The presence of Zika virus (ZIKV) in Indonesia has been recognized since the 1970s, but its transmission dynamics there have been poorly understood. To understand more fully the geographic distribution and burden of ZIKV infection, we performed retrospective serological tests on specimens collected from asymptomatic children age 5 to 9 years old living at 30 sites in 14 provinces. Of 870 serum samples tested, 9.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Rickettsia felis has recently emerged worldwide as a cause of human illness. Typically causing mild, undifferentiated fever, it has been implicated in several cases of non-fatal neurological disease in Mexico and Sweden. Its distribution and pathogenicity in Southeast Asia is poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDengue virus transmission is endemic in Makassar, Indonesia, with the majority of cases reported soon after the start of the annual rainy season. Before 2006, larval source reduction, larvaciding, and reactive routine, outdoor, insecticide fogging campaigns did not result in a reduction in seasonal dengue incidence. Beginning in 2006, village volunteers conducted comprehensive surveys for immature Aedes during the dry season, when vector populations were at their lowest.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlobal health security depends on effective surveillance for infectious diseases. In Uganda, resources are inadequate to support collection and reporting of data necessary for an effective and responsive surveillance system. We used a cross-cutting approach to improve surveillance and laboratory capacity in Uganda by leveraging an existing pediatric inpatient malaria sentinel surveillance system to collect data on expanded causes of illness, facilitate development of real-time surveillance, and provide data on antimicrobial resistance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe assessed Zika virus seroprevalence among healthy 1-4-year-old children using a serum sample collection assembled in 2014 representing 30 urban sites across Indonesia. Of 662 samples, 9.1% were Zika virus seropositive, suggesting widespread recent Zika virus transmission and immunity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Vectorborne diseases are major causes of death and illness worldwide. In the United States, the most common vectorborne pathogens are transmitted by ticks or mosquitoes, including those causing Lyme disease; Rocky Mountain spotted fever; and West Nile, dengue, and Zika virus diseases. This report examines trends in occurrence of nationally reportable vectorborne diseases during 2004-2016.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough neurological manifestations associated with dengue viruses (DENV) infection have been reported, there is very limited information on the genetic characteristics of neurotropic DENV. Here we describe the isolation and complete genome analysis of DENV serotype 3 (DENV-3) from cerebrospinal fluid of an encephalitis paediatric patient in Jakarta, Indonesia. Next-generation sequencing was employed to deduce the complete genome of the neurotropic DENV-3 isolate.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCell Mol Life Sci
March 2015
RNA viruses, with their high potential for mutation and epidemic spread, are the most common class of pathogens found as new causes of human illness. Despite great advances made in diagnostic technology since the 1950s, the annual rate at which novel virulent viruses have been found has remained at 2-3. Most emerging viruses are zoonoses; they have jumped from mammal or bird hosts to humans.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe epidemic of Ebola virus disease (Ebola) in West Africa that began in March 2014 has caused approximately 13,200 suspected, probable, and confirmed cases, including approximately 6,500 in Liberia. About 50% of Liberia's reported cases have been in Montserrado County (population 1.5 million), the most populous county, which contains the capital city, Monrovia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
August 2013
A widely held concern is that the pace of infectious disease emergence has been increasing. We have analyzed the rate of discovery of pathogenic viruses, the preeminent source of newly discovered causes of human disease, from 1897 through 2010. The rate was highest during 1950-1969, after which it moderated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfections with vector-borne pathogens are a major source of emerging diseases. The ability of vectors to bridge spatial and ecologic gaps between animals and humans increases opportunities for emergence. Small adaptations of a pathogen to a vector can have profound effects on the rate of transmission to humans.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The purpose of our study was to compare contrast-enhanced MDCT and (99m)Tc-labeled RBC scanning for the evaluation of active lower gastrointestinal bleeding.
Subjects And Methods: Over 17 months, 55 patients (32 men, 23 women; age range, 21-92 years) were evaluated prospectively with contrast-enhanced MDCT using 100 mL of iopromide 300 mg I/mL. Technetium-99m-labeled RBC scans were obtained on 41 of 55 patients and select patients underwent angiography for attempted embolization.
The complicated life cycle of Plasmodium is characterized by proliferative stages in each of its hosts--mosquito and vertebrate--that are interrupted by restrictive steps as it moves from one to the other. Productivity at each stage affects not only pathology but also the probability for successful transmission. This Opinion article briefly assesses what is known about productivity at each step and attempts, with limited success, to put each in the context of an entire cycle, sporozoite to sporozoite.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIf done properly, say the authors, suppression is a practical method to control urban dengue, yellow fever, and chikungunya viruses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeople who live in tropical Africa, south of the Sahara, are predominantly negative for the Duffy blood-group antigen, which mediates invasion of reticulocytes by Plasmodium vivax. Recent reports of a parasite that was molecularly diagnosed as P. vivax from populations who are suspected, or known, to be Duffy negative confound a large body of evidence that states that invasion of P.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe present evidence that a parasite with characteristics of Plasmodium vivax is being transmitted among Duffy blood group-negative inhabitants of Kenya. Thirty-two of 4,901 Anopheles gambiae and An. funestus (0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn 80-year-old man had symptoms of urinary retention. Biopsy of the prostate revealed B cell lymphoma. To evaluate the extent of the disease, an F-18 FDG study was performed with positron emission tomography/computed tomography (CT).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA 58-year-old woman, with nonsmall cell carcinoma, had multiple metastasis on 2-F-18 FDG positron emission tomography imaging. The right hemitongue had increased activity as compared with the left. This was not the result of the presence of a metastasis to the tongue, as shown by a negative computed tomography scan of the region and failure to demonstrate a lesion over a period of weeks.
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