Advanced understandings for Zika virus

Zika virus (ZIKV) is an arthropod-borne member of the genus Flavivirus, closely related to the dengue, West Nile, Japanese encephalitis, and yellow fever viruses and is transmitted by Aedes spp. mosquitoes. It has emerged explosively since 2007 to cause a series of epidemics in Micronesia, the South Pacific, and most recently the Americas. Following the first detection of ZIKV on the American continent, autochthonous ZIKV transmission has been confirmed throughout Central and South America. The unprecedented numbers of people infected during recent outbreaks in the South Pacific and the Americas may have resulted in enough ZIKV infections to notice patterns of the associated incidence of congenital microcephaly, Gillain-Barre symdrome, and acute diffuse encephalomyelitis. Here we review the history, emergence, biology, transmission, and control strategies for the ongoing outbreak through vector-centric approaches on ZIKV to date.

Zika Virus Infection / 대한내과학회지

Zika virus was first isolated in from nonhuman primate in 1947. It is in the genus Flavivirus, closely related to other flavivirus like Dengue, West Nile, Yellow fever and Japanese encephalitis virus. Since 2007 epidemic in Yap island, zika virus infections had spread to the countries in Micronesia and South Pacific. In 2015, Zika virus outbreak occurred in Brazil and now more than 40 countries in American continents reported autochthonous infection. The virus is transmitted mainly by Ae. aegypti mosquito with many other Aedes mosquito species known as vector. Recently, Zika virus infection is known to cause severe neurological complications and congenital malformation. In this paper, we will review current knowledge on Zika virus history, biology, clinical characteristics and preventive method.

Phenol content, antioxidant and tyrosinase inhibitory activity of mangrove plants in Micronesia

OBJECTIVE@#To find out and compare the in vitro antioxidant and tyrosinase inhibitory activities of two species of mangrove plants.@*METHODS@#Mangrove samples were harvested at the shoreline on the island of Weno, Chuuk State in Micronesia. The phenol content, antioxidant activity (based on DPPH-free radical scavenging) and tyrosinase inhibitory activity in different tissues (leaves, barks and roots) of Rhizophora stylosa (R. stylosa) and Sonneratia alba (S. alba), collected from the island of Weno.@*RESULTS@#Total phenol content ranged from 4.87 to 11.96 mg per g of freeze dried samples. The highest antioxidant activity was observed in R. stylosa bark (85.5%). The highest tyrosinase inhibitory activity was found in S. alba bark. Also, total phenol content and antioxidant activity were higher in methanol extracts than in aqueous extracts.@*CONCLUSIONS@#Taken together, the results of this study proved that mangroves can be excellent sources of antioxidant compounds.

Towards the international collaboration for detection, surveillance and control of taeniasis/ cysticercosis and echinococcosis in Asia and the Pacific.

Both cysticercosis and echinococcosis are potentially among the most serious helminth zoonoses threatening human health worldwide. However, due to the lack of reliable tools for confirmation or identification of patients or infected animals, epidemiological data are expected to be underestimated. Conversely, sometimes, such data are over estimated due to the lack of specificity. The most important issue for doing field surveys is that they use evidence based science. In this communication, advanced immunological and molecular tools for detection of individuals infected with either metacestodes or adult tapeworms are briefly overviewed, and the applications of such tools for epidemiological surveys in Indonesia, China and other countries are introduced. As immunological tools are based on antigen-antibody responses, there may exist some cross-reactions. Therefore, immunodiagnostic tools are expected to be useful for primary screening, and should be combined with confirmation of direct parasitological evidence (morphology or DNA), and imaging techniques for cysts. As a risk factor for human cysticercosis is the presence of tapeworm carriers, detection of taeniasis cases and differentiation of the three human Taenia species (Taenia solium, T. saginata and T. asiatica) in Asia and the Pacific requires consideration. Similarly, in northwest China, Echinococcus granulosus and E. multilocularis are coendemic and differentiation of these species is required in humans and definitive hosts. It is stressed that combination of several tools for identification of the parasite and for confirmation of diseases is important for obtaining highly reliable data before consideration of control of these zoonoses. Recent projects coordinated by Asahikawa Medical College have concentrated on immunological and molecular diagnostic techniques transferable to colleagues from endemic regions of Asia and the Pacific, and on organization of two international symposia to establish a platform for further collaboration in the future.

Vaccine-preventable disease susceptibility in a young adult Micronesian population.

Current US military recruit vaccination policy presumes that recruits have had a complete childhood immunization series. This assumption may not be appropriate for recruits from Micronesia, who may have had limited access to modern health care, including immunization programs. During 1988 and 1990, a cross-sectional serosurvey was conducted among 