The word dracunculiasis comes from the Latin phrase “afflicted with little dragons.” The global Dracunculiasis Eradication Program (DEP) spearheaded by President Jimmy Carter and The Carter Center has quietly “inched” towards world eradication with stunning success, as shown in Figure 1. In the midst of huge publicity and monies going into such global health campaigns as polio eradication, mala...

Expulsion of gastrointestinal nematodes is associated with pronounced mucosal mast cell (MMC) hyperplasia, differentiation, and activation, accompanied by the systemic release of MMC granule chymases (chymotrypsin-like serine proteases). The beta-chymase mouse mast cell protease-1 (mMCP-1) is expressed predominantly by intraepithelial MMCs, and levels in the bloodstream and intestinal lumen are...

During the summer of 1938 one of us (J. S. A.), while engaged in experimental work with sheep infected with the stomach-worm, Haemonchus contortus, became interested in making a study of the nature of the anemia produced by these nematodes. The examination of the feces of sheep a few days after artificial infection with stomach-worm larvae revealed the presence of blood. Quantities of blood wer...

When dogs were immunized with soluble extract of adult Ancylostoma ceylanicum antigen, they were partially resistant to challenge infection in this model of human hookworm infection. Two immunizing doses, each of 1 mg protein suspended in Freund's complete adjuvant, were administered to one group of animals 1 and 3 weeks prior to infection with 5000 larvae. When compared with control dogs given...

A group of seven ponies naturally infected with large numbers of small strongyles and raised under conditions to minimize reinfection were treated periodically over a three year span with thiabendazole at the rate of 44 mg/kg body weight. Based on the absence of worm eggs in the feces following each treatment, thiabendazole removed the adult strongyles present with a new population subsequently...

In order to combat the increasing problems of anthelmintic resistance, alternative methods of control of gastrointestinal (GI) nematode infections are being sought. Thirty 8-9 weeks old outbred albino mice were placed in 5 groups of six mice each. Mice in four groups were infected with 150 Heligmosomoides bakeri infective larvae (L3) per mouse while one was reserved as the uninfected control. T...

The lack of a quantitative framework that describes the dynamic relationships between infection and morbidity has constrained efforts aimed at the community-level control of lymphatic filariasis. In this paper, we describe the development and validation of EPIFIL, a dynamic model of filariasis infection intensity and chronic disease. Infection dynamics are modeled using the well established imm...

CASES of endophthalmitis due to invasion of the eye by migrating larvae of Toxocara canis, the common round worm of the dog, have been reported by Irvine and Irvine (1959), Harris (1961), and Duguid (1961a, b), while five of the 46 cases reported by Wilder (1950) as nematode endophthalmitis were later identified by Nichols (1956) as being caused by Toxocara. Ashton (1960) described four cases o...

Mitochondrial fractions isolated from thoracic muscles of the tobacco horn worm larvae and moths, free of bacterial contaminations, incorporate amino acids into proteins. Optimum activity requires the presence of ATP, an ATPgenerating system, and an amino acid mixture. The pH optimum is around 7.2. The system is not affected by cycloheximide, ribonuclease, or actinomycin D. Puromycin completely...

Human infection by toxocara larvae has been thought to be predominantly a disease of young children, but the percentage of the population with antibodies to this nematode worm has recently been shown to increase with age. Although a definite diagnosis of ocular toxocariasis can be made only by identifying the larva histologically, the evidence in three cases presenting with recent uniocular los...