Clinical correlates of tuberculosis co-infection in HIV-infected children hospitalized in Peru

SummaryIntroductionIn developing countries, tuberculosis (TB) is responsible for almost 250000 deaths among children yearly. Active TB in children with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is difficult to diagnose and progresses rapidly to death. The aim of this preliminary study was to investigate the prevalence and clinical correlates of TB-related illness among HIV-infected children admitted to an infectious diseases ward in Peru, a country where TB is highly endemic.MethodForty-seven HIV-infected children admitted for a suspected infectious process in a Peruvian hospital were investigated for evidence of clinical tuberculosis by auramine stain, culture, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of clinical specimens.ResultsEight children (17%) had evidence of tuberculosis, including five with positive cultures and three with positive PCR tests only. Weight loss was the only feature associated with a positive test for tuberculosis. Radiological changes were very common in both TB-positive and TB-negative groups and these changes were not useful to identify TB-positive cases.ConclusionsWeight loss may be used to identify high-risk HIV positive children who require more aggressive evaluation for tuberculosis. Radiological changes were common in both TB-positive and TB-negative groups

Biological nitrate transport in sediments on the Peruvian margin mitigates benthic sulfide emissions and drives pelagic N loss during stagnation events

Highlights • Very high rates of dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium by Thioploca. • Non-steady state model predicts Thioploca survival on intracellular nitrate reservoir. • Ammonium release by Thioploca may be coupled to pelagic N loss by anammox. • Thioploca may contribute to anammox long after bottom water nitrate disappearance. • Model indicates that benthic foraminifera account for 90% of benthic N2 production. Abstract Benthic N cycling in the Peruvian oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) was investigated at ten stations along 12oS from the middle shelf (74 m) to the upper slope (1024 m) using in situ flux measurements, sediment biogeochemistry and modelling. Middle shelf sediments were covered by mats of the filamentous bacteria Thioploca spp. and contained a large ‘hidden’ pool of nitrate that was not detectable in the porewater. This was attributed to a biological nitrate reservoir stored within the bacteria to oxidize sulfide to sulfate during ‘dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium’ (DNRA). The extremely high rates of DNRA on the shelf (15.6 mmol m-2 d-1 of N), determined using an empirical steady-state model, could easily supply all the ammonium requirements for anammox in the water column. The model further showed that denitrification by foraminifera may account for 90% of N2 production at the lower edge of the OMZ. At the time of sampling, dissolved oxygen was below detection limit down to 400 m and the water body overlying the shelf had stagnated, resulting in complete depletion of nitrate and nitrite. A decrease in the biological nitrate pool was observed on the shelf during fieldwork concomitant with a rise in porewater sulfide levels in surface sediments to 2 mM. Using a non-steady state model to simulate this natural anoxia experiment, these observations were shown to be consistent with Thioploca surviving on a dwindling intracellular nitrate reservoir to survive the stagnation period. The model shows that sediments hosting Thioploca are able to maintain high ammonium fluxes for many weeks following stagnation, potentially sustaining pelagic N loss by anammox. In contrast, sulfide emissions remain low, reducing the economic risk to the Peruvian fishery by toxic sulfide plume development

Reconstructing the Deep Population History of Central and South America

We report genome-wide ancient DNA from 49 individuals forming four parallel time transects in Belize, Brazil, the Central Andes, and the Southern Cone, each dating to at least 9,000 years ago. The common ancestral population radiated rapidly from just one of the two early branches that contributed to Native Americans today. We document two previously unappreciated streams of gene flow between North and South America. One affected the Central Andes by 4,200 years ago, while the other explains an affinity between the oldest North American genome associated with the Clovis culture and the oldest Central and South Americans from Chile, Brazil, and Belize. However, this was not the primary source for later South Americans, as the other ancient individuals derive from lineages without specific affinity to the Clovis-associated genome, suggesting a population replacement that began at least 9,000 years ago and was followed by substantial population continuity in multiple regions

Disease: A Hitherto Unexplored Constraint on the Spread of Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) in Pre-Columbian South America

