Five years of post-validation surveillance of lymphatic filariasis in Thailand.

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) validated Thailand in 2017 as having eliminated lymphatic filariasis (LF) as a public health problem with recommendations for continued surveillance. This article describes measures and progress made in Thailand with post-validation surveillance (PVS) of LF from 2018 until 2022.

Methods: The implementation unit (IU) is a sub-village in 11 former LF endemic provinces.

in Chiggers and Small Mammals in Laos.

Scrub typhus is a leading cause of febrile illness in Laos and accounts for a high burden of disease. There have been no previous studies on the causative agent, , in vector mites ("chiggers") or their small mammal hosts in Laos. Small mammals and free-living chiggers were trapped in districts of Vientiane Province and Capital.

Distribution of Phlebotomine Sandflies in the Cave Area of Satun Province, Thailand.

Leishmaniasis, a sandfly-transmitted protozoan infection, is a neglected health threat in Thailand and the information on its vector is scarce. This study aimed to identify sandfly distribution, abundance, and environmental conditions of natural breeding sites in the cave areas of Satun Province, where previous cases of leishmaniasis were reported. Sandflies were collected during a six-month period using CDC light traps and modified emergence traps.

Disease Ecology of Rickettsial Species: A Data Science Approach.

We present an approach to assess the disease ecology of rickettsial species by investigating open databases and by using data science methodologies. First, we explored the epidemiological trend and changes of human rickettsial disease epidemics over the years and compared this trend with knowledge on emerging rickettsial diseases given by published reviews. Second, we investigated the global diversity of rickettsial species recorded in humans, domestic animals and wild mammals, using the Enhanced Infectious Disease Database (EID2) and employing a network analysis approach to represent and quantify transmission ecology of rickettsial species among their carriers, arthropod vectors or mammal reservoirs and humans.

The estimated burden of scrub typhus in Thailand from national surveillance data (2003-2018).

Background: Scrub typhus is a major cause of acute febrile illness in the tropics and is endemic over large areas of the Asia Pacific region. The national and global burden of scrub typhus remains unclear due to limited data and difficulties surrounding diagnosis.

Methodology/principal Findings: Scrub typhus reporting data from 2003-2018 were collected from the Thai national disease surveillance system.

Innovative Distance Learning Tool for Morphological Identification of Chigger Mites (Actinotrichida) as Vectors of Scrub Typhus: A Pilot Study.

Scrub typhus, a disease caused by , affects more than one billion people globally with an average fatality rate of 6%. Humans are accidentally infected through the bite of trombiculid mite larvae (chiggers). Chiggers feed on hosts' extracellular fluid for survival and development.

Geometric morphometrics of the scutum for differentiation of trombiculid mites within the genus Walchia (Acariformes: Prostigmata: Trombiculidae), a probable vector of scrub typhus.

The vectors of scrub typhus are the larval stage of trombiculid mites, termed "chiggers". These vectors are very small - the larvae are approximately 0.2 mm in size - and therefore their morphological identification is difficult.

Autofluorescence microscopy for paired-matched morphological and molecular identification of individual chigger mites (Acari: Trombiculidae), the vectors of scrub typhus.

Background: Conventional gold standard characterization of chigger mites involves chemical preparation procedures (i.e. specimen clearing) for visualization of morphological features, which however contributes to destruction of the arthropod host DNA and any endosymbiont or pathogen DNA harbored within the specimen.