scholarly journals Visceral leishmaniasis in the island of Margarita, Venezuela: a neglected parasitic infection in the Caribbean

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 204993612110317
Author(s):  
Gerardine García Oronoz ◽  
Laura C. Pedraza-Arévalo ◽  
Andrés F. Henao-Martínez ◽  
Carlos Franco-Paredes ◽  
José A. Suarez

Visceral leishmaniasis carries a significant burden of disease in the Americas with up to 7000 cases reported annually. There are several reports of autochthonous visceral leishmaniasis cases in the Caribbean, including the Dominican Republic, Guadalupe, Martinique, and Trinidad and Tobago. However, we lack recent clinical description and epidemiologic data of visceral leishmaniasis in other islands in the Caribbean. Herein, we describe an autochthonous case of visceral leishmaniasis in the Caribbean Island of Margarita in Venezuela. This index case of visceral leishmaniasis highlights the need for further regional surveillance efforts to identify animal reservoirs and to monitor the occurrence of further clinical cases. Additionally, there is an urgent need for implementing vector control strategies.

Nanoscale ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alba Calvo ◽  
Esther Moreno ◽  
Unai Clemente ◽  
Enma Perez-Chauca ◽  
Esther Larrea ◽  
...  

This study investigates if visceral leishmaniasis infection has effect in the organ and cellular uptake and distribution of 100-200 nm near-infrared fluorescently-labelled non-biodegradable polystyrene latex beads (PS NP) or biodegradable...


Solar Energy ◽  
2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramiro L. Rivera ◽  
Karim Altaii

Solar radiation was measured and recorded on a 5-minute, hourly and daily basis at a number of sites on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico (located from 18° to 18° 30’N latitude and from 65° 30’ to 67° 15’W longitude) over a 24 calendar month time frame. The global solar radiation was measured at four sites (namely: Aguadilla, Ponce, Gurabo, and San Juan). The global solar radiation data was measured by an Eppley Precision Spectral Pyranometer (model PSP) mounted on a horizontal surface. This pyranometer is sensitive to solar radiation in the range of 0.285 ≤ λ ≤ 2.8 μm wavelengths. Statistical analysis such as the daily average, monthly average hourly, monthly average daily, and annual average daily global radiation are presented in this paper. Despite its small size, a 13 percent variation in the global solar radiation has been observed within the island. Reasonable solar radiation values, for solar energy conversion system installation, seem to exist at and possibly around Aguadilla.


2007 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Francisco-Ortega ◽  
Eugenio Santiago-Valentín ◽  
Pedro Acevedo-Rodríguez ◽  
Carl Lewis ◽  
John Pipoly ◽  
...  

Zootaxa ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4446 (1) ◽  
pp. 125
Author(s):  
SARAH C. CREWS

Two new species of Selenops, S. anacaona sp. nov. (♀) and S. caonabo sp. nov. (♀), are described from the Dominican Republic on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. These two new species increase the number of endemic Selenops on Hispaniola to 13, surpassing Cuba, which currently has 11 endemic species. Additionally, the male of S. pensilis Muma, 1953 from Hispaniola is described, as well as the male of S. petrunkevitchi Alayón, 2003 from Jamaica. Full distribution records are given for the new species and the newly described males, and new records are provided for the following species: S. aequalis Franganillo, 1935, S. bocacandensis Crews, 2011, S. candidus Muma, 1953, S. micropalpus Muma, 1953, S. morro Crews, 2011, S. simius Muma, 1953, S. souliga Crews, 2011, and S. submaculosus Bryant, 1940. 


F1000Research ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 1371
Author(s):  
Leyli Zanjirani Farahani ◽  
Abedin Saghafipour ◽  
Mehdi Mohebali ◽  
Behnaz Akhoundi ◽  
Hedayatollah Raufi

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a fatal parasitic zoonotic worldwide disease, which transmits to humans by the infected Phlebotomine sand fly bite. The common form of VL in Iran is the Mediterranean type with the causative agent of Leishmania infantum, whose main reservoirs are stray and domesticated dogs. The disease has several endemic foci in Iran, mostly seen among children under the age of 10, living in rural areas and nomadic tribes. The first cases of Kala-Azar in Qom province, central Iran, were reported in the year 2001, from the villages of Ghahan district. After conducting VL control strategies in the area, no new cases of the disease had been reported until recently. The cases described here are two 2-year-old girls, living in the urban parts of Qom province, one of whom did not have a history of traveling to known endemic areas of the disease. The patients were admitted to hospital in 2016-2017, complaining from recurrent fever with unrecognized reason, associated with decreased appetite and weight loss. Disease follow-up demonstrated anemia and splenomegaly, which led to diagnosis of VL, and both patients are now fully recovered. VL was presumed to be controlled in Qom province but the present cases indicate that possible VL existence remains in the region. Therefore, urgent studies and periodic monitoring are needed to identify potential reservoirs of VL in the area.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1827-1876 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Escuder-Viruete ◽  
A. Suárez-Rodríguez ◽  
J. Gabites ◽  
A. Pérez-Estaún

