(), a WHO priority 1 pathogen, resulted in approximately 559,000 deaths globally in 2019. has a multitude of host-immune evasion strategies that enhance virulence. Most clinical isolates of are infected by a phage called Pf that has the ability to misdirect the host-immune response and provide structural integrity to biofilms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPf bacteriophage are temperate phages that infect the bacterium , a major cause of chronic lung infections in cystic fibrosis (CF) and other settings. Pf and other temperate phages have evolved complex, mutualistic relationships with their bacterial hosts that impact both bacterial phenotypes and chronic infection. We and others have reported that Pf phages are a virulence factor that promote the pathogenesis of infections in animal models and are associated with worse skin and lung infections in humans.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAbstractThe zoonotic, vector-borne parasite causes Chagas disease throughout the Americas, but human and veterinary health burdens in the United States are unknown. We conducted a cross-sectional prevalence study in indigent, medically underserved human and cohabiting canine populations of seven south Texas border communities, known as colonias. Defining positivity as those samples that were positive on two or more independent tests, we found 1.
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