The U.S. President's Malaria Initiative's Support for Improving the Quality of Malaria Case Management Services: Fifteen Years of Progress and Learning.

Since its launch in 2005, the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative's (PMI) investment in malaria case management has evolved based on lessons learned from its support to countries.

Retrospective analysis of histologic lesions in captive arachnids.

Invertebrates, including arachnids, are a common taxon in zoological collections. Invertebrate medicine and pathology are emerging subspecialties, but there is limited reference material or published resources describing histologic lesions in arachnids. Histopathology of 26 captive arachnids (20 spiders and 6 scorpions) from institutional collections was reviewed.

A practical protocol to prepare paraffin-embedded whole tick histology sections.

Ticks are important ectoparasites that are capable of transmitting multiple classes of pathogens and are currently linked with many emerging tick-borne diseases worldwide. With increasing occurrences of tick-borne diseases in both humans and veterinary species, there is a continuous need to further our understanding of ticks and the pathogens they transmit. Whole tick histology provides a full scope of the tick internal anatomy, allowing researchers to examine multiple organs of interest in a single section.

Direct injection of Amblyomma americanum ticks with Cytauxzoon felis.

Cytauxzoon felis is a tick-borne hemoprotozoan parasite that causes life-threatening disease in domestic cats in the United States. Currently, the platforms for C. felis research are limited to natural or experimental infection of domestic cats.

Performance Outcomes from Africa-Based Malaria Diagnostic Competency Assessment Courses.

The U.S. President's Malaria Initiative-funded MalariaCare project implemented an external quality assurance scheme to support malaria diagnostics and case management across a spectrum of health facilities in participating African countries.

Outreach training and supportive supervision for malaria case management in Zambia: the effects of focused capacity building on indicators of diagnostic and clinical performance.

Background: Accurate diagnosis of malaria and reduced reliance on presumptive treatment are crucial components of quality case management. From 2008 to 2012, the Improving Malaria Diagnostics project, in collaboration with the Zambia National Malaria Control Centre, implemented an external quality assurance scheme partially comprised of outreach training and supportive supervision (OTSS) in an effort to improve malaria case management across a spectrum of health facilities performing laboratory-based malaria diagnostics. OTSS assessments were conducted by project-trained laboratory and clinical supervisors on a regular basis and measured changes in health facility staff performance over time.

Functional analysis of epigenetic regulation of tandem RhopH1/clag genes reveals a role in Plasmodium falciparum growth.

The Plasmodium RhopH complex is a high molecular weight antigenic complex consisting of three subunits - RhopH1/clag, RhopH2 and RhopH3 - located in the rhoptry secretory organelles of the invasive merozoite. In Plasmodium falciparum RhopH1/clag is encoded by one of five clag genes. Two highly similar paralogous genes, clag 3.

Laboratory malaria diagnostic capacity in health facilities in five administrative zones of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia.

Objectives And Methods:  Quality laboratory services are a requisite to guide rational case management of malaria. Using a pre-tested, standardized assessment tool, we assessed laboratory diagnostic capacity in 69 primary, secondary and tertiary health facilities as well as specialized laboratories in five administrative zones in Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia, during February and March 2009.

Results:  There was marked variability in laboratory diagnostic capacity among the facilities assessed.

Polymorphisms in p1-p6/p6* of HIV type 1 can delay protease autoprocessing and increase drug susceptibility.

Maturation of infectious human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) particles requires proteolytic cleavage of structural polyproteins by viral protease. Inhibition of protease is a powerful tool for the treatment of HIV infection. Using a well-established phenotypic drug susceptibility assay, we found that sequences outside of the protease gene can modulate the susceptibility to protease inhibitors (PIs).

Comparison of directigen RSV with viral isolation and direct immunofluorescence for the identification of respiratory syncytial virus.

An enzyme immunoassay membrane test (Directigen RSV) for the detection of respiratory syncytial virus in clinical specimens was compared prospectively with isolation in cell culture and direct immunofluorescence (IF). A total of 315 nasopharyngeal wash specimens from pediatric patients were examined. Directigen RSV was 86.

Comparison of two enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (EIA) kits with immunofluorescence and isolation in cell culture for detection of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

Rapid diagnosis of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections is based upon detection of viral antigen in cells obtained from the respiratory tract and usually employs immunofluorescence (IF) reactions or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (EIA). The Pathfinder EIA kit (Kallestad Diagnostics) was compared with the Abbott EIA kit by evaluating each against isolation of RSV in cell culture and detection of antigen by IF. The Pathfinder kit identified 116 of 129 culture-positive and 72 of 90 culture-negative specimens; the sensitivity was 90 percent and the specificity was 80 percent.

Production of monoclonal antibodies against parainfluenza 3 virus and their use in diagnosis by immunofluorescence.

Monoclonal antibodies were produced against parainfluenza virus type 3 (PI-3) and used to identify PI-3 clinical isolates in cell culture and PI-3 antigen in cells obtained from nasopharyngeal (NP) washes of patients. Two (2E9 and 4G5) of the three monoclonal antibodies characterized reacted by immunoblotting with a 67,000-dalton PI-3 protein, and one antibody (4E5) reacted with two viral proteins in the range of 29,000 to 31,000 daltons. The three monoclonal antibodies did not cross-react by indirect immunofluorescence (IFA) with PI-1 or PI-2 and identified by IFA 18 isolates of PI-3 in cell culture.