Abstract. In northern Hispaniola, the Imbert Formation (Fm) has been interpreted as an orogenic "mélange" originally deposited as trench-fill sediments, an accretionary (subduction) complex formed above a SW-dipping subduction zone, or the sedimentary result of the early oblique collision of the Caribbean plate with the Bahama Platform in the middle Eocene. However, new stratigraphical, structural, geochemical and geochronological data from northern Hispaniola indicate that the Imbert Fm constitutes a coarsening-upward stratigraphic sequence that records the transition of the sedimentation from a pre-collisional forearc to a syn-collisional piggy-back basin. This piggy-back basin was transported on top of the Puerto Plata ophiolitic complex slab and structurally underlying accreted units of the Rio San Juan complex, as it was emplaced onto the North America continental margin units. The Imbert Fm unconformably overlies different structural levels of the Caribbean subduction-accretionary prism, including a supra-subduction zone ophiolite, and consists of three laterally discontinuous units that record the exhumation of the underlying basement. The distal turbiditic lower unit includes the latest volcanic activity of the Caribbean island arc; the more proximal turbiditic intermediate unit is moderately affected by syn-sedimentary faulting; and the upper unit is a (caotic) olistostromic unit, composed of serpentinite-rich polymictic breccias, conglomerates and sandstones, strongly deformed by syn-sedimentary faulting, slumping and sliding processes. The Imbert Fm is followed by subsidence and turbiditic deposition of the overlying El Mamey Group. The 40Ar / 39Ar plagioclase plateau ages obtained in gabbroic rocks from the Puerto Plata ophiolitic complex indicate its exhumation at ∼ 45–40 Ma (lower-to-middle Eocene), contemporaneously to the sedimentation of the overlying Imbert Fm. These cooling ages imply the uplift to the surface and submarine erosion of the complex to be the source of the ophiolitic fragments in the Imbert Fm, during of shortly after the emplacement of the intra-oceanic Caribbean island-arc onto the continental margin.


Phytotaxa ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 336 (3) ◽  
pp. 279
Author(s):  
ADRIAN TEJEDOR ◽  
FABIOLA ARECES-BERAZAIN

A new species, Cyathea ruttenbergii, is described from the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. The new species differs from congeners by its large, lanceolate pinnules with wide sinuses and long attenuate apices, ovate lamina with 6–7 pinna pairs, bicolorous petiole scales, strongly armed petioles, and lack of indusium. The affinities and ecology of the species are discussed.


Author(s):  
Sally-Ann Treharne

The US-led invasion of the Caribbean island of Grenada at the alleged behest of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) on 25 October 1983 had a profound negative impact upon the development of the Special Relationship under Reagan and Thatcher. The dubious legality of the intervention was widely criticised by the international community, most notably the UK. And yet, it was the Thatcher government that bore the scars of considerable domestic criticism regarding the unlawful US involvement in the internal affairs of a member of the British Commonwealth. The US invasion of Grenada, or operation ‘Urgent Fury’ as it is otherwise known, raised important questions regarding the limits of British credibility and importance within the Anglo-American alliance.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1467-1475
Author(s):  
Antony D.M. Bryceson ◽  
Diana N.J. Lockwood

Leishmaniasis is caused by parasites of the genus Leishmania, which are transmitted to humans from human or animal reservoirs by the bites of phlebotomine sandflies. In places the disease is common and important, with perhaps 500,000 cases of visceral leishmaniasis and 1.5–2 million cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis worldwide each year. Diagnosis is by demonstration of leishmania organisms in tissue smears or biopsy material by microscopy, culture, or detecting leishmaniai DNA by polymerase chain reaction. As an imported disease, cutaneous leishmaniasis is common in travellers, military personnel, and immigrants coming from endemic areas, while the diagnosis of the less common visceral leishmaniasis is frequently overlooked. Prevention is by controlling reservoir hosts and sandfly vectors, or by avoiding bites by vectors. There is no vaccine.


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