Pediculus humanus humanus is an human ectoparasite which represents a serious public health threat because it is vector for pathogenic bacteria. It is important to understand and identify where bacteria reside in human body lice to define new strategies to counterstroke the capacity of vectorization of the bacterial pathogens by body lice. It is known that phagocytes from vertebrates can be hos...

BACKGROUND In recent years, skin diseases in wrestling have finally received the attention they deserve. Outbreaks of tinea corporis are often associated with sports involving extensive bodily contact; such sports include wrestling. Tinea corporis gladiatorum is primarily caused by Trichophyton tonsurans, infecting wrestlers at alarming rates. The management of skin infections in wrestlers and ...

BACKGROUND Angiokeratoma corporis diffusum is a clinical variant of angiokeratoma that is typically associated with an enzyme deficiency in the metabolism of glycoprotein, most notably Fabry disease, resulting in many other systemic manifestations. OBSERVATIONS We report a case of angiokeratoma corporis diffusum that did not have an identifiable enzyme deficiency. A review of the literature r...

Lice are small, wingless, minor ectoparasites of mammals and birds. More than 540  blood-sucking lice (Phthiraptera: Anoplura) have been described with each host having its own type of louse, suggesting the cospeciation of the lice species with their host. Among these, two lice species from two different genera infest humans: Pediculus humanus and Phthirus pubis (pubic “crab” l...

The head louse, Pediculus capitis De Geer (Phthiraptera: Pediculidae) has developed resistance to organochlorines, the organophosphate malathion and to pyrethroids in the U.K. Therefore, headlice from Bristol school children were bioassayed against two new insecticides, fipronil and imidacloprid. Pediculus capitis was fully susceptible to imidacloprid, but it required a relatively high dose and...

Superficial fungal infections are caused by dermatophytes plus candida and pityrosporum yeasts. Dermatophytosis is usually classified clinically according to the site of involvement: tinea capitis (scalp), T. corporis (body), T. cruris (groin), T. pedis (feet) and T. unguium (nails). One-half of all the cases of T. capitis and T. corporis are caused by zoophilic fungi, the rest due to anthropop...

Louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF) is a classical epidemic disease, which in the past was associated with war, famine, poverty, forced migration, and crowding under poor hygienic conditions around world. The disease’s causative pathogen, spirochete bacterium Borrelia recurrentis , confined to humans transmitted by single vector, human body louse Pediculus humanus corporis . Since disease at its...