Objective: Lyme disease (LD) is chronic, multi-system zoonosis transmitted by ticks, and LD aetiological agents are spirochetes of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex. The aim of the cross-sectional study was to analyze the LD incidence on the basis of the presence of specific antibodies in the serum of patients in Eastern Slovakia, and to compare the results of serological ELISA and immunoblot assays.
Methods: Venous blood with questionnaires was obtained by field sampling of respondents from Eastern Slovakia. Overall, we examined 537 human sera by the ELISA and for confirmation we tested all positive IgG antibodies against the Borrelia immunoblot assay.
Results: Our results confirmed the high serum prevalence of anti-Borrelia antibodies (17.9% for IgG), while the immunoblot seropositive test was confirmed in 69.8% of responders from ELISA IgG positive sera. Positive antibodies of the IgM class were found in 7.6% of the population under study. Most commonly found were antibodies against VlsE (80.2%), p41 (66.7%), p18 (56.3%), p100 (41.7%), p58 (31.3%), and p39 (30.2%).
Conclusion: It should be noted that detection of antibodies against B. burgdorferi s.l. is only an indirect evidence of the presence of this bacterium in the development of clinical signs of LD in humans. Laboratory LD tests should be performed in accordance with valid standards, positive and uncertain results must be confirmed by the Western Blot/Immunoblot assay.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.21101/cejph.a5442 | DOI Listing |
Glob Ment Health (Camb)
December 2024
World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Mental Health and Service Evaluation, Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, Section of Psychiatry, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
Providing Mental Health and Psychosocial Support interventions (MHPSS) for forcibly displaced Ukrainians in Central and Eastern Europe poses numerous challenges due to various socio-cultural and infrastructural factors. This qualitative study explored implementation barriers reported by service providers of in-person and digital MHPSS for Ukrainian refugees displaced to Poland, Romania and Slovakia due to the war. In addition, the study aimed to generate recommendations to overcome these barriers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlob Chang Biol
January 2025
Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Biology, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Three-quarters of the planet's land surface has been altered by humans, with consequences for animal ecology, movements and related ecosystem functioning. Species often occupy wide geographical ranges with contrasting human disturbance and environmental conditions, yet, limited data availability across species' ranges has constrained our understanding of how human pressure and resource availability jointly shape intraspecific variation of animal space use. Leveraging a unique dataset of 758 annual GPS movement trajectories from 375 brown bears (Ursus arctos) across the species' range in Europe, we investigated the effects of human pressure (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Helminthol
January 2025
Department of Parasitology, I. I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Bogdan Khmelnytsky Street 15, Kyiv, 01054, Ukraine.
Brine shrimps ( spp.) are aquatic crustaceans known as important intermediate hosts for a wide range of helminth species. From 2011 to 2021, 4,347 individuals of brine shrimp were collected for this study, investigating the diversity and infection rates of helminth species in spp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Pharmacol
December 2024
School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.
Introduction: The benefit of secondary prevention in hypertensive patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is based on continual simultaneous taking of statins, antiplatelet agents and antihypertensive agents, preferably angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs). Our study was aimed at a) the analysis of the extent of non-persistence with multiple medication classes, and b) identifying factors associated with the likelihood of non-persistence.
Methods: In our cohort study, 3,401 hypertensive patients (1,853 females and 1,548 males) aged ≥65 years treated simultaneously with statins, antiplatelet agents and ACEIs/ARBs and in whom PAD was newly diagnosed during 2012 were analysed.
Biol Trace Elem Res
December 2024
Faculty of Public Health, Slovak Medical University, Bratislava, 833 03, Slovakia.
Anthropometry provides a non-invasive technique for evaluating growth and obesity and serves as an indicator of health status. This cross-sectional study aims to investigate the association of internal arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), total mercury (THg), methylmercury (MeHg), and lead (Pb) exposure with anthropometric parameters, including obesity, in adolescents. Participants (N = 320) were children aged 10-14 years (mean 11.
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