BACKGROUND Helminth infections can negatively affect the immunologic host control, which may increase the risk of progression from latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection to tuberculosis (TB) disease and alter the clinical presentation of TB. We assessed the prevalence and determined the clinical relevance of helminth co-infection among TB patients and household contact controls in urban Ta...

Helminth infection provides a unique challenge to the host immune system. Not only are helminths complex multicellular organisms, but they have intricate life cycles with multiple developmental stages, several of which may coexist in the infected host. In most cases, the host response to helminth infection is characterized by eosinophilia, increased serum immunoglobulin (Ig) E and IgG4, and mas...

One cestode and eight nematode species were collected from 30 badgers, Taxidea taxus, from Kansas and West Texas. These included Mesocestoides corti Hoeppli, 1925 (23% of hosts infected), Filaroides milksi Whitlock, 1956(7%), Filaria taxideae Keppner, 1970(33%), Metathelazia capsulata Gerichter, 1948 (47%), Physaloptera torquata Leidy, 1886 (100%), Molineus sp. (37%), Ancylostoma taxideae Kalka...

A total of 267 rural scavenging chickens were examined from October 1998 to August 1999 in four woredas (districts) of the Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Of these chickens, 243 (91.01%) were found to harbour one to nine different helminth parasites and 24 (8.99%) were free of helminth parasites. A significant difference (P < 0.01) was found between the prevalence rates of helminth parasites in the di...

In this paper, we analyse the distributional patterns of adult helminth parasites of freshwater fishes with respect to the main hydrological basins of Mexico. We use the taxonomic distinctness and the variation in taxonomic distinctness to explore patterns of parasite diversity and how these patterns change between zoogeographical regions. We address questions about the factors that determine t...

BACKGROUND Understanding the prevalence of soil-transmitted helminth infections is necessary to plan control strategies and focus on highly endemic regions for preventive chemotherapy and improved sanitation facilities. India is known to be endemic for soil-transmitted helminth infections. METHODS To understand the prevalence, spatial distribution and identify high-risk zones, a systematic se...

Characterisation of protective helminth acquired immunity in humans or experimental models has focused on effector responses with little work conducted on memory responses. Here we show for the first time, that human helminth infection is associated with altered proportions of the CD4+ memory T cells, with an associated alteration of T(H)1 responses. The reduced CD4+ memory T cell proportions a...

As our ability to recognise and diagnose human disease caused by helminth parasites has improved, so our understanding of the epidemiology and clinical manifestations of these diseases has improved. Humans can develop patent infection with a wide range of helminth parasites, whose natural host is another vertebrate. Rather than focusing on a comprehensive review of zoonotic helminth infections,...

Helminth parasites infect over one fourth of the human population and are highly prevalent in livestock worldwide. In model systems, parasites are strongly immunomodulatory, but the immune system can be driven to expel them by prior vaccination. However, no vaccines are currently available for human use. Recent advances in vaccination with recombinant helminth antigens have been successful agai...

patients. Two of these five had concurrent S. haematobium, compared to no cases in nonosteomyelitis patients; a Fisher exact test showed this difference to be significant (p < 0.02). These limited and preliminary data are consistent with the relationship between leprosy (caused by a mycobacterium related to the one causing Buruli ulcer, M. leprae) and concurrent helminth infections. The severit...