Molecular Diagnosis of Abdominal Armillifer grandis Pentastomiasis in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Molecular Diagnosis of Abdominal Armillifer grandis Pentastomiasis in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Pentastomiasis is an emerging snake-borne parasitic zoonosis in the tropics. We describe a molecular and morphological study to diagnose a cluster of asymptomatic abdominal human infections caused by Armillifer grandis. The findings may indicate a silent epidemic in a rural area where severe symptomatic ocular cases with the same parasite species have recently surfaced. Molecular diagnostics ar...

Ocular Pentastomiasis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ocular pentastomiasis is a rare infection caused by the larval stage of pentastomids, an unusual group of crustacean-related parasites. Zoonotic pentastomids have a distinct geographical distribution and utilize reptiles or canids as final hosts. Recently, an increasing number of human abdominal infections have been reported in Africa, where pentastomiasis is an emerging, though severely neglec...

Co-infections in Visceral Pentastomiasis, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Snakeborne Armillifer pentastomiasis is an emerging human parasitic infection in rural tropical areas where snake meat is eaten. After a series of severe ocular A. grandis larval infections and anecdotal abdominal infection in Sankuru District, Democratic Republic of the Congo, during 2014-2015, we systematically investigated possible pentastomid etiology in patients who underwent surgery in th...

Democratic Republic of Congo

Programme outcome: The IFRC 2010 support strategy and plan for the Red Cross of the Democratic Republic of Congo (Red Cross of DRC) was based on the National Society’s (NS) 20092013 Strategic Development Plan and was designed to help the NS provide vulnerable communities with life-saving first aid, clean water and sanitation, health and hygiene promotion, HIV/AIDS support, sexual and gender bas...

Mortality in the Democratic Republic of Congo