating multispecies sociality and flows of life between humans, vegetation that nourishes livestock, and animals that produce milk consumed for therapeutic and nutritional properties. Transcending Western scientific conceptualizations of the "gut microbiome" and the instrumentalization of microbes to improve human health, Somalis' gut epistemologies and concept of provide an ecological perspective on the co-constructed, mutable, and multispecies nature of digestion and life itself.

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Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in low-income countries like Ethiopia. However, because of the limited laboratory infrastructure there is a shortage of comprehensive data on the genotypes of clinical isolates of () complex (MTBC) in peripheral regions of Ethiopia. The objective of this study was to characterize MTBC isolates in the Somali region of eastern Ethiopia.

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Article Synopsis
  • Drug resistance to tuberculosis (TB) is a growing issue, particularly in high-burden areas like Ethiopia; this study sought to analyze drug sensitivity and resistance in central and peripheral regions, including the Somali region.
  • The research tested 302 TB isolates for drug sensitivity using the MGIT 960 system, with additional testing for multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains and genotypic resistance through the Xpert MTB/RIF system.
  • Results showed an 11.6% overall drug resistance rate and a 3.3% rate for MDR, indicating a need for improved TB control measures in the Somali region due to higher-than-average resistant cases.
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Contact with livestock and consumption of unpasteurised dairy products are associated with an increased risk of zoonotic and foodborne infection, particularly among populations with close animal contact, including pastoralists and semi-pastoralists. However, there are limited data on disease risk factors among pastoralists and other populations where livestock herding, particularly of dromedary camels, is common. This cross-sectional study used a previously validated survey instrument to identify risk factors for self-reported symptoms.

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Migrants along the US-Mexico border have been subjected to transnational violence created by international policy, militaristic intervention, and multinational organizational administration of border operations. The COVID-19 pandemic compounded migrants' vulnerabilities and provoked several logistical and ethical problems for US-based clinicians and organizations. This commentary examines how the concept of transnational solidarity facilitates analysis of clinicians' and migrants' shared historical and structural vulnerabilities.

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