FAQ • Leishmaniasis

FAQ - Leishmaniasis
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Has anyone used a parasite's genome map to design a genetic control or poison to eradicate the parasite.?

African trypanosomiasis. Commonly called sleeping sickness, this disease is caused by a parasitic microbe transmitted by tsetse flies. If untreated, the parasite migrates to the central nervous system, causing seizures, mental disorders and, ultimately, death. As many as 70,000 people are infected in Central and East Africa.

American trypanosomiasis. Commonly called Chagas disease, this disease is caused by a parasitic microbe transmitted by blood-sucking bugs. It can cause organ damage. The parasite infects about 13 million people, mostly in Latin America.

Hookworm. Human hookworm infection is caused by intestinal worm parasites transmitted to humans from contaminated soil. It causes internal blood loss and is the world's leading cause of anemia and protein malnutrition, particularly in pregnant women and children. More than half a billion people in poverty-stricken areas of Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia and China are infected.

Leishmaniasis. This disease is caused by a parasitic microbe transmitted by sand flies. It can cause skin lesions and swelling of the spleen and liver. More than 12 million people are infected in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.

Lymphatic filariasis. Commonly called elephantiasis, this parasitic worm disease is spread by mosquitoes. It can lead to disabling swelling of the legs and other body parts. About 120 million people are infected throughout Asia, Africa, the Western Pacific, South America and parts of the Caribbean.

Malaria. This disease is caused by a parasitic microbe spread by mosquitoes. Each year, malaria infects at least 300 million people living in tropical regions. It can cause brain damage or death if red blood cells infected with malaria parasites build up in the brain's blood vessels. The annual death toll is about 1 million people, many of whom are children under age 5 and pregnant women.

Onchocerciasis. Commonly called river blindness, this parasitic worm disease is spread by black flies. It can cause extreme itching, sores on the skin and blindness. The parasite infects about 18 million people, mostly in Africa, but also in Latin America.

Schistosomiasis. Also known as bilharzia or snail fever, this parasitic worm disease is transmitted by snails that live in fresh water. It can impair growth, cause severe anemia and lead to kidney and liver malfunctions. More than 200 million people are infected, mostly in Africa and Asia.
A respectable number of parasite genomes have been mapped.

http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/resources/sequenced_genomes/genome_guide_p1.shtml

Has anyone yet succeeded in designing a control to from knowledge of the parasite genome?

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As far as Schistosomiasis, it was just completed over the summer. Hopefully drugs to follow. see more here: http://bactiman63.blogspot.com/2009/07/genetic-code-to-schistosomes-complete.html (+ info)

hiv ? what does this story means?

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Anonymous
Unregistered

Re: Porn Stars Get HIV
04/16/04 05:19 PM Reply Quote

One 'positive' test for harmless anti bodies out of well over 20,000 porn stars who test monthly in ten years. Proof that 'AIDS' is not an std.

