Publications by authors named "Nelson F Fe"

Article Synopsis
  • Forest edges in the Amazon, influenced by urban, rural, and natural land types, play a key role in the interaction between humans, wildlife, and mosquitoes that can spread diseases.
  • Researchers studied how these different types of edges affect mosquito communities, finding that rural edges had the highest diversity of species and supported many forest-dependent mosquitoes.
  • The study highlights how the surrounding landscape impacts the risk of disease transmission at forest edges, indicating that not all forest edges are equal in terms of ecological interactions.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on the risk of spillover and spillback of mosquito-borne viruses in neotropical regions, particularly at ecotones where humans, monkeys, and mosquitoes interact closely.
  • Researchers collected and analyzed almost 9,500 mosquitoes from various distances (0, 500, 1000, and 2000 m) from a rainforest reserve in Manaus, Brazil, uncovering that mosquito diversity and community composition change significantly within the first 500 meters.
  • The findings indicate that environmental variables, especially near the forest edge, influence mosquito species presence, which can help in identifying areas at higher risk for virus transmission and guide future risk assessment models.
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Article Synopsis
  • - The study discusses the challenges of maintaining the neotropical mosquito species, a key vector for sylvatic yellow fever virus, in captivity, as it has never been bred beyond the F generation since 1921.
  • - Researchers developed methods such as installment hatching, artificial blood feeding, and forced-mating techniques, successfully producing F generation eggs for the first time and achieving a 62.8% hatching rate.
  • - Although they could not sustain a laboratory colony beyond the F generation, their techniques lay the groundwork for future experimental studies, which are important for addressing the risks of viruses like dengue and Zika in regions with high disease transmission.
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In the Americas, some mosquito-borne viruses such as Zika, chikungunya, and dengue circulate among humans in urban transmission cycles, while others, including yellow fever and Mayaro, circulate among monkeys in sylvatic cycles. The intersection of humans and wildlife at forest edges creates risk for zoonotic virus exchange. We built a scaffold tower at the edge of a treefall gap in rainforest bordering Manaus, Brazil, to identify vectors that may bridge transmission between humans and monkeys.

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The emergence of Zika virus (ZIKV) in Latin America brought to the fore longstanding concerns that forests bordering urban areas may provide a gateway for arbovirus spillback from humans to wildlife. To bridge urban and sylvatic transmission cycles, mosquitoes must co-occur with both humans and potential wildlife hosts, such as monkeys, in space and time. We deployed BG-Sentinel traps at heights of 0, 5, 10, and 15 m in trees in a rainforest reserve bordering Manaus, Brazil, to characterize the vertical stratification of mosquitoes and their associations with microclimate and to identify potential bridge vectors.

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Scorpion envenomations are a major public health problem in Brazil, and most medically important cases are attributable to the Tityus genus. The objective of this study is to describe the clinical and epidemiological aspects of a series of 151 cases of confirmed scorpion stings, which were treated at the hospitals of two cities in the Western Brazilian Amazon, between June 2014 and December 2019. This study shows that the genus Tityus was the most prevalent.

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Mosquito-borne Zika virus (ZIKV) was recently introduced into the Americas and now has the potential to spill back into a sylvatic cycle in the region, likely involving non-human primates and Aedes, Haemagogus, and Sabethes species mosquitoes. We investigated potential routes of mosquito-borne virus exchange between urban and sylvatic transmission cycles by characterizing mosquito communities in three urban forest parks that receive heavy traffic from both humans and monkeys in Manaus, Brazil. Parks were stratified by both distance from the urban-forest edge (0, 50, 100, and 500 m) and relative Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) (low, medium, or high), and mosquitoes were sampled at randomly selected sites within each stratum using BG-Sentinel traps.

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Vector-borne diseases account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases, causing more than one million deaths annually. Malaria remains one of the most important public health problems worldwide. These vectors are bloodsucking insects, which can transmit disease-producing microorganisms during a blood meal.

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Background: Phlebotomine sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) are vectors of Leishmania species, the etiological agents of leishmaniasis, which is one of the most important emerging infectious diseases in the Americas. In the state of Amazonas in Brazil, anthropogenic activities encourage the presence of these insects around rural homes. The present study aimed to describe the composition and distribution of sand fly species diversity among the ecotopes (intradomicile, peridomicile and forest) in an area of American cutaneous leishmaniasis transmission and detect natural infection with Leishmania DNA to evaluate which vectors are inside houses and whether the presence of possible vectors represents a hazard of transmission.

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Herein, four cases of scorpion stings caused by Tityus apiacas recorded from the municipality of Apuí, in the southern region of the Brazilian Amazon, are described. Patients showed systemic clinical manifestations, described as unusual, involuntary, and generalized tingling and numbness, reported by patients as an electric shock sensation, lasting up to 24 hours after the sting. All patients described local pain and sensation, along with other clinical symptoms including local edema and erythema.

