Background and Aims: The role of BK and JC polyomaviruses (BKV and JCV) in the causation of respiratory disease and the natural route of transmission has not well been established. The aim of study was to determine the prevalence of BK and JC viruses in 280 respiratory samples and evaluate their contribution to respiratory disease. Materials and Methods: PCR was used to screen specimens for BK...

Background: Due to their similar routes of transmission, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) co-infection occurs considerably. HBV infection progresses more rapidly in HIV-infected patients. Therefore, HBV vaccination of all non-immune HIV infected patients is recommended. On the other hand, HIV-infected subjects have suboptimal responses to HBV vaccine. In this study...

Oral transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi has been suspected when epidemic episodes of acute infection were observed in areas devoid of domiciled insect vectors. Considering that the distribution of T. cruzi biodemes differs in sylvatic and domestic cycles, results of studies on biodemes can be of interest regarding oral transmission. The infectivity of T. cruzi strains of different biodemes was t...

Gammaherpesviruses infect at least 90 % of the world's population. Infection control is difficult, in part because some fundamental features of host colonization remain unknown, for example whether normal latency establishment requires viral lytic functions. Since human gammaherpesviruses have narrow species tropisms, answering such questions requires animal models. Murid herpesvirus-4 (MuHV-4)...

The potency test of Japanese encephalitis (JE) vaccine is routinely carried out by intracerebral challenge of immunized mice using the Nakayama strain of JE virus, however since natural infection is by the peripheral route with a wild strain, one of the authors has reported (Bull. WHO, 43, 553, 1970) a new method by a subcutaneous challenge test on suckling mice. Since the usual route of infect...

Western equine encephalitis virus (WEEV) naturally cycles between mosquitos and birds or rodents, with a case fatality rate of up to 15% in humans during epizootic outbreaks. There are no medical countermeasures to treat WEEV infection, and accidental aerosol exposure increases the case fatality rate up to 40%. Understanding the pathogenesis of infection is required to develop and assess medica...

The association of HIV infection and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection often occurs because both viruses share the same transmission routes, increasing the possibility of HIV/HCV coinfection. World prevalence greater than 30% of coinfected cases is estimated, and it can reach 90% depending on the transmission route. With the aim of determining the frequency and profile of HIV/HCV coinfected pat...

Congenital toxoplasmosis was evaluated in Wistar and Holtzman rats using two strains of Toxoplasma gondii isolated in Brazil. Pregnant rats were inoculated by subcutaneous or intraperitoneal routes with 10(6) or 8 x 10(6) tachyzoites of N strain (virulent for mice) and by subcutaneous or oral routes with 10(2) or 1.2 x 10(3) cysts of P strain (avirulent for mice). The tissues of rat pups born f...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotypes in Isparta, Southwest of Turkey, as well as the clinical features and transmission route for patients with HBV infections. METHODS Patients (n = 135) with HBV infection were included in the study. Epidemiological and clinical data were obtained. HBV genotypes were determined with a preS2 ep...