Factors Known to Cause
False Positive HIV Antibody Test Results

1.Anti-carbohydrate antibodies 52,19,13
2.Naturally-occurring antibodies 5,19
3.Passive immunization: receipt of gamma globulin or immune (as prophylaxis against infection which contains antibodies) 18, 26, 60, 4,
22, 42, 43, 13
4.Leprosy 2, 25
5.Tuberculosis 25
6.Mycobacterium avium 25
7.Systemic lupus erythematosus 15, 23
8.Renal (kidney) failure 48, 23, 13
9.Hemodialysis/renal failure 56, 16, 41, 10, 49
10.Alpha interferon therapy in hemodialysis patients 54
11.Flu 36
12.Flu vaccination 30, 11, 3, 20, 13, 43
13.Herpes simplex I 27
14.Herpes simplex II 11
15.Upper respiratory tract infection (cold or flu) 11
16.Recent viral infection or exposure to viral vaccines 11
17.Pregnancy in multiparous women 58, 53, 13, 43, 36
18.Malaria 6, 12
19.High levels of circulating immune complexes 6, 33
20.Hypergammaglobulinemia (high levels of antibodies) 40, 33
21.False positives on other tests, including RPR (rapid plasma
reagent) test for syphilis 17, 48, 33, 10, 49
22.Rheumatoid arthritis 36
23.Hepatitis B vaccination 28, 21, 40, 43
24.Tetanus vaccination 40
25.Organ transplantation 1, 36
26.Renal transplantation 35, 9, 48, 13, 56
27.Anti-lymphocyte antibodies 56, 31
28.Anti-collagen antibodies (found in gay men, haemophiliacs, Africans of both sexes and people with leprosy) 31
29.Serum-positive for rheumatoid factor, antinuclear antibody (both found in rheumatoid arthritis and other autoantibodies) 14, 62, 53
30.Autoimmune diseases 44, 29, 1O, 40, 49, 43
31.Systemic lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, connective tissue disease, dermatomyositis Acute viral infections, DNA viral infections 59,
48, 43, 53, 40, 13
32.Malignant neoplasms (cancers) 40
33.Alcoholic hepatitis/alcoholic liver disease 32, 48, 40, 10, 13, 49, 43, 53
34.Primary sclerosing cholangitis 48, 53
35.Hepatitis 54
36."Sticky" blood (in Africans) 38, 34, 40
37.Antibodies with a high affinity for polystyrene (used in the test kits) 62, 40, 3
38.Blood transfusions, multiple blood transfusions 63, 36, 13, 49, 43, 41
39.Multiple myeloma 10, 43, 53
40.HLA antibodies (to Class I and II leukocyte antigens) 7, 46, 63, 48, 10, 13, 49, 43, 53
41.Anti-smooth muscle antibody 48
42.Anti-parietal cell antibody 48
43.Anti-hepatitis A IgM (antibody) 48
44.Anti-Hbc IgM 48
45.Administration of human immunoglobulin preparations pooled before 1985 10
46.Haemophilia 10, 49
47.Haematologic malignant disorders/lymphoma 43, 53, 9, 48, 13
48.Primary biliary cirrhosis 43, 53, 13, 48
49.Stevens-Johnson syndrome 9, 48, 13
50.Q-fever with associated hepatitis 61
51.Heat-treated specimens 51, 57, 24, 49, 48
52.Lipemic serum (blood with high levels of fat or lipids) 49
53.Haemolyzed serum (blood where haemoglobin is separated from red cells) 49
54.Hyperbilirubinemia 10, 13
55.Globulins produced during polyclonal gammopathies (which are seen in AIDS risk groups) 10, 13, 48 cross-reactions 10
57.Normal human ribonucleoproteins 48, 13
58.Other retroviruses 8, 55, 14, 48, 13
59.Anti-mitochondrial antibodies 48, 13
60.Anti-nuclear antibodies 48, 13, 53
61.Anti-microsomal antibodies 34
62.T-cell leukocyte antigen antibodies 48, 13
63.Proteins on the filter paper 13
64.Epstein-Barr virus 37
65.Visceral leishmaniasis 45
66.Receptive anal sex 39, 64

Christine Johnson, a researcher and author, compiled this list of conditions documented in the scientific literature to cause positives on HIV
tests, and provides references for each condition.

Christine notes:

"Just because something is on this list doesn't mean that it will definitely, or even probably, cause a false-positive. It depends on what
antibodies the individual carries as well as the characteristics of each particular test kit.

For instance, some, but not all people who have had blood transfusions,
prior pregnancies or an organ transplant will make HLA antibodies. And some, but not all test kits (both ELISA and Western blot) will be
contaminated with HLA antigens to which these antibodies can react. Only if these two conditions coincide might you get a false-positive
due to HLA cross-reactivity.

There are conditions that are more likely than others to cause false-positives. And there are some conditions that we aren't aware of yet which
may be documented in the future to cause false-positives. Some of the factors on the list have been documented only for ELISA, while some
have been documented for both ELISA and Western blot (WB) tests.

People may be eager to argue that if a factor is only known to cause false-positives on ELISA, this problem won't be carried over to the
WB. But remember, a WB is positive by virtue of accumulating enough individual positive bands to add up to the total required by whatever
criteria is used to interpret it 39. So the more exposure a person has had
to foreign antigens, proteins and infectious agents, the more various antibodies he or she will have in their system, and the more likely it is
that there will be several cross-reacting antibodies, enough to make the WB positive.

It is to be noted that all AIDS risk groups (and Africans as well), but not the general US or Western European population, have this problem
in common: they have been exposed to a plethora of foreign antigens and proteins. This is why people in the AIDS "risk groups" tend to
have positive WBs (i.e., to be considered "HIV-infected") and people in the
population don't. However, even people in low-risk populations have false-positive Western blots for poorly understood reasons 47.