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Introduction: This study investigated scorpionism profile in the State of Amazonas, Brazil.

Methods: Data referring to stinging incidents were obtained from the National Databank of Major Causes of Morbidity. Information on the scorpion species involved was obtained from the Amazonas State health units.

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Scorpion stings are a public health problem in the Brazilian Amazon. However, detailed clinical characterization with the proper animal identification is scarce. Here we report a confirmed case of envenoming by Tityus cf.

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Background: Scorpion stings are a major public health problem in Brazil, with an increasing number of registered cases every year. Affecting mostly vulnerable populations, the phenomenon is not well described and is considered a neglected disease. In Brazil, the use of anti-venom formulations is provided free of charge.

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Chagas disease (CD) is a parasitic infection that originated in the Americas and is caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. In the last few years, the disease has spread to countries in North America, Asia and Europe due to the migration of Latin Americans. In the Brazilian Amazon, CD has an endemic transmission, especially in the Rio Negro region, where an occupational hazard was described for piaçaveiros (piassaba gatherers).

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Background: A new species of phlebotomine sand flies belonging to Trichophoromyia Barretto, 1962 genus is described, based on males collected in Jaú National Park, Amazonas state, Brazil.

Methods: The Sand flies were mounted in Canada balsam. They were measured with a binocular Olympus CH-2 microscope with the aid of a micrometer objective and the drawings were done with the help of a camera lucida.

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Background: Studies on vector behaviour should be conducted in order to evaluate the effectiveness of vector control measures on malaria protection in endemic areas of Latin America, where P. vivax predominates. This work aims to investigate the fauna of anopheline mosquitoes and verify the impact of integrated vector management in two colonization projects in the Careiro Municipality, Western Brazilian Amazon.

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Introduction: Chagas disease is an emerging and neglected problem in the Brazilian Amazon region.

Methods: This study describes a series of acute autochthonous cases of Chagas disease that were attended at the Tropical Medicine Foundation of Amazonas, Manaus, between 1980 and 2006.

Results: Twenty-nine cases were recorded: 19 (65.

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Analysis of the distribution of triatomines is essential for formulating control strategies for Chagas disease in the Amazon region. In this paper, the results from trapping in wild and artificial environments in rural and urban localities in Manaus, Amazonas, are presented. Out of the 115 triatomines collected, 85 (73.

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After detecting Aedes aegypti larvae in the rural zone of Manaus, entomological surveillance was carried out over two consecutive years in order to notify occurrences of this species in that area. The tool of entomological surveillance has an important role among the preventive measures against diseases transmitted by insects, particularly arbovirosis.

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In 1979, the first autochthonous case of Chagas disease in the Western Brazilian Amazon was reported and an entomological survey was carried out around it. Specimens of Rhodnius pictipes and Rhodnius robustus were collected in intradomicile and sylvatic ecotopes. Adult bugs were infected with trypanosomatids.

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A study of crepuscular and night-biting mosquitoes was conducted at remote settlements along the Padauiri River, middle Negro River, state of Amazonas, Brazil. Collections were performed with human bait and a CDC-light trap on three consecutive days per month from June 2003-May 2004. In total, 1,203 h of collection were performed, of which 384 were outside and 819 were inside houses.

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The biodiversity of the Amazon region includes many species of arthropod vectors in different ecotopes, thus enabling occurrences of diseases like malaria, filariasis and arbovirosis. From August 2001 to July 2002, we gathered culicids from inside homes, from areas surrounding these homes and from forested areas of the São João Community, in the rural zone of Manaus, State of Amazonas. 1240 specimens were collected, belonging to the Culicinae (99%) and Anophelinae (1%) subfamilies, with 50 species.

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From August 2001 to July 2002, sand flies were collected from the bases of trees and, using CDC and Disney traps, from areas surrounding homes and forested areas in the São João community, on the urban periphery of Manaus, State of Amazonas. 4,104 specimens belonging to four subtribes, 13 genera and 49 species of the Phlebotominae subfamily were collected. The subtribe Psychodopygina predominated, with 3,403 (83%) specimens, especially of Nyssomyia umbratilis, Nyssomyia anduzei, Trichophoromyia eurypyga, Bichromomyia olmeca nociva and Bichromomyia flaviscutellata.

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A description of the epidemiological profile of visceral leishmaniasis among Indians in the State of Roraima, Brazil, was based on the clinical characteristics of human and dog disease, ecological aspects of the area where the cases occurred and entomologic investigations performed from 1989 to 1993. The 82 human cases were reported in six out of eight Counties that existed then in the state; there was a 69.5% predominance of male cases among those registered and a greater (52.

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Information is available regarding the presence of Aedes albopictus in several municipalities of the State of Amazonas. Specimens of this mosquito species have now, for the first time, been collected from an urban area of the municipality of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil.

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