A century after its discovery, Chagas' disease still represents a major public health challenge in Latin America. Moreover, because of growing population movements, an increasing number of cases of imported Chagas' disease have now been detected in non-endemic areas, such as North America and some E...uropean countries. This parasitic zoonosis, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, is transmitted to humans by infected Triatominae insects, or occasionally by non-vectorial mechanisms, such as blood transfusion, mother to fetus, or oral ingestion of materials contaminated with parasites. Following the acute phase of the infection, untreated individuals enter a chronic phase that is initially asymptomatic or clinically unapparent. Usually, a few decades later, 40-50% of patients develop progressive cardiomyopathy and/or motility disturbances of the oesophagus and colon. In the last decades several interventions targeting primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of Chagas' disease have been attempted. While control of both vectorial and blood transfusion transmission of T cruzi (primary prevention) has been successful in many regions of Latin America, early detection and aetiological treatment of asymptomatic subjects with Chagas' disease (secondary prevention) have been largely underutilised. At the same time, in patients with established chronic disease, several pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions are currently available and have been increasingly used with the intention of preventing or delaying complications of the disease (tertiary prevention). In this review we discuss in detail each of these issues.
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Chagas disease affects approximately 6 million people, mainly in Latin America. Less than 1% of affected individuals receive proper antiparasitic treatment, and current drugs are inadequate to fight the entire spectrum of the disease. Against this background, Novartis is pursuing an end-to-end appro...ach, with activity on three fronts: drug discovery, clinical research and health system strengthening.
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Website last accessed on 31.03.2023
PLoS Neglected Tropical diseases August 16, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009697
Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is a neglected tropical disease transmitted by triatomine insects, first identified in 1909. Chagas disease affects approximately 6–7 million peop...le globally and is highly prevalent in Latin America where most cases are reported. However, there is increasing evidence that Chagas disease is now an important public health issue outside the “classical” endemic countries due to population migration. Our understanding of Chagas disease, including its pathologies and factors relating to progression, remains to date limited, and is also challenged by lack of diagnosis and highly effective treatment. This systematic review aims to describe studies with Chagas patients receiving antiparasitic treatment. Databases were searched for relevant studies published after 1997, and the results of these searches were screened.
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Mycetoma is a chronic, progressively destructive infectious disease of the subcutaneous tissues, affecting skin, muscle and bone. Mycetoma occurs in tropical and subtropical environments characterized by short rainy seasons and prolonged dry seasons that favour the growth of thorny bushes. Global bu...rden is not known, but the disease is endemic; it has been reported from countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. This course addresses the epidemiology of mycetoma, clinical features, diagnosis, treatment, and public health interventions.
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This trainer toolkit is a guide for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) program implementers in Nigeria to train primary health care health workers to diagnose and provide care for women and girls with symptoms of female genital schistosomiasis (FGS). It has been developed based on a pilot study in ...Ogun State where 22 health facilities were trained on using the FGS tools. The trainer guide should be used alongside the ‘Health Worker Training Guide for managing FGS within primary health care’. Trainers should familiarise themselves with this manual before the training to ensure that all aspects of the training are conducted effectively.
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Website last accessed in 24.03.2023
CDC provides continuing education for professionals involved in rabies prevention and control. While CDC provides some resources directly, others are offered through partnerships and collaborations with other public health entities. This page contains a collec...tion of course notifications, education materials, and continuing education courses related to rabies prevention and control.
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Website last accessed on 24.03.2023
A parasite is an organism that lives on or in a host and gets its food from or at the expense of its host. Parasites can cause disease in humans.
Website last accessed on 18.03.2023
Website last accessed on 24.03.2023
A parasite is an organism that lives on or in a host and gets its food from or at the expense of its host. Parasites can cause disease in humans.
Website last accessed on 18.03.2023
Education and information about ascariasis, including fact sheets and information on prevention and control, epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment.
Websites last accessed on 24.03.2023
A parasite is an organism that lives on or in a host and gets its food from or at the expense of its host. Parasites can cause disease in humans.
Websites last accessed on 24.03.2023
Education and information about Leishmaniasis prevention and control.
Website last accessed on 24.03.2023
Education and information about Soil-Transmitted Helminths including Human Hookworm, Roundworm and Whipworm.
People with Guinea worm disease (GWD) have no symptoms for about 1 year. Then, the person begins to feel ill. Symptoms can include the following:
Slight fever
Itchy rash
Nausea
Vomiting
Diarrhea
Dizziness
A blister then develops. This blister can form anywhere on the skin. However, the blis...ter forms on the lower body parts in 80%–90% of cases. This blister gets bigger over several days and causes a burning pain. The blister eventually ruptures, exposing the worm. The infected person may put the affected body part in cool water to ease the symptoms or may enter water to perform daily tasks, such as fetching drinking water. On contact with water, the worm discharges hundreds of thousands of larvae into the water.
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Website last accessed on 18.03.2023
Education and information about hookworm including fact sheets and information on prevention and control, epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment.
Diagnosis, Case Management Prevention and Control of Leptospirosis
Schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths (STH) infections are major public health problems. We aimed to study the 6-mo impact of mass drug administration with praziquantel and albendazole on urinary schistosomiasis and STH.We examined children (aged 2–15 y) from one hamlet, who provided urin...e and faeces samples at baseline (n=197), 1 mo (n=102) and 6 mo (n=92); 67 completed the protocol.At baseline, 47/67 (70.1%) children presented Schistosoma haematobium (75.8% in the baseline total sample) and 12/67 (17.9%) with STH (30.5% in the initial sample, p=0.010). Among the children, 47.3% had heavy Schistosoma haematobium infection. The most frequent STH was Trichuris trichiura in 9.0%. We also found Hymenolepis nana (13.2%) and Plasmodium falciparum (9.1%) infections and anaemia (82.1%). One mo after chemotherapy there was a significant (p=0.013) reduction of Schistosoma haematobium prevalence (23.5%) and a high egg reduction rate (86.9%). Considering the sample of 67 children, the mean egg concentration was 498 at baseline, 65 at 1 mo and 252 at 6 mo (p<0.05). We also observed a reduction in STH infections, 50% in Ascaris lumbricoides, 33.3% in T. trichiura and 50% in hookworms. At 6 mo, the prevalence of Schistosoma haematobium (76.1%) was similar to the baseline and the STH reduction was not significant.Longitudinal studies have reported many losses in these settings, but we were able to show that mass drug administration for control of schistosomiasis and STH present low effectiveness, that reinfections occur rapidly and that stand alone anthelmintic therapy is not a sustainable choice.
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Website last accessed on 23.04.2023
La leptospirosis es una enfermedad infecciosa causada por bacterias que pueden producir infecciones potencialmente mortales de los riñones, el hígado, el cerebro, los pulmones o el corazón.