Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0024530 (malaria)
 44,886 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Human infections with Babesia species, in particular Babesia microti, are tick-borne illnesses that are being recognised with increased frequency. Coinfection with ehrlichiosis and Lyme disease is also being recognised as an important feature of these tick-borne illnesses. Despite the superficial resemblance of Babesia to malaria, these piroplasms do not respond to chloroquine or other similar drugs. However, the treatment of babesiosis using a clindamycin-quinine combination has been successful. Data in animal models and case-reports in humans have suggested that an atovaquone-azithromycin combination is also effective. This was confirmed in a recent prospective, open, randomised trial of clindamycin-quinine versus azithromycin-atovaquone. This paper reviews the literature on the treatment of human babesiosis and the animal models of these human pathogens.
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PMID:Babesiosis in humans: a treatment review. 1243 88

An antigen (LMS) prepared from Leishmania major-like promastigotes was used in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the diagnosis of human and dog visceral leishmaniasis. The results were compared with those from the indirect immunofluorescent antibody test (IFAT). A total of 1822 canine sera were tested, including sera from dogs with visceral leishmaniasis, transmissible venereal tumors, ehrlichiosis, rickettsiosis, or Chagas' disease and sera from healthy dogs. The antigen was also tested with 227 samples of human sera, including sera from patients with visceral, cutaneous, or diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis and from noninfected individuals, as well as sera from patients with Chagas' disease, toxoplasmosis, rickettsiosis, hepatitis B, schistosomiasis, ascaridiasis, malaria, rheumatoid factor, leprosy and rheumatoid factor, tuberculosis, or leprosy. All dogs and all human patients had a clinical and/or serological and/or parasitological diagnosis. For detecting antibodies in sera from dogs with leishmaniasis, the antigen showed a sensitivity of 98%, specificity of 95%, and concordance of 93% and when used for detecting antibodies in human sera presented a sensitivity of 92%, specificity of 100%, and concordance of 92%. Comparison between ELISA and IFAT demonstrated that ELISA using the LMS antigen yielded more reliable results than IFAT. The LMS antigen displayed no cross-reactivity with sera from patients or dogs that had any of the other diseases tested.
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PMID:Leishmania major-like antigen for specific and sensitive serodiagnosis of human and canine visceral leishmaniasis. 1241 75

West Nile encephalitis (WNE) has become endemic in the United States since 1999. The clinical spectrum of WNE includes aseptic meningitis, meningoencephalitis, or encephalitis with or without flaccid paralysis. The severity of WNE ranges from asymptomatic serum conversion to severe neurologic deficits or a fatal outcome. Several systemic disorders may present with encephalitis as part of the clinical presentation, for example, Legionnaires' disease, neoplasms with metastases to the central nervous system, Mycoplasma meningoencephalitis, brucellosis, Listeria, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, ehrlichiosis, and malaria. The most common infectious causes of encephalitis that need to be differentiated from WNE include herpes simplex virus 1, meningoencephalitis, and enteroviral meningoencephalitis. We present a case of apparent hepatic encephalopathy secondary to pancreatic carcinoma with liver involvement that presented as hepatic encephalopathy mimicking WNE. We conclude that patients presenting with encephalitis in the summer months should have serum/cerebrospinal fluid serologic studies sent for WNE even if an alternate explanation seems to explain the clinical syndrome.
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PMID:West Nile viral encephalitis mimicking hepatic encephalopathy. 1564 37

Infectious diseases that do not primarily affect the gastrointestinal tract can cause severe diarrhea. The pathogenesis of this kind of diarrhea includes cytokine action, intestinal inflammation, sequestration of red blood cells, apoptosis and increased permeability of endothelial cells in the gut microvasculature, and direct invasion of gut epithelial cells by various infectious agents. Of the travel-associated systemic infections presenting with fever, diarrhea occurs in patients with malaria, dengue fever and SARS. Diarrhea also occurs in patients with community-acquired pneumonia, when it is suggestive of legionellosis. Diarrhea can also occur in patients with systemic bacterial infections. In addition, although diarrhea is rare in patients with early Lyme borreliosis, the incidence is higher in those with other tick-borne infections, such as ehrlichiosis, tick-borne relapsing fever and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Unfortunately, it is often not established whether diarrhea is an initial symptom or develops during the course of the disease. The real incidence of diarrhea in some infectious diseases must also be questioned because it could represent an adverse reaction to antibiotics.
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PMID:Diarrhea caused by primarily non-gastrointestinal infections. 1626 4

The newly obtained data supplemented our knowledge about risk for travellers, tourists and natives of Europe connected with malaria, leishmaniasis and other tropical diseases. It was discovered that healthy carriers of Epstein-Barr virus (nearly 90% of human population) have a great risk to get chronic Burkitt lymphoma disease as a result of Plasmodium falciparum (tropical malaria agent) infection. HIV carriers being occasionally in contact with visceral leishmaniasis vectors (sand-flies infected on dogs in the Mediterranean area) not only got a heavy form of disease but became a source of infection for healthy people. Airport malaria and outbreaks of dengue fever sometimes were (and are) connected with an import of infective Anopheles or Aedes mosquitoes. The high risk of borreliosis and ehrlichiosis infection exists in the forested European areas along the highways, where picnics and other types of recreation of travellers and tourists are typical and where the anthropogenically changed Ixodes ticks subpopulations are distributed. Such physiologically changed part of tick population is more aggressive and "changed ticks" more often are vectors of one, two or even more agent species simultaneously.
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PMID:Bloodsucking arthropods: the danger for travellers and hazard of vector travelling. 1688 48

