Publications by authors named "Oscar Nolasco"
Article Synopsis
- * A study conducted from November 2019 to May 2020 found persistent malaria cases, with high infection rates and limited genetic diversity among the local parasite populations.
- * Notably, resistance to anti-malarial drugs was identified, emphasizing the need for targeted strategies to address unique mobility patterns and prevent imported malaria infections in these remote areas.
Article Synopsis
- Hard-to-reach communities in Peru pose significant challenges for malaria elimination due to insufficient data on transmission patterns; a study conducted in Nueva Jerusalén (NJ), a remote indigenous community, aimed to address this gap through sample collection and analysis.
- The study found that active case detection did not significantly reduce malaria cases, with a continuous presence of infections, particularly Plasmodium vivax (Pv) and Plasmodium falciparum (Pf), showing low genetic diversity and distinct genetic differences from parasites in other areas.
- Resistance markers for chloroquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine were present in NJ's Pf parasites, alongside common gene deletions, indicating the need for customized interventions that consider population mobility and imported infections to
In the Amazon Region of Peru, occupational activities are important drivers of human mobility and may increase the individual risk of being infected while contributing to increasing malaria community-level transmission. Even though out-of-village working activities and other mobility patterns have been identified as determinants of malaria transmission, no studies have quantified the effect of out-of-village working activities on recent malaria exposure and proposed plausible intervention scenarios. Using two population-based cross-sectional studies in the Loreto Department in Peru, and the parametric g-formula method, we simulated various hypothetical scenarios intervening in out-of-village working activities to reflect their potential health benefits.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMalaria is a major health problem in Peru despite substantial progress achieved by the ongoing malaria elimination program. This study explored the population genetics of 63 Plasmodium falciparum and 170 P. vivax cases collected in the Peruvian Amazon Basin between 2015 and 2019.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The landscape of malaria transmission in the Peruvian Amazon is temporally and spatially heterogeneous, presenting different micro-geographies with particular epidemiologies. Most cases are asymptomatic and escape routine malaria surveillance based on light microscopy (LM). Following the implementation of control programs in this region, new approaches to stratify transmission and direct efforts at an individual and community level are needed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) for malaria diagnosis at the point of care (POC) depends on the detection capacity of synthesized nucleic acids and the specificity of the amplification target. To improve malaria diagnosis, new colorimetric LAMP tests were developed using multicopy targets for Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum detection.
Methods: The cytochrome oxidase I (COX1) mitochondrial gene and the non-coding sequence Pvr47 for P.
is co-endemic with in Peru and optimum management requires distinguishing these two species in the blood of patients. For the differential identification of and other spp., the Loopamp Malaria Pan Detection Kit in combination with the Loopamp Malaria Pv Detection Kit (Eiken Chemical Co.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Several platforms have been used to generate the primary data for microsatellite analysis of malaria parasite genotypes. Each has relative advantages but share a limitation of being time- and cost-intensive. A commercially available automated capillary gel cartridge system was assessed in the microsatellite analysis of Plasmodium vivax diversity in the Peruvian Amazon.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNew rpoB gene primers for detecting Rif(r) in Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex bacteria achieved 100% specificity and 88% (fresh sputa) and 92% (ethanol-preserved sputa) diagnostic sensitivity and detected up to 4 CFU/sample. Of the 99 Rif(r) isolates examined, 97% had mutations within cluster I, 2% at codon 176, and 1% at codon 497.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Reports on the sensitivity of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the diagnosis of lymph node tuberculosis (TB) show divergent results. We evaluated the accuracy of the Roche Amplicor Mycobacterium tuberculosis PCR test with lymph node aspirate and biopsy samples.
Methods: The study was conducted at a public reference hospital in Lima, Peru.