The human gut is host to a diversity of microorganisms, including the single-celled microbial eukaryote Blastocystis. Research has shown that most carriers host a single Blastocystis subtype (ST), which is unusual given the considerable within-host species diversity observed for other microbial genera in this ecosystem. However, our limited knowledge of both the incidence and biological signifi...

High resolution tests for genetic variation reveal that individuals may simultaneously host more than one distinct strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Previous studies find that this phenomenon, which we will refer to as "mixed infection", may affect the outcomes of treatment for infected individuals and may influence the impact of population-level interventions against tuberculosis. In areas...

Trypanosoma cruzi is the causative agent of Chagas disease, a zoonosis involving domestic and sylvatic mammalian reservoirs. Since scarce information has been published about the susceptibility of T. cruzi lineages to other triatomine species besides Triatoma infestans, we evaluate the susceptibility of T. infestans and Mepraia spinolai to different T. cruzi lineages, originated from naturally ...

1. Pham Ngoc Thach Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, 8 Vietnam** 9 2. National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory, Centre for Infectious Disease Control 10 (CIb/LIS), National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, 11 The Netherlands 12 3. Tuberculosis and M/XDR-TB Programme, Division of Communicable Diseases, Health 13 Security & Environment, ...

Between January 1998 and December 2000, the Jayapura Provincial Public Hospital in northeastern Indonesian New Guinea (Papua) admitted 5,936 patients with a diagnosis of malaria. The microscopic diagnosis at admission was Plasmodium falciparum (3,976, 67%), Plasmodium vivax (1,135, 19%), Plasmodium malariae (8, < 1%), and mixed species infections (817, 14%). Approximately 9% (367) of patients w...

background: the present study was carried out to investigate the accurate status of ovine theileria infection in sheep from ahvaz and surrounding region, a tropical area southwest iran. methods: a pcr-rflp method based on 18s ribosomal rna gene was designed which could detect and differentiate theileria and babesia spp. and also differentiate main theileria species in sheep at the same time. 11...

conclusions the frequency of nis in this hospital was lower in comparison with other worldwide studies. however, low incidence of health care-associated infections in our study may be due to under diagnosis and underreporting of such infections by health care staff. results the incidence of nis was low (i.e. < 2%). among 16936 admitted patients in this hospital, 174 patients (79 males and 95 fe...

We have developed cross-genotype and genotype-specific quantitative reverse-transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) assays to detect and quantify the number of parasites, transmission stages (gametocytes) and male gametocytes in blood stage Plasmodium chabaudi infections. Our cross-genotype assays are reliable, repeatable and generate counts that correlate strongly (R(2)s>90%) with counts expected from blo...

Natural mixed infections of plant viruses are frequent, often leading to unpredictable variations in symptoms, infectivity, accumulation and/or vector transmissibility. Cauliflower mosaic caulimovirus (CaMV) has often been found in mixed infections with turnip mosaic potyvirus (TuMV) in plants of the genus Brassica. This study addressed the effect of mixed infection on infectivity, pathogenicit...

Very little is known about how vector-borne pathogens interact within their vector and how this impacts transmission. Here we show that mosquitoes can accumulate mixed strain malaria infections after feeding on multiple hosts. We found that parasites have a greater chance of establishing and reach higher densities if another strain is already present in a mosquito. Mixed infections contained mo...