Although debate continues, there is agreement that dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) were first domesticated in Eurasia, spreading from there to other parts of the world. However, while that expansion already extended as far as Europe, China, and North America by the early Holocene, dogs spread into (and south of) the tropics only much later. In South America, for example, the earliest well attested instances of their presence do not reach back much beyond 3000 cal. BC, and dogs were still absent from large parts of the continent – Amazonia, the Gran Chaco, and much of the Southern Cone – at European contact. Previous explanations for these patterns have focused on cultural choice, the unsuitability of dogs for hunting certain kinds of tropical forest prey, and otherwise unspecified environmental hazards, while acknowledging that Neotropical lowland forests witness high rates of canine mortality. Building on previous work in Sub-Saharan Africa (Mitchell 2015) and noting that the dog’s closest relatives, the grey wolf (C. lupus) and the coyote (C. latrans), were likewise absent from South and most of Central America in Pre- Columbian times, this paper explores instead the possibility that infectious disease constrained the spread of dogs into Neotropical environments. Four diseases are considered, all likely to be native and/or endemic to South America: canine distemper, canine trypanosomiasis, canine rangeliosis, and canine visceral leishmaniasis caused by infection with Leishmania amazonensis and L. colombiensis. The paper concludes by suggesting ways in which the hypothesis that disease constrained the expansion of dogs into South America can be developed further

Linnéfest och doktorspromotion 23 och 26 maj 2007

Dust storms that develop along the Pisco-Ica desert in Southern Peru, locally known as "Paracas" winds have ecological, health and economic repercussions. Here we identify dust sources through MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) imagery and analyze HYSPLIT (Hybrid Single Particles Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory) model trajectories and dispersion patterns, along with concomitant synoptic-scale meteorological conditions from National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research reanalysis (NCEP/NCAR). Additionally, surface pressure data from the hourly METeorological Aerodrome Report (METAR) at Arica (18.5 degrees S, 70.3 degrees W) and Pisco (13.7 degrees S, 76.2 degrees W) were used to calculate Alongshore (sea-level) Pressure Gradient (APG) anomalies during Paracas dust storms, their duration and associated wind-speeds and wind directions. This study provides a review on the occurrence and strength of the Paracas dust storms as reported in the Pisco airfield for five-year period and their correspondence with MODIS true-color imagery in terms of dust-emission source areas. Our results show that most of the particle fluxes moving into the Ica-Pisco desert area during Paracas wind events originate over the coastal zone, where strong winds forced by steep APGs develop as the axis of a deep mid-troposphere trough sets in along north-central Chile. Direct relationships between Paracas wind intensity, number of active dust-emission sources and APGs are also documented, although the scarcity of simultaneous METAR/MODIS data for clearly observed MODIS dust plumes prevents any significant statistical inference. Synoptic-scale meteorological composites from NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data show that Paracas wind events (steep APGs) are mostly associated with the strengthening of anticyclonic conditions in northern Chile, that can be attributed to cold air advection associated with the incoming trough. Compared to the MODIS images, HYSPLIT outputs were able to spatially reproduce trajectories and dust dispersion plumes during the Paracas wind storms. HYSPLIT trajectories revealed that part of the wind-eroded lithological material can be transported downwind several kilometers along the Peruvian coast and also deposited over the nearby coastal ocean, giving support to the presence of an aeolian signal in continental shelf sediments, of great importance for paleoenvironmental studies

Calcareous benthic foraminifera from the upper central Peruvian margin : control of the assemblage by pore water redox and sedimentary organic matter

We studied 'living' (stained) benthic foraminifera in the upper border of the Peruvian oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) to determine the relationship between species' distribution and pore water and sediment geochemistry under oxygen deficiency. Superficial sediments were sampled between 2009 and 2011 from 2 bathymetric transects off central Peru (45 to 300 m depth). The quantity (total organic carbon, total nitrogen and chloroplastic pigment equivalents [CPE]) and quality (chlorophyll a/phaeopigments ratio) of organic matter (OM) were evaluated. Benthic foraminifera were sampled in the top 5 cm of sediment. Commonly, the inner shelf sediments were sulfidic and labile OM-rich, whereas the outer shelf and upper slope sediments exhibited postoxic conditions (e.g. anoxic and non-sulfidic) with less labile OM, typical of OMZ core sediments. Mixed conditions were found in shelf sediment samples from April 2010, when the effects of El Nino 2009/2010 were withdrawing. Foraminiferal assemblages exhibited differences according to redox conditions and OM quality, and were concentrated in the topmost sediment. A canonical correspondence analysis and non-parametric correlations indicated that Bolivina costata, Nonionella auris and Virgulinella fragilis were characteristic of sulfidic/labile OM sediments, thriving slightly deeper in the sediment. In contrast, Bolivina pacifica headed the assemblage representative of postoxia/less labile OM. Bolivina seminuda and Buliminella tenuata (both dominant under postoxia) were not associated with any specific measured parameter, although were present in sulfidic sediments, suggesting other factors were involved in their distribution