The spread of Streptococcus pneumoniae within families has been scarcely investigated so far. This feasibility study aimed to estimate the prevalence of pneumococcal carriage in school-aged children and co-habiting relatives and to explore the potential link between the family environment and the sharing of pneumococcal serotypes covered by the vaccine. Oropharyngeal samples of 146 subjects bel...

To study the incidence of human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) after blood transfusion in Taiwan, serum samples from 699 patients in a prospective study were examined for seroreactivity of anti-HTLV. By an enzyme immunoassay, 9 of the 699 recipients were repeatedly positive. Serial serum samples of these 9 patients were then confirmed with a Western blot analysis and with a polymerase chain r...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to assess risk factors for HCV acquisition and prevalence of anti-HCV in the general population of Lithuania. MATERIAL/METHODS The study enrolled 1528 randomly selected adults from the 5 biggest cities of Lithuania and its rural regions. Screening for anti-HCV was performed by analysis of peripheral capillary blood with lateral flow immunochromatography an...

Patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) typically carry a mutation in either the PKD1 or PKD2 gene, which leads to massive cyst formation in both kidneys. However, the large intrafamilial variation in the progression rate of ADPKD suggests involvement of additional factors other than the type of mutation. The identification of these factors will increase our understan...

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS Enlarged vestibular aqueduct (EVA) and hearing loss are known to be caused by SLC26A4 mutations, but large phenotypic variability exists among patients with biallelic SLC26A4 mutations. Intrafamilial phenotypic variability was analyzed in multiplex EVA families carrying biallelic SLC26A4 mutations to identify the contribution of SLC26A4 mutations and other genetic or envir...

BACKGROUND The familial recurrence risk of lymphatic filariasis (LF) is unknown. This case study aimed to evaluate the familial susceptibility to infection with Wuchereria bancrofti and to microfilaremia in a village of the Republic of Congo. METHODS The heritability and intrafamilial correlation coefficients were assessed for both W. bancrofti infection and microfilaremia by controlling for ...

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence variation was examined in eight taxa of the African rodent family Bathyergidae, as well as in two taxa representative of the Old-World hystricognathid rodent families Petromyidae and Thryonomyidae. A total of 812 bp, constituting domains I-III of the 12S ribosomal rRNA gene, were compared for each taxon. The high levels of intrafamilial mtDNA sequence divergen...

Objective. To identify the risk factors for HCV infection within married couples in Egypt. Methods. In 2008 Egypt conducted its first nationally representative survey of HCV prevalence. 11126 of the 12780 individuals aged 15-59 year who were sampled agreed to participate and provided information via a questionnaire about demographic and behavioural characteristics and blood for HCV antibody and...

Introduction. Spinocerebellar ataxia 17 (SCA 17) is a rare autosomal dominant cerebellar ataxia (ADCA) caused by a CAG/CAA expansion in the TBP gene, reported from a limited number of countries. It is a very heterogeneous ADCA characterized by ataxia, cognitive decline, psychiatric symptoms, and involuntary movements, with some patients presenting with Huntington disease (HD) phenocopies. The S...