In the last 30 years, tremendous progress in identifying transfusion-transmitted viruses such as HBV, HCV, and HIV in industrialized countries has been achieved. Currently, the residual risk of transmitting these viruses through transfusion is very low especially after the introduction of "minipool" nucleic acid-amplification tests. Despite these major technical advances, there remains a legitimate concern as to the transmission of other blood-borne infectious agents through blood transfusion. Among these agents are HBV mutants, occult HBV, and HCV infections, malaria, Chagas, West Nile, dengue, and vesiviruses, bacterial infections such as Yersinia enterocolitica, and tick borne diseases such as human monocytic ehrlichiosis, human granulocytic ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and Lyme and prion diseases such as Creutzfeldt and variant Creutzfeldt. Most of these agents are very rarely transmitted by transfusion in industrialized countries. However, an awareness of their possible transmission is essential for the control of spread of these diseases among the public by human-to-human transmission via blood transfusion. This review summarizes the current status of prevalence and diagnosis of these emerging diseases and also updates our knowledge on recently discovered non-pathogenic blood-borne viruses such as GB virus C and Torque Tenoviruses.
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PMID:Verses, viruses, and the vulnerability of the blood supply in industrialized countries. 1759 28

Blood smear analysis is especially useful for diagnosing five infectious diseases: babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, relapsing fever due to Borrelia infection, malaria, and American trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease). It should be performed in patients with persistent or recurring fever or in those who have traveled to the developing world or who have a history of tick exposure, especially if accompanied by hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, or hepatosplenomegaly.
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PMID:Blood smear analysis in babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, relapsing fever, malaria, and Chagas disease. 1864 88

Vector repellent is one element in the prevention of vector-borne diseases. Families that neglect protecting their children against vectors risk their children contracting illnesses such as West Nile virus, eastern equine encephalitis, Lyme disease, malaria, dengue hemorrhagic fever, yellow fever, babesiosis, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Southern tick-associated rash illness, ehrlichiosis, tick-borne relapsing fever, tularemia, and other insect and arthropod related diseases (CDC, 2011). Identification of families at risk includes screening of the underlying basis for reluctance to apply insect repellent. Nurses and physicians can participate in a positive role by assisting families to determine the proper prophylaxis by recommending insect repellent choices that are economical, safe, and easy to use. A holistic alternative might include the suggestion of clove oil in cases where families might have trepidations regarding the use of DEET on children. This article will explore the safety and effectiveness of clove oil and its use as an insect repellent.
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PMID:Prevention of vector transmitted diseases with clove oil insect repellent. 2270 81

Arthropod-borne diseases are a major problem whenever outdoor activities bring arthropods and people into contact. The arthropods discussed here include arachnids (ticks) and insects. Most arthropod bites and stings are minor, with the notable exception being bee-sting anaphylaxis. Ticks cause the most disease transmission. Key hard tick vectors include black-legged (Ixodes), dog (Dermacentor), and lone star (Amblyomma) ticks, which transmit Lyme and various rickettsial diseases. Insect repellents, permethrin sprays, and proper tick inspection reduce this risk significantly. Lyme disease and the milder southern-tick-associated rash illness (STARI) are characterized by the erythema migrans rash followed, in the case of Lyme disease, by early, disseminated, and late systemic symptoms. Treatment is with doxycycline or ceftriaxone. Indefinite treatment of "chronic Lyme disease" based on subjective symptoms is not beneficial. Rickettsial diseases include ehrlichiosis, anaplasmosis, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, which are characterized by fever, headache, and possible rash and should be empirically treated with doxycycline while awaiting laboratory confirmation. Tularemia is a bacterial disease (Francisella) spread by ticks and rabbits and characterized by fever and adenopathy. Treatment is with gentamicin or streptomycin. Babesiosis is a protozoal disease, mimicking malaria, that causes a self-limited flu-like disease in healthy hosts but can be life threatening with immune compromise. Treatment is with atovaquone and azithromycin. Other tick-related conditions include viral diseases (Powassan, Colorado tick fever, heartland virus), tick-borne relapsing fever (Borrelia), and tick paralysis (toxin). Mosquitoes, lice, fleas, and mites are notable for their annoying bites but are increasingly significant disease vectors even in the United States.
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PMID:Arthropod-Borne Diseases: The Camper's Uninvited Guests. 2635 Mar 21

Ticks are the most important vectors of human pathogens, leading to increased public health burdens worldwide. Tick-borne pathogens include viruses (e.g. tick-borne encephalitis and Powassan); bacteria, such as the causative agents of Lyme disease, spotted fever rickettsiosis and human anaplasmosis; and malaria-like protozoan parasites causing babesiosis. Tick-borne diseases are emerging due to the geographical expansion of their tick vectors, especially in the northern hemisphere. Two examples of this phenomenon are Ixodes scapularis and Amblyomma americanum, which have expanded their ranges in the USA in recent decades and are responsible for the continuous emergence of Lyme disease and human ehrlichiosis, respectively. This phenomenon is also occurring worldwide and is reflected by the increasing number of tick-borne encephalitis and haemorrhagic fever cases in Europe and Asia. In this review, we provide a concise synopsis of the most medically important tick-borne pathogen worldwide, with a particular emphasis on emerging public health threats.
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PMID:Emerging tick-borne pathogens of public health importance: a mini-review. 3247 54


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