This paper investigates the possibility of rapid and accurate automated diagnosis of red blood cell disorders and describes a method to detect and classify malarial parasites in blood sample images acquired from light microscopes. As malaria is an infectious disease which is mainly diagnosed by visual microscopical evaluation of Giemsa stained blood smears. As it poses a serious global health p...

Leishmaniasis causes significant morbidity and mortality worldwide and is an important public health problem. Even though it is endemic in developing countries in tropical regions of the world,in recent years economic globalization and increased travel has extended its reach to people in developed countries. Leishmania is usually spread by the bite of the female sandfly. In addition, naïve popu...

PURPOSE To describe a patient with isolated monocular optic neuritis caused by an identified Gnathostoma spinigerum infestation. CASE REPORT A 21-year-old man developed a swollen eyelid and painful monocular visual loss of his left eye which did not improve after treatment by intravenous steroid and albendazole. A remarkable eosinophilia in his peripheral blood count was demonstrated. The pat...

One of the central tenets in life-history theory is that there is a trade-off between current and future reproduction (i.e. a cost of reproduction). The mechanism for this cost of reproduction is, however, largely unknown. One hypothesis is that the high workload during reproduction compromises resistance to parasites and that the resulting increase in parasitaemia has negative effects on the p...

Research in avian blood parasites has seen a remarkable increase since the introduction of polymerase chain reaction-based methods for parasite identification. New data are revealing complex multihost-multiparasite systems which are difficult to understand without good knowledge of the host range and geographical distribution of the parasite lineages. However, such information is currently diff...

The demand for tilapia fishing goods has recently expanded on a national scale. One of the difficulties this fish farming operation encountered was parasite-caused illness. aims study were to explore parasites in (Oreochromis niloticus) from local seller Dramaga, Bogor, West Java. A total 14 sampled, with an average length 22 cm and body weight 195 grams. Fish gills, pectoral fins, caudal tail ...

Abstract Placental malaria can have severe consequences for both mother and child effective vaccines are lacking. Parasite-infected red blood cells sequester in the placenta through interaction between parasite-expressed protein VAR2CSA glycosaminoglycan chondroitin sulfate A (CS) abundantly present intervillous space. Here, we report cryo-EM structures of ectodomain at up to 3.1 Å resolution r...

Human erythrocytes have an active nitric oxide synthase, which converts arginine into citrulline and nitric oxide (NO). NO serves several important functions, including the maintenance of normal erythrocyte deformability, thereby ensuring efficient passage of the red blood cell through narrow microcapillaries. Here, we show that following invasion by the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum t...

Sickle cell hemoglobin conveys resistance to malaria. In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, LaMonte et al. (2012) demonstrate a surprising mechanism for this innate immunity. A microRNA enriched in sickle red blood cells is translocated into the parasite, incorporated covalently into P. falciparum mRNAs and inhibits parasite growth.