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Query: UMLS:C0024530 (malaria)
 44,886 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A previous longitudinal three-country study in Egypt, Kenya and Mexico found significant positive associations between intake of animal source foods (ASF) and growth, cognitive development and physical activity. To test for a causal relationship, a controlled school feeding intervention study was designed to test the hypotheses that ASF would improve micronutrient status, growth and cognitive function in Kenyan primary school children. Twelve rural Kenyan schools with 554 children were randomized to four feeding interventions using a local vegetable stew as the vehicle. The groups were designated as Meat, Milk, Energy and Control, who received no feedings. Feeding was carried out on school days for seven terms during 21 mo. Preintervention baseline measures included nutritional status, home food intake, anthropometry, biochemical measures of micronutrient status, malaria, intestinal parasites, health status and cognitive and behavioral measures. The measurements of each child were repeated at intervals over 2 y. Baseline data revealed stunting and underweight in approximately 30% of children and widespread inadequate intakes and/or biochemical evidence of micronutrient deficiencies, particularly of iron, zinc, vitamins A and B-12, riboflavin and calcium. Little or no ASF were eaten and fat intake was low. Malaria was present in 31% of children, and hookworm, amebiasis and giardia were widely prevalent. The outcomes measured were rates of change or increase during the intervention in cognitive function, growth, physical activity and behavior and micronutrient status. Hierarchical linear random effects modeling was used for analysis of outcomes.
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PMID:Animal source foods improve dietary quality, micronutrient status, growth and cognitive function in Kenyan school children: background, study design and baseline findings. 1467 94

Expatriates are at risk for a number of infectious diseases for which short-term travelers generally are not at risk. Returning expatriates should undergo a detailed physical examination and a basic set of laboratory tests; these tests should be tailored to their specific history and exposures. Febrile patients with an appropriate exposure history must be evaluated for malaria; other potential diagnoses may be determined by incubation period, geographic exposure, and associated symptoms. When evaluating an ill returned expatriate with fever, it is important to exclude malaria, typhoid, leishmaniasis, brucellosis, tuberculosis, HIV infection, and syphilis. Gastrointestinal irregularities in expatriates may be caused by a number of infectious and noninfectious causes, including intestinal helminthiasis, strongyloidiasis, schistosomiasis, liver flukes, and amebiasis. Eosinophilia in returned expatriates often is associated with an infectious process and should be evaluated. Many infections associated with long-term overseas deployment may include dermatologic manifestations, including filariasis and leishmaniasis.
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PMID:Medical problems in the returning expatriate. 1504 71

Infections by parasitic protozoans and helminths are a major world-wide health concern, but no vaccines exist to the major human parasitic diseases, such as malaria, African trypanosomiasis, amebiasis, leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis, and lymphatic filariasis. Recent studies on a number of parasites indicate that immune responses to parasites in infected animals and humans are directed to glycan determinants within cell surface and secreted glycoconjugates and that glycoconjugates are important in host-parasite interactions. Because of the tremendous success achieved recently in generating carbohydrate-protein conjugate vaccines toward microbial infections, such as Haemophilus influenzae type b, there is renewed interest in defining parasite-derived glycans in the prospect of developing conjugate vaccines and new diagnostics for parasitic infections. Parasite-derived glycans are compelling vaccine targets because they have structural features that distinguish them from mammalian glycans. There have been exciting new developments in techniques for glycan analysis and the methods for synthesizing oligosaccharides by chemical or combined chemo-enzymatic approaches that now make it feasible to generate parasite glycans to test as vaccine candidates. Here, we highlight recent progress made in elucidating the immunogenicity of glycans from some of the major human and animal parasites, the potential for developing conjugate vaccines for parasitic infections, and the possible utilization of these novel glycans in diagnostics.
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PMID:Antigenic glycans in parasitic infections: implications for vaccines and diagnostics. 1515 69

Parasitic diseases associated with diarrhoea are increasingly recognized as important public health problems in China. They range from well-known intestinal infections such as giardiasis, to infections better known for other symptoms - such as malignant malaria and schistosomiosis. In this review, Dr Wang Cheng-i discusses recent Chinese studies on giardiasis and amoebiasis, which have been somewhat neglected in the past, and on cryptosporidiosis and infantile hookworm infection which have only recently been recognized as a health problem in China.
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PMID:Parasitic diarrhoeas in China. 1546 2

