scholarly journals Occurrence of Leishmania infection in the immediate geographic region of Ji-Paraná, Rondônia State, Brazil

Author(s):  
Aliny Pontes Almeida ◽  
Paula Frassinetti Medeiros de Paulo ◽  
Antonio Marques Pereira Júnior ◽  
Cinthya de Andrade Gujanwski ◽  
Valéria Ferreira ◽  
...  
2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 807-820
Author(s):  
Lena G. Caesar ◽  
Marie Kerins

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between oral language, literacy skills, age, and dialect density (DD) of African American children residing in two different geographical regions of the United States (East Coast and Midwest). Method Data were obtained from 64 African American school-age children between the ages of 7 and 12 years from two geographic regions. Children were assessed using a combination of standardized tests and narrative samples elicited from wordless picture books. Bivariate correlation and multiple regression analyses were used to determine relationships to and relative contributions of oral language, literacy, age, and geographic region to DD. Results Results of correlation analyses demonstrated a negative relationship between DD measures and children's literacy skills. Age-related findings between geographic regions indicated that the younger sample from the Midwest outscored the East Coast sample in reading comprehension and sentence complexity. Multiple regression analyses identified five variables (i.e., geographic region, age, mean length of utterance in morphemes, reading fluency, and phonological awareness) that accounted for 31% of the variance of children's DD—with geographic region emerging as the strongest predictor. Conclusions As in previous studies, the current study found an inverse relationship between DD and several literacy measures. Importantly, geographic region emerged as a strong predictor of DD. This finding highlights the need for a further study that goes beyond the mere description of relationships to comparing geographic regions and specifically focusing on racial composition, poverty, and school success measures through direct data collection.


2006 ◽  
Vol 175 (4S) ◽  
pp. 66-67
Author(s):  
Charles L. Bennett ◽  
Oliver Sartor ◽  
Susan Halabi ◽  
Michael W. Kattan ◽  
Peter T. Scardino

Author(s):  
M. A. Hossen

Background: Leishmaniasis is primarily caused by two species of Leishmania (L. donovani and L. infantum) of which clinical infection with L. infantum has been recognized in both humans and dogs as zoonotic disease with dogs as the main reservoir hosts in the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Asia and South America. Although L. donovani has been associated with both clinical and asymptomatic infection in humans but it is still associated with asymptomatic infection in dogs in Indian sub-continent without any evidence of zoonotic infection. Objectives: The objective of this research was to investigate the potentiality of dog as reservoir host for visceral leishmaniasis in the human leishmaniasis endemic regions in Bangladesh. Materials and Methods: A total of 20 stray dogs in the human VL endemic areas of Mymensingh district were captured for the detection VL during the period of November 2010 to May 2011. The dipstick test rK39 (Bios International; n = 20), Giemsa’s stained impression smears of liver and spleen (n = 6) and PCR with the tissue of liver and spleen (n = 6) were tested as per manufacturer instructions and conventional standard methods. Results: Out of 20 stray dogs examined, 4 (20.0%) were positive for L. donovani infection with rK39 strip test. Of the six randomly selected dogs tested with Modified Giemsa’s stained of impression smears of spleen and liver showed 2 (33.33%) positive whereas PCR technique detected 5 (83.33%) positive for L. donovani. Results of PCR showed 145bp amplicon, specific for L. donovani infection in 83.33% stray dogs. Conclusions: This study reveals that a high percentage of L. donovani asymptomatic carrier infections occur in dogs and evidence indicates that dogs and humans may potentially serve as a source of infection to sand fly vectors and accordingly dogs can be recognized as a probable animal reservoir for the Leishmania infection in the endemic region in Bangladesh. However, further studies are required to determine the ability of dogs to transmit the L. donovani to the vector sand fly in nature and its evidence on ‘One Health’ perspectives. Keywords: Visceral leishmaniasis, Endemic region, Stray dogs, rK39 strip test, Giemsa’s stained liver and spleen impression smears, PCR, Reservoir host, Mymensingh


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 644
Author(s):  
Mattia Calzolari ◽  
Elena Carra ◽  
Gianluca Rugna ◽  
Paolo Bonilauri ◽  
Federica Bergamini ◽  
...  

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) caused by Leishmania (L.) infantum is a public health threat in the Emilia-Romagna region, northeastern Italy, but its epidemiology has not been fully elucidated in this area. The objective of this study was to characterize Leishmania infection in sand flies collected in a re-emerging focus of VL in the Bologna province. During the summer of 2016, 6114 sand flies were collected, identified, and tested for Leishmania detection. Of the identified sand flies, 96.5% were Phlebotomus (P.) perfiliewi and 3.5% were P. perniciosus. Detected parasites were characterized by biomolecular methods (multilocus microsatellite typing and characterization of repetitive region on chromosome 31), and quantified by real-time PCR. The prevalence of Leishmania infection in individually-tested P. perfiliewi sand flies varied from 6% to 10% with an increasing trend during the season. Promastigotes of L. infantum were isolated by dissection in one P. perfiliewi female; the isolated strain (Lein-pw) were closely related to Leishmania parasites from VL cases in northeastern Italy, but differed from strains isolated in dogs from the same area. Our findings strongly support the vector status of P. perfiliewi for human VL in the study area.


2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. s453-s454
Author(s):  
Hasti Mazdeyasna ◽  
Shaina Bernard ◽  
Le Kang ◽  
Emily Godbout ◽  
Kimberly Lee ◽  
...  

Background: Data regarding outpatient antibiotic prescribing for urinary tract infections (UTIs) are limited, and they have never been formally summarized in Virginia. Objective: We describe outpatient antibiotic prescribing trends for UTIs based on gender, age, geographic region, insurance payer and International Classification of Disease, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes in Virginia. Methods: We used the Virginia All-Payer Claims Database (APCD), administered by Virginia Health Information (VHI), which holds data for Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance. The study cohort included Virginia residents who had a primary diagnosis of UTI, had an antibiotic claim 0–3 days after the date of the diagnosis and who were seen in an outpatient facility in Virginia between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2016. A diagnosis of UTI was categorized as cystitis, urethritis or pyelonephritis and was defined using the following ICD-10 codes: N30.0, N30.00, N30.01, N30.9, N30.90, N30.91, N39.0, N34.1, N34.2, and N10. The following antibiotics were prescribed: aminoglycosides, sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim (TMP-SMX), cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, macrolides, penicillins, tetracyclines, or nitrofurantoin. Patients were categorized based on gender, age, location, insurance payer and UTI type. We used χ2 and Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel testing. Analyses were performed in SAS version 9.4 software (SAS Institute, Cary, NC). Results: In total, 15,580 patients were included in this study. Prescriptions for antibiotics by drug class differed significantly by gender (P < .0001), age (P < .0001), geographic region (P < .0001), insurance payer (P < .0001), and UTI type (P < .0001). Cephalosporins were prescribed more often to women (32.48%, 4,173 of 12,846) than to men (26.26%, 718 of 2,734), and fluoroquinolones were prescribed more often to men (53.88%, 1,473 of 2,734) than to women (47.91%, 6,155 of 12,846). Although cephalosporins were prescribed most frequently (42.58%, 557 of 1,308) in northern Virginia, fluoroquinolones were prescribed the most in eastern Virginia (50.76%, 1677 of 3,304). Patients with commercial health insurance, Medicaid, and Medicare were prescribed fluoroquinolones (39.31%, 1,149 of 2,923), cephalosporins (56.33%, 1,326 of 2,354), and fluoroquinolones (57.36%, 5,910 of 10,303) most frequently, respectively. Conclusions: Antibiotic prescribing trends for UTIs varied by gender, age, geographic region, payer status and UTI type in the state of Virginia. These data will inform future statewide antimicrobial stewardship efforts.Funding: NoneDisclosures: Michelle Doll reports a research grant from Molnlycke Healthcare.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daling Zhang ◽  
Songchao Li ◽  
Zhengguo Zhang ◽  
Ningyang Li ◽  
Xiang Yuan ◽  
...  

AbstractA total of 1520 patients with urinary stones from central China were collected and analysed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy between October 1, 2016 and December 31, 2019. For all patients, age, sex, comorbidities, stone location, laboratory examination and geographic region were collected. The most common stone component was calcium oxalate (77.5%), followed by calcium phosphate (8.7%), infection stone (7.6%), uric acid (UA) stone (5.3%)and cystine (0.9%). The males had more calcium oxalate stones (p < 0.001), while infection stone and cystine stones occurred more frequently in females (p < 0.001). The prevalence peak occurred at 41–60 years in both men and women. UA stones occurred frequently in patients with lower urinary pH (p < 0.001), while neutral urine or alkaline urine (p < 0.001) and urinary infection (p < 0.001) were more likely to be associated with infection stone stones. Patients with high levels of serum creatinine were more likely to develop UA stones (p < 0.001). The proportion of UA stones in diabetics was higher (p < 0.001), and the incidence of hypertension was higher in patients with UA stones (p < 0.001). Compared to the other types, more calcium oxalate stones were detected in the kidneys and ureters (p < 0.001), whereas struvite stones were more frequently observed in the lower urinary tract (p = 0.001). There was no significant difference in stone composition across the Qinling-Huaihe line in central China except UA stones, which were more frequently observed in patients south of the line (p < 0.001).


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 168-168
Author(s):  
Chirag Vyas ◽  
Charles Reynolds ◽  
David Mischoulon ◽  
Grace Chang ◽  
Olivia Okereke

Abstract There is evidence of racial/ethnic disparities in late-life depression (LLD) burden and treatment in the US. Geographic region may be a novel social determinant; yet, limited data exist regarding the interplay of geographic region with racial/ethnic differences in LLD severity, item-level symptom burden and treatment. We conducted a cross-sectional study among 25,503 men aged 50+ years and women aged 55+ years in VITAL-DEP (VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL-Depression Endpoint Prevention), an ancillary study to the VITAL trial. Racial/ethnic groups included Non-Hispanic White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, and other groups (Native American/Alaskan Native and other/multiple/unspecified-race/ethnicity). We assessed depression status using: the Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8); self-reported clinician/physician diagnosis of depression; medication and/or counseling treatment for depression. In the full sample, Midwest region was significantly associated with 12% lower severity of LLD, compared to Northeast region (rate ratio (RR) (95% confidence interval (CI)): 0.88 (0.83-0.93)). However, racial/ethnic differences in LLD varied by region. For example, in the Midwest, Blacks and Hispanics had significantly higher depression severity compared to non-Hispanic Whites (RR (95% CI): for Black, 1.16 (1.02-1.31); for Hispanic, 2.03 (1.38-3.00)). Furthermore, in multivariable-adjusted logistic regression models, minority vs. non-Hispanic White adults had 2- to 3-fold significantly higher odds of several item-level symptoms across all regions, especially in the Midwest and Southwest. Finally, among those endorsing PHQ-8≥10, Blacks had 60-80% significantly lower odds of depression treatment, compared to non-Hispanic Whites, in all regions. In summary, we observed significant geographic variation in patterns of racial/ethnic disparities in LLD outcomes. This requires further longitudinal investigation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton Urfels ◽  
Andrew J. McDonald ◽  
Gerardo van Halsema ◽  
Paul C. Struik ◽  
Pankaj Kumar ◽  
...  

AbstractTimely crop planting is a foundation for climate-resilient rice-wheat systems of the Eastern Gangetic Plains—a global food insecurity and poverty hotspot. We hypothesize that the capacity of individual farmers to plant on time varies considerably, shaped by multifaceted enabling factors and constraints that are poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, two complementary datasets were used to characterize drivers and decision processes that govern the timing of rice planting in this region. The first dataset was a large agricultural management survey (rice-wheat: n = 15,245; of which rice: n = 7597) from a broad geographic region that was analyzed by machine learning methods. The second dataset was a discussion-based survey (n = 112) from a more limited geography that we analyzed with graph theory tools to elicit nuanced information on planting decisions. By combining insights from these methods, we show for the first time that differences in rice planting times are primarily shaped by ecosystem and climate factors while social factors play a prominent secondary role. Monsoon onset, surface and groundwater availability, and land type determine village-scale mean planting times whereas, for resource-constrained farmers who tend to plant later ceteris paribus, planting is further influenced by access to farm machinery, seed, fertilizer, and labor. Also, a critical threshold for economically efficient pumping appears at a groundwater depth of around 4.5 m; below this depth, farmers do not irrigate and delay planting. Without collective action to spread risk through synchronous timely planting, ecosystem factors such as threats posed by pests and wild animals may further deter early planting by individual farmers. Accordingly, we propose a three-pronged strategy that combines targeted strengthening of agricultural input chains, agroadvisory development, and coordinated rice planting and wildlife conservation to support climate-resilient agricultural development in the Eastern Gangetic Plains.


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