The transmission of intestinal schistosomiasis in Begemder Province, Ethiopia

Intestinal schistosomiasis is a disease caused by the tre-Schistosoma mansoni (Sambon, 1907). Man is the principal final host of this parasitic worm and the intermediate host is a fresh water snail. The adult worms, which are some 8-15 mm long, inhabit the portal venous system. There, the females produce large amounts of eggs, many of which are excreted with the faeces. The remaining eggs get stuck in the tissues where they die. As a result of the dead eggs bilharzial granulomas are formed which are the main cause of pathologie changes in the host. The excreted eggs hatch on immersion in water and the escaping miracidia can freely live in the water for several hours. If they succeed in penetrating an intermediate host snail (in Ethiopia; Biomphalaria pfeifferi) a mother sporocyst, several daughter sporocysts, and eventually, after some 4-5 weeks, many cercariae are produced, The phase of asexual multiplication in the snail host results in the production of large numbers of exclusively either male or female cercariae. Only snails that have been penetrated successfully by several miracidia may shed cercariae of both sexes. The free living cercariae have a short life span: most of them die within 24 hours. Man may become infected when his skin is exposed to water containing cercariae. When the cercariae penetrate man's skin they are transformed into schistosomules and in some 40-60 days these schistosomules develop into adult worms that migrate to the portal and mesenteric veins. Then eggs are produced again.UBL - phd migration 201

Failure to diagnose fatal disseminated toxoplasmosis in a bone marrow transplant recipient : the possible significance of declining antibody titres.

Contains fulltext : 4489.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Association studies of up to 1.2 million individuals yield new insights into the genetic etiology of tobacco and alcohol use

Tobacco and alcohol use are leading causes of mortality that influence risk for many complex diseases and disorders 1 . They are heritable 2,3 and etiologically related 4,5 behaviors that have been resistant to gene discovery efforts 6–11 . In sample sizes up to 1.2 million individuals, we discovered 566 genetic variants in 406 loci associated with multiple stages of tobacco use (initiation, cessation, and heaviness) as well as alcohol use, with 150 loci evidencing pleiotropic association. Smoking phenotypes were positively genetically correlated with many health conditions, whereas alcohol use was negatively correlated with these conditions, such that increased genetic risk for alcohol use is associated with lower disease risk. We report evidence for the involvement of many systems in tobacco and alcohol use, including genes involved in nicotinic, dopaminergic, and glutamatergic neurotransmission. The results provide a solid starting point to evaluate the effects of these loci in model organisms and more precise substance use measures

Associations of autozygosity with a broad range of human phenotypes

In many species, the offspring of related parents suffer reduced reproductive success, a phenomenon known as inbreeding depression. In humans, the importance of this effect has remained unclear, partly because reproduction between close relatives is both rare and frequently associated with confounding social factors. Here, using genomic inbreeding coefficients (F-ROH) for >1.4 million individuals, we show that F-ROH is significantly associated (p <0.0005) with apparently deleterious changes in 32 out of 100 traits analysed. These changes are associated with runs of homozygosity (ROH), but not with common variant homozygosity, suggesting that genetic variants associated with inbreeding depression are predominantly rare. The effect on fertility is striking: F-ROH equivalent to the offspring of first cousins is associated with a 55% decrease [95% CI 44-66%] in the odds of having children. Finally, the effects of F-ROH are confirmed within full-sibling pairs, where the variation in F-ROH is independent of all environmental confounding.Peer reviewe

Healthcare-seeking strategies among displaced children in war-ridden northern Uganda: the case of malaria

A field study was performed to examine suffering and treatment seeking from the perspective of children aged 8-16 years living in war-affected northern Uganda. Various techniques for collecting qualitative and quantitative data were used, including a semi-structured questionnaire about illness experiences and medicine use over a 1-month recall period. The 165 children who were interviewed were attending primary schools for displaced children and/or commuters' night shelters. The children frequently attributed their common febrile ailments to malaria and used a variety of pharmaceuticals and herbal remedies, as self-medication, for their self-diagnosed malarial episodes. Misdiagnosis of febrile illnesses by the children (as well as by the local healthcare providers) and frequent misuse of medicines in the treatment of these illnesses appeared to be very common. Improvement of the health conditions of these children requires a change of focus. Firstly, children above the age of 5 years who are not under adult care and who are often no longer welcome in the local hospital's paediatric ward need to be accepted at the outpatient clinics currently intended for adults. Secondly, the local diagnostic system needs to be improved, not only so that malaria can be reliably diagnosed but also so that alternative diagnoses can be confirmed or rejected, otherwise the current over-consumption of antimalarial drugs may simply be replaced with an over-consumption of antibiotics