Parasitic infections are distributed worldwide and affect hundreds of millions of individuals-primarily those living in endemic areas or in regions with a high rate of immigration from endemic areas-causing significant morbidity and mortality. A broad spectrum of parasitic infections (eg, amebiasis, malaria, trypanosomiasis, ascariasis, strongyloidiasis, dirofilariasis, cystic echinococcosis, schistosomiasis, paragonimiasis) frequently affect the lungs, mediastinum, and thoracic wall, manifesting with abnormal imaging findings that often make diagnosis challenging. Although most of these infections result in nonspecific abnormalities, familiarity with their imaging features as well as their epidemiologic, clinical, and physiopathologic characteristics may be helpful to the radiologist in formulating an adequate differential diagnosis.
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PMID:Thoracic manifestations of tropical parasitic infections: a pictorial review. 1565 92

Many infectious diseases of global impact are caused by parasites. This includes diseases with protozoan etiology, such as malaria, African sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, toxoplasmosis, and amoebiasis, as well as diseases caused by metazoa, such as river blindness, schistosomiasis, ecchinococcosis, and ascariasis. Combined, parasitic diseases affect more than half the world's human population and are responsible for decreased gross national products and billions of dollars in lost earnings. Although the magnitude of the problem precludes quick solutions, there is reasonable hope that a better understanding of these organisms, especially the host-parasite interactions that underpin virulence and pathogenicity mechanisms, will provide new opportunities for rational intervention strategies. Yeast artificial chromosomes (YAC) have substantially aided in this endeavor by providing an unlimited access to defined parts of a parasite's genome, which, in turn, has facilitated a broad range of molecular studies. For example, YACs have facilitated positional cloning strategies to identify genes involved in antigenic variation and drug resistance mechanisms. Moreover, YACs have been invaluable tools for the many genome sequencing projects examining parasites. In this chapter, we provide a detailed protocol of how to generate representative YAC libraries from parasite genomes. This protocol can be applied to both protozoa and metazoa, and can even be used for YAC library construction of parasite material isolated from a single infected host.
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PMID:Construction of yeast artificial chromosome libraries from pathogens and nonmodel organisms. 1707 69

Protozoa are responsible for a number of serious tropical diseases including amoebiasis, leishmaniasis, malaria, and trypanosomiasis. New drugs are required for the treatment of these diseases and the potential of plants to produce new clinical agents is discussed.
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PMID:Antiprotozoal agents from plant sources. 1722 24

Military personnel in operations have always paid a high toll to infections, particularly epidemics. Currently, 40 000 servicemen serve overseas in various missions and operations of various durations in various countries. Infectious hazards persist in spite of the implementation of preventive measures. They are primarily due to poor sanitation, promiscuous living conditions, and the operational situation : bacterial diarrhea, amoebiasis, viral hepatitis A and E are relatively frequent. Others are due to the tropical environment ; malaria remains a concern due to its chemoresistance ; bilharziosis can also cause small epidemics, cutaneous leishmaniasis is not rare in Guyana. Exceptional but serious infections are observed. Infectious hazards associated with warfare are reviewed : biological warfare, infections of wounded, burnt and irradiated soldiers.
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PMID:[Infectious hazards in military personnel in operations.]. 1729 10

Chloroquine (CQ) is a very useful drug with a broad spectrum of uses (as anti malarial, anti amoebiasis and for connective tissue diseases). A major side effect preventing or limiting its utilization in blacks is chloroquine induced pruritus (CP). A descriptive cross sectional questionnaire based epidemiological study of medical and nursing students, medical doctors and other workers with historic CP in a Nigerian tertiary (teaching) hospital was carried out to determine factors and features related to the development of CP. From the study the intensity of CP was not reduced by taking less CQ. About 92% of the subjects had close relations who suffered from CP. 84.5% of responders itched for 1-3 days. The longest duration for CP was 7 days. The sites of itching in descending order were generalized (49.2%) hands (46%), legs and feet (46%), perineum/genitalia (28.5%). Relieving factor/drug was identified in 66.6% of responders. Itching with oral CQ occurred in 100%. Intramuscular injection of CQ caused 49% of itching. 19% had pre-chloroquine itch. 28.5% had CP with other antimalarials notably Amodiaquine (23.8%). 50.7% took other antimalarials when down with malaria. There is a need for the identification of a cheap and readily available antidote for CP to enable CQ remain useful/relevant in Nigeria and in the West African sub-region.
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PMID:Chloroquine induced pruritus--questionnaire based epidemiological study. 1729 24

