Mycobacterium africanum is a cause of tuberculosis (TB) that has mainly been described in Africa, but immigration and travel patterns have contributed to the spread of the disease to other countries.
...We retrospectively reviewed TB cases due to M. africanum during 2000-2010 in seven Spanish hospitals. Selected clinical charts were reviewed using a predefined protocol that included demographical, clinical and microbiological data and outcome.
Although 57 cases were diagnosed, only 36 clinical charts were available for review: 82.8% were men and the mean age was 31.6 years (range 12-81). Forty-four cases were from Africa, 1 from the Philippines, 1 from India, and 4 from Spain, while the country of origin was unknown in 7 cases. The most frequent site of infection was the lung (58.3%). Four cases (6.9%) were resistant to at least one first-line anti-tuberculosis drug.
Disease due to M. africanum in industrialised countries is mainly associated with immigration from endemic areas, although some cases also occur among native-born populations.
Madariaga virus (MADV) has recently been associated with severe human disease in Panama, where the closely related Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) also circulates. In June 2017, a fatal ...MADV infection was confirmed in a community of Darien Province. We conducted a cross-sectional outbreak investigation with human and mosquito collections in July 2017, where sera were tested for alphavirus antibodies and viral RNA. In addition, by applying a catalytic, force-of-infection (FOI) statistical model to two serosurveys from Darien Province in 2012 and 2017, we investigated whether endemic or epidemic alphavirus transmission occurred historically. In 2017, MADV and VEEV IgM seroprevalences were 1.6% and 4.4%, respectively; IgG antibody prevalences were MADV: 13.2%, VEEV: 16.8%, Una virus (UNAV): 16.0%, and Mayaro virus: 1.1%. Active viral circulation was not detected. Evidence of MADV and UNAV infection was found near households, raising questions about its vectors and enzootic transmission cycles. Insomnia was associated with MADV and VEEV infections, depression symptoms were associated with MADV, and dizziness with VEEV and UNAV. Force-of-infection analyses suggest endemic alphavirus transmission historically, with recent increased human exposure to MADV and VEEV in Aruza and Mercadeo, respectively. The lack of additional neurological cases suggests that severe MADV and VEEV infections occur only rarely. Our results indicate that over the past five decades, alphavirus infections have occurred at low levels in eastern Panama, but that MADV and VEEV infections have recently increased-potentially during the past decade. Endemic infections and outbreaks of MADV and VEEV appear to differ spatially in some locations of eastern Panama.
Right parietal tumour Monforte Cirac, M L; Nieto Toboso, M C; Lezcano Carrera, M A ...
Anales de pediatría (Barcelona, Spain : 2003)
72, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Brain abscess due to Mycobacterium tuberculosis Monforte-Cirac, M L; Palacián-Ruiz, M P; Martíín-Martínez, J ...
Revista de neurologiá,
31/2008 Dec 16, Letnik:
47, Številka:
12
Journal Article
Background: Between January 1993 and December 2003, 19 patients with familial prion diseases due to the D178N mutation were referred to the regional epidemiological registry for spongiform ...encephalopathies in the Basque Country in Spain, a small community of some 2 100 000 inhabitants. Methods: Ten further patients belonging to the same pedigrees were retrospectively ascertained through neurological or neuropathological records. In four of the patients, the diagnosis was confirmed by analysing DNA obtained from paraffin blocks. In this article, we report on the clinical, genetic, and pathological features of the 23 patients carrying the D178N mutation confirmed by genetic molecular analysis. Haplotyping studies suggest a founder effect among Basque born families, explaining in part this unusually high incidence of the D178N mutation in a small community. Only two patients (8%) lack familial antecedents. Results: We have observed a phenotypic variability even among homozygous 129MM patients. Our findings challenge the currently accepted belief that MM homozygosity in codon 129 is always related to a fatal familial insomnia (FFI) phenotype. Indeed, seven out of 17 patients with a 129MM genotype in this series presented with a Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) clinicopathological picture. Conclusions: The considerable clinical and pathological overlapping observed among homozygous 129MM patients favours the view that FFI and CJD178 are the extremes of a spectrum rather than two discrete and separate entities. Other genetic or environmental factors apart from the polymorphism in codon 129 may play a role in determining the phenotypic expression of the D178N mutation in the PRNP gene.
In 1995, a surveillance system for prion diseases was set up in the Basque Country, an autonomous region in northern Spain (2.1 million inhabitants). In the period from January 1993 to December 2003, ...we diagnosed 21 patients with familial prion diseases prospectively and another 4 patients retrospectively. They represent 35% of all the cases referred to the epidemiological registry. Two main possible explanations for this unusual high incidence of familial prion diseases are proposed: first, comprehensive case ascertainment by public health neurologists; second, a probable cluster of the D178N mutation within families of Basque origin related to a still unconfirmed common ancestor. Further genetic and genealogical studies should resolve this issue.
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