Traditional methods for Chagas disease prevention are targeted at domestic vector reduction, as well as control of transfusion and maternal-fetal transmission. Population connectivity of Trypanosoma cruzi-infected vectors and hosts, among sylvatic, ecotone and domestic habitats could jeopardize targeted efforts to reduce human exposure. This connectivity was evaluated in a Mexican community wit...

Epidemiological networks are commonly used to explore dynamics of parasite transmission among individuals in a population of a given host species. However, many parasites infect multiple host species, and thus multi-host networks may offer a better framework for investigating parasite dynamics. We investigated the factors that influence parasite sharing--and thus potential transmission pathways...

Hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome is a zoonotic illness associated with a systemic inflammatory immune response, capillary leak, noncardiogenic pulmonary edema, and shock in humans. Cytokines, including TNF, IFN-gamma, and lymphotoxin, are thought to contribute to its pathogenesis. In contrast, infected rodent reservoirs of hantaviruses experience few or no pathologic changes and the host rod...

Malaria parasites actively remodel the infected red blood cell (irbc) by exporting proteins into the host cell cytoplasm. The human parasite Plasmodium falciparum exports particularly large numbers of proteins, including proteins that establish a vesicular network allowing the trafficking of proteins onto the surface of irbcs that are responsible for tissue sequestration. Like P. falciparum, th...

The series of papers in this issue reflects the present state of knowledge on opportunistic infections of laboratory rodents and provides speculation into where the field is headed. What has not been covered is the phenomenal growth in knowledge of murine infectious diseases over the last 50 yr. Remarkably, more than 60 genera of overtly or opportunistically pathogenic viruses, bacteria, fungi,...

The overlap between arbovirus host, arthropod vectors, and pathogen distributions in environmentally suitable habitats represents a nidus where risk for transmission may occur. Everglades virus (EVEV), subtype II Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEEV), is endemic to southern Florida it transmitted by the vector Culex cedecei muroid rodent hosts. We developed an ecological niche model (ENM) predi...

Hantaviruses are distributed throughout the United States and are the etiologic agents for hantavirus pulmonary syndrome and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. Hantavirus genotypes and epidemiologic patterns vary spatially across the United States. While several longitudinal studies have been performed in the western United States, little is known about the virus in the eastern United State...

Hantaviruses are rodent-borne zoonotic agents that cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in Asia and Europe and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) in North and South America. The epidemiology of human diseases caused by these viruses is tied to the ecology of the rodent hosts, and effective control and prevention relies on a through understanding of host ecology. After the 1993 HPS outbr...