Evaluation of a modified quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay for genus Schistosoma detection using stool and urine samples from schistosomiasis endemic areas in Kenya.

Introduction: The microscopy-based Kato-Katz and urine filtration techniques have traditionally faced challenges in the detection of schistosomiasis in areas with low infection levels. A modified singleplex Schistosoma genus-specific quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay was therefore evaluated as a sensitive and confirmatory schistosomiasis diagnostic test.

Methodology: The qPCR assay utilized primers and probe targeting internal transcribed spacer- 2 (ITS2) sequence of S.

Diagnostic testing holds the key to NTD elimination.

"Fit-for-purpose" diagnostic tests have emerged as a prerequisite to achieving global targets for the prevention, control, elimination, and eradication of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), as highlighted by the World Health Organization's (WHO) new roadmap. There is an urgent need for the development of new tools for those diseases for which no diagnostics currently exist and for improvement of existing diagnostics for the remaining diseases. Yet, efforts to achieve this, and other crosscutting ambitions, are fragmented, and the burden of these 20 debilitating diseases immense.

Interpreting ambiguous 'trace' results in Schistosoma mansoni CCA Tests: Estimating sensitivity and specificity of ambiguous results with no gold standard.

Background: The development of new diagnostics is an important tool in the fight against disease. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) is used to estimate the sensitivity and specificity of tests in the absence of a gold standard. The main field diagnostic for Schistosoma mansoni infection, Kato-Katz (KK), is not very sensitive at low infection intensities.

Comparison of parasite sequestration in uncomplicated and severe childhood Plasmodium falciparum malaria.

Objectives: To determine whether sequestration of parasitized red blood cells differs between children with uncomplicated and severe Plasmodium falciparum malaria.

Methods: We quantified circulating-, total- and sequestered-parasite biomass, using a mathematical model based on plasma concentration of P. falciparum histidine rich protein 2, in Gambian children with severe (n = 127) and uncomplicated (n = 169) malaria.

Long-lived memory B-cell responses following BCG vaccination.

The role of T-cells in immunity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) infection has been extensively studied, however, that of B-cells still remains comparatively unexplored. In this study, we determined the presence and frequencies of mycobacteria-specific memory B-cells (MBCs) in peripheral blood from clinically healthy, Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG) vaccinated (n = 79) and unvaccinated (n = 14) donors.

The breadth, but not the magnitude, of circulating memory B cell responses to P. falciparum increases with age/exposure in an area of low transmission.

Background: Malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum remains a major cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa. Immunity against symptoms of malaria requires repeated exposure, suggesting either that the parasite is poorly immunogenic or that the development of effective immune responses to malaria may be impaired.

Methods: We carried out two age-stratified cross-sectional surveys of anti-malarial humoral immune responses in a Gambian village where P.

Continued decline of malaria in The Gambia with implications for elimination.

Background: A substantial decline in malaria was reported to have occurred over several years until 2007 in the western part of The Gambia, encouraging consideration of future elimination in this previously highly endemic region. Scale up of interventions has since increased with support from the Global Fund and other donors.

Methodology/principal Findings: We continued to examine laboratory records at four health facilities previously studied and investigated six additional facilities for a 7 year period, adding data from 243,707 slide examinations, to determine trends throughout the country until the end of 2009.