M. B., Muslim female, aged 25 years, wife of a doctor and sister of a doctor, on my friendly visit to her family on Gth April, 1942, told me that she had been having a slight temperature between 99? and 100?F. for four days. She had no other complaint except a little pain in the abdomen, especially in both subcostal regions. I told her not to worry, thinking that it was only an attack of sandfl...

The role of Toscana (TOS) virus in producing encephalitis without meningitis is uncertain. We studied 2 cases of TOS virus encephalitis without meningitis by means of nested polymerase chain reaction assay and DNA sequencing. Findings confirm that TOS virus may directly cause encephalitis and suggest the usefulness of DNA sequencing in investigating relationships between TOS virus molecular pat...

The sandfly Trichophoromyia auraensis has recently evolved as a proven vector of Leishmania (Viannia) endemic to state of Acre in the north of Brazil. This note is intended to propose a correction in the report of the first occurrence of natural infection of Leishmania (Viannia) in this species. We and the other scientific groups reinforced that Tr. auraensis is a possible vector involved in th...

This study was undertaken to assess the extent of community awareness and related practices about kala-azar undertaken by them to control the disease, in an highly endemic focus of Bihar, India. A household-based cross-sectional knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) survey consisting of quantitative components on knowledge, attitude, and practices concerning kala-azar was administered to hea...

The nuclease is a surface enzyme unique to trypanosomatid parasites. These organisms lack the pathway for de novo purine biosynthesis and thus are entirely dependent upon their hosts to supply this nutrient for their survival, growth, and multiplication. There is a cluster on chromosome 30 which carries 2 copy of nuclease genes and 5 identical nuclease like proteins in L. major which are in cis...

BACKGROUND Algeria is among the most affected Mediterranean countries by leishmaniasis due to its large geographic extent and climatic diversity. The current study aimed to determine the ecological status (composition and diversity) of phlebotomine sandfly populations in the region of Oum El Bouaghi (Northeast Algeria). METHODS An entomological survey was conducted during the period May-Octob...

UNLABELLED American cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) occurs in epidemic outbreaks and in sporadic cases with small annual variation in the Pontal of Paranapanema, SP. There is little research on the sandfly fauna of this region. The last outbreaks were related to the Movement of the Landless Workers (MST) and with the ecological tourism in preserved forest of the Parque Estadual do Morro do Diabo ...

Protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania secrete a range of proteophosphoglycans that appear to be important for successful colonization of the sandfly and for virulence in the mammalian host. A hallmark of these molecules is extensive phosphoglycosylation by phosphoglycan chains via the unusual linkage Manalpha1-PO(4)-Ser. In this study we have identified and purified to apparent homogeneit...