Since false-positives to every single HIV protein have been documented 36, how do we know if the positive WB bands represent the various
proteins to HIV, or a collection of false-positive bands reacting to several different non-HIV antibodies?"

Post Extras:

Entire thread
Subject Posted by Posted on
hiv test nomoreworry4me 01/19/08 06:24 PM
I"M NEG woo hoo just wanted to know what does this mean,,

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There's a bunch of people out there who variously believe that HIV does not cause AIDS, or that AIDS does not exist, or that HIV is not sexually transmitted. They have been well and truly refuted on all counts.

They make pests of themselves by spamming various websites and bulletin boards with long copy and paste posts, mostly taken from two or three AIDS denialist websites. They attacked Yahoo answers for a few months last year. It looks like they're still spamming boards with the same stuff. The numbers in this post originally referred to footnotes, but the text has been copied and pasted so many times that the footnotes have disappeared from most versions.

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It is true that false positive ELISA tests for HIV occur - about 3 in 1000 tests give a false positive. The list is of apparent causes for these false positives.

Positive ELISA tests are always followed up by a confirmatory test - usually a Western Blot or similar. A diagnosis of HIV infection is only made if both tests are positive. The rate of false diagnoses using both tests together is extremely low.

Negative ELISA tests by themselves, however, are quite reliable, so long as they are done after the window period (13 weeks). (+ info)

Does any one know a treatment for Leishmaniasis?

I worked as a DOD contractor for 13 months in IRAQ. Both of my forearms have sores that appear for several weeks then go away then return again. They are from my wrist to my elbow, the only part of me that was not covered.I am sure it is
Leishmaniasis from the sand fly bites I got. Does anyone know a treatment for Leishmaniasis? I have no insurance and can't seem to find any help.

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Treatment
There are two common therapies containing antimony, meglumine antimoniate (Glucantim®) and sodium stibogluconate (Pentostam®). It is not completely understood how these drugs act against the parasite; they may disrupt its energy production or trypanothione metabolism. Unfortunately, in many parts of the world, the parasite has become resistant to antimony and for visceral or mucocutaneous leishmaniasis,[1] amphotericin is now the treatment of choice. Failure of AmBisome® to treat visceral leishmaniasis (Leishmania donovani) has been reported in Sudan,[2] but this failure may be related to host factors such as co-infection with HIV or tuberculosis rather than parasite resistance.

Miltefosine (Impavido®), is a new drug for visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis. The cure rate of miltefosine in phase III clinical trials is 95%; Studies in Ethiopia show that is also effective in Africa. In HIV immunosuppressed people who are coinfected with leishmaniasis it has shown that even in resistant cases 2/3 of the people responded to this new treatment. Clinical trials in Colombia showed a high efficacy for cutaneous leishmaniasis. In mucocutaneous cases caused by L.brasiliensis it has shown to be more effective than other drugs. Miltefosine received approval by the Indian regulatory authorities in 2002 and in Germany in 2004. In 2005 it received the first approval for cutaneous leishmaniasis in Colombia. Miltefosine is also currently being investigated as treatment for mucocutaneous leishmaniasis caused by L. braziliensis in Colombia,[1] and preliminary results are very promising. It is now registered in many countries and is the first orally administered breakthrough therapy for visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis.[3](More, et al, 2003). In October 2006 it received orphan drug status from the US Food and Drug administration. The drug is generally better tolerated than other drugs. Main side effects are gastrointetinal disturbance in the 1-2 days of treatment which does not affect the efficacy. Because it is available as an oral formulation, the expense and inconvenience of hospitalisation is avoided, which makes it an attractive alternative.

The Institute for OneWorld Health has developed paromomycin, results with which led to its approval as an orphan drug. The Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative is also actively facilitating the search for novel therapeutics.

Drug-resistant leishmaniasis may respond to immunotherapy (inoculation with parasite antigens plus an adjuvant) which aims to stimulate the body's own immune system to kill the parasite.[4]

Several potential vaccines are being developed, under pressure from the World Health Organization, but as of 2006 none is available. The team at the Laboratory for Organic Chemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich are trying to design a carbohydrate-based vaccine [6]. The genome of the parasite Leishmania major has been sequenced,[5] possibly allowing for identification of proteins that are used by the pathogen but not by humans; these proteins are potential targets for drug treatments (+ info)

Does any one know a treatment for Leishmaniasis?

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if you worked for dod talk to them. the army gave me pills to take but that was when the war first started and i forget the name of them. (+ info)

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