Distinguishable differences between infectine organisms and their respective hosts with respect to metabolism and macromolecular structure provide scopes for detailed characterization of target proteins and/or macromolecules as the focus for the development of selective inhibitors. In order to develop a rational approach to antiparasitic chemotherapy, finding differences in the biochemical pathways of the parasite with respect to the host it infects is therefore of primary importance. Like most parasitic protozoan, the genus Leishmania is an obligate auxotroph of purines and hence for requirement of purine bases depends on its own purine salvage pathways. Among various purine acquisition routes used by the parasite, the pathway involved in assimilation of adenosine nucleotide is unique and differs significantly in the extracellular form of the parasite (promastigotes) from its corresponding intracellular form (amastigotes). Adenosine kinase (AdK) is the gateway enzyme of this pathway and displays stage-specific activity pattern. Therefore, understanding the catalytic mechanism of the enzyme, its structural complexities and mode of its regulation have emerged as one of the major areas of investigation. This review, in general, discusses possible strategies to validate several purine salvage enzymes as targets for chemotherapeutic manipulation with special reference to adenosine kinase of Leishmania donovani. Systemic endotheliosis, commonly known as Kala-azar in India, is caused by the parasitic protozoon Leishmania donovani. The spread of leishmaniases follows the distribution of these vectors in the temperate, tropical and subtropical regions of the world leading to loss of thousands of human lives.' WHO has declared leishmaniasis among one of the six major diseases namely leishmaniasis, malaria, amoebiasis, filariasis, Chagas disease and schistosomiasis in its Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases. Strategies for better prophylaxis and urgent therapies must be therefore devised to control this menace among poor and under privileged population. However, the possible availability of antiparasitic vaccines appears remote in near future. Therefore, chemotherapy remains the mainstay for the treatment of most parasitic diseases. Selectivity of an antiparasitic compound must depend upon its mode of specific inhibition of parasite replication leaving host processes unaffected. In principle, these agents are expected to exert their selective actions against growth of the invading organisms by having one or both of the following properties: (i) Selective activation of compounds in question by enzyme (s) from the invading organisms, which are not present in the uninfected cells. (ii) Selective inhibition of vital enzyme(s), which are essential for replication of the parasites. In order to design specific compounds with the above characteristics, it is essential to have a thorough knowledge of the properties of the enzyme(s) and/or macromolecules which are unique to the parasite. Phylogenetic studies suggested that trypanosomatid parasites are relatively early-branching eukaryotic cells and indeed their cellular organization differs considerably from their mammalian hosts counterpart. Various enzymes, metabolites or proteins identified in parasites and known to be absent from or strikingly different in the mammalian hosts were considered as ideal drug targets. Among the various metabolic pathways that are presently being studied for their prospects to be exploited as the target for chemotherapeutic manipulation, the most important are (i) purine salvage (ii) polyamine and thiol metabolism (iii) folate biosynthesis (iv) DNA replication (v) glycolytic and (vi) fatty acid biosynthetic pathways etc. A number of excellent reviews, describing the prospects and efficacies of these pathways, already exist in the literature. Our laboratory is engaged in studying the pathways responsible for synthesis and assimilation ofpurine nucleotides in the parasitic protozoon Leishmania donovani. Therefore, we shall, for the constraint of space, try to restrict the discussion mostly with the purine salvage pathways of various Leishmania parasites with particular reference to the unique features of one of the enzymes of the purine salvage pathway viz AdK and its prospects as the chemotherapeutic target. However, contributions of other workers will also be discussed whenever essential and analogy will be drawn in order to make the reading coherent. The Leishmania genus goes through a dimorphic life cycle. It exists as a promastigote (extracellular form) in the sand fly vector but is converted to an amastigote (intracellular form) upon entry into mammalian macrophages. During this transformation process, the activities of a large number of proteins and/or enzymes have been reported to be stage-specifically altered and hence they could be prospective targets for development of chemotherapeutic regimen based on the exploitable differences of the parasitic proteins from their respective host counterpart.
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PMID:Antiparasitic chemotherapy: tinkering with the purine salvage pathway. 1836 63


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