Chemotherapy in Cases of Trypanosoma cruzi Reinfection: Assessing for Chagas Disease Endemic Areas

People living in endemic areas of Chagas disease are submitted to multiple infections during their lives. This is an important factor in the development and morbidity of the disease. In the present investigation, evaluate the treatment outcome of triple infection mice with 21SF clones compared to the parental strain and with clones were investigated. Mice were infected and divided into groups: G1, infected with 21SF strain; G2, infected with 3 clones of the 21SF strain; and G3, infected with each clone alone. Subsequently, the groups were subdivided in treated and untreated controls. After the treatment the mice were euthanized. Serological tests and parasitological tests were performed. Sections of the heart and skeletal muscle were collected, fixed and then processed for the histopathological study in sections stained with Hematoxilin end Eosin. Parasitological tests for animals treated have shown positive results that varied from 25 to 66.7% and the serology titers varied from 1:10 a 1:280 in treated mice. Cure rates ranged from 11.1 to 30.8%. Histopathological examination revealed that treated animals presented clear reduction of lesions in myocardium and in skeletal muscle. Animals subjected to multiple infections have low rates of cure and worsening of tissue lesions.

The Prevalence of Hepatitis B and C among HIV Positive Patients in Some Hospitals in Rivers State

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) are all blood borne pathogens that are still global health challenges and were known to be endemic in Nigeria. Little work had been done on Hepatitis-B and C co-infection among HIV positive patients in the three Senatorial Districts of Rivers State. A case- control, hospital- based study was conducted among subjects from Rivers state University Teaching Hospital (RSUTH), Zonal Hospital, Bori and Zonal Hospital, Ahoada to determine the prevalence of Hepatitis B and C co-infection in these areas. Three hundred and seventy-five subjects of (10-69 years) and both sexes were included in the study. A structured questionnaire was administered to obtain demographic parameters of the participants. The samples collected were screened and confirmed for hepatitis-B and C using standard techniques. The overall prevalence rates of HBV, HCV and HBV/HCV in this study are 4.5%, 2.1% and 0.8% respectively while the prevalence among HIV positive participants were; 4.6%, 2.8% and 1.1% respectively. Bori had the highest prevalence of HBV and HCV, (5.3% and 4.2%) while Ahoada had the highest prevalence of triple infection (2.1%). The prevalence of HIV/HBV, HIV/HCV and HIV/HBV/HCV infection was more among subjects within age range of 30-39 years (7.0%, 5.6% and 4.2%) and lowest within the age range of 20-29 years (2.3%, 0% and 0%). Conclusively, the research findings show that the prevalence of hepatitis B and C co-infection among HIV patients in these hospitals are high. Thus, every HIV positive patient should be screened and educated on the danger of co-infection for better management of the patient.

A Pandemic within Other Pandemics. When a Multiple Infection of a Host Occurs: SARS-CoV-2, HIV and Mycobacterium tuberculosis

By the middle of 2021, we are still immersed in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The concurrence of this new pandemic in regions where human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and tuberculosis (TB) infections possess the same epidemiological consideration, has arisen concerns about the prognosis, clinical management, symptomatology, and treatment of patients with triple infection. At the same time, healthcare services previously devoted to diagnosis and treatment of TB and HIV are being jeopardized by the urgent need of resources and attention for COVID-19 patients. The aim of this review was to collect any article considering the three conditions (HIV, TB, and SARS-CoV-2), included in PubMed/Medline and published in the English language since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. We focused on detailed descriptions of the unusual cases describing the three co-infections. Eighty-four out of 184 publications retrieved met our inclusion criteria, but only three of them reported cases (five in total) with the three concomitant infections. The clinical evolution, management, and therapy of all of them were not different from mild/severe cases with exclusive COVID-19; the outcome was not worse either, with recovery for the five patients. Cases of patients with COVID-19 besides HIV and TB infections are scarce in literature, but studies deliberately embracing the triple infection as a priori inclusion criterion should be carried out in order to provide a complete understanding of joint influence.

Enhanced passive surveillance dengue infection among febrile children: Prevalence, co-infections and associated factors in Cameroon

Dengue virus (DENV) causes a spectrum of diseases ranging from asymptomatic, mild febrile to a life-threatening illness: dengue hemorrhagic fever. The main clinical symptom of dengue is fever, similar to that of malaria. The prevalence of dengue virus infection, alone or in association with other endemic infectious diseases in children in Cameroon is unknown. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of dengue, malaria and HIV in children presenting with fever and associated risk factors. Dengue overall prevalence was 20.2%, Malaria cases were 52.7% and HIV cases represented 12.6%. The prevalence of dengue-HIV co-infection was 6.0% and that of Malaria-dengue co-infection was 19.5%. Triple infection prevalence was 4.3%. Dengue virus infection is present in children and HIV-Dengue or Dengue- Malaria co-infections are common. Dengue peak prevalence was between August and October. Sex and age were not associated with dengue and dengue co-infections. However, malaria as well as HIV were significantly associated with dengue (P = 0.001 and 0.028 respectively). The diagnosis of dengue and Malaria should be carried out routinely for better management of fever.

Persistent Southern Tomato Virus (STV) Interacts with Cucumber Mosaic and/or Pepino Mosaic Virus in Mixed-Infections Modifying Plant Symptoms, Viral Titer and Small RNA Accumulation

Southern tomato virus (STV) is a persistent virus that was, at the beginning, associated with some tomato fruit disorders. Subsequent studies showed that the virus did not induce apparent symptoms in single infections. Accordingly, the reported symptoms could be induced by the interaction of STV with other viruses, which frequently infect tomato. Here, we studied the effect of STV in co- and triple-infections with Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) and Pepino mosaic virus (PepMV). Our results showed complex interactions among these viruses. Co-infections leaded to a synergism between STV and CMV or PepMV: STV increased CMV titer and plant symptoms at early infection stages, whereas PepMV only exacerbated the plant symptoms. CMV and PepMV co-infection showed an antagonistic interaction with a strong decrease of CMV titer and a modification of the plant symptoms with respect to the single infections. However, the presence of STV in a triple-infection abolished this antagonism, restoring the CMV titer and plant symptoms. The siRNAs analysis showed a total of 78 miRNAs, with 47 corresponding to novel miRNAs in tomato, which were expressed differentially in the plants that were infected with these viruses with respect to the control mock-inoculated plants. These miRNAs were involved in the regulation of important functions and their number and expression level varied, depending on the virus combination. The number of vsiRNAs in STV single-infected tomato plants was very small, but STV vsiRNAs increased with the presence of CMV and PepMV. Additionally, the rates of CMV and PepMV vsiRNAs varied depending on the virus combination. The frequencies of vsiRNAs in the viral genomes were not uniform, but they were not influenced by other viruses.

Rapid tissue-specific screening ofWolbachia,CardiniumandRickettsiain Flies (Diptera: Sepsidae; Drosophilidae)

Maternally transmitted endosymbionts can negatively influence the reproduction of their arthropod hosts (e.g. male-killing, cytoplasmic incompatibility). However, such infections are rarely assessed in insect models such as Sepsidae or Drosophilidae that are routinely used in sexual selection studies. To detect infection and bacterial localisation in the host, we developed and optimised a tissue-specific multiplex screening protocol forWolbachia,CardiniumandRickettsiathat can be completed in a day. The robustness of the protocol was tested with the screening of multiple species and populations of flies commonly used in reproductive studies (N=147 flies; n=426 tissues). With triplex PCRs and more effective duplex PCRs, we detected both single and co-infections in most individuals from both families (Drosophilidae | Sepsidae; Single infection: 51.4% | 62.7%; Dual infection: 29.2% | 9.3%; Triple infection: 4.2% | 0%). Surprisingly, we documented the presence of all three reproductive bacteria in 32 wild-caught drosophilids from Singapore. Also, we note that most sepsid populations (19 out of 22) tested positive forCardinium. We found that theRickettsiainfection was overall low, but it was predominantly detected in the gastrointestinal tract instead of the reproductive tract, suggesting a potential horizontal transmission. Finally, we found that amplicon sequences of equivalent sizes between the three tissues from the same individuals share at least 98.8% identity, which suggests that the same endosymbiont strain inhabits within the whole arthropod. Overall, we believe this protocol is effective in detecting co-infections and understanding the transmission of various reproductive endosymbionts. It can also be used to assess endosymbiont infections in other insects.

Stability Analysis of the Disease Free Equilibrium of Malaria, Dengue and Typhoid Triple Infection Model

A Mathematical model of a system of non-linear differential equation is developed to study the transmission dynamics of malaria, dengue and typhoid triple infection. In this work, the basic reproduction number is derived using the Next Generation Matrix, also we computed the disease free equilibrium point. The disease free equilibrium (DFE) point is analyzed and was found that the DFE is locally stable but may be globally unstable when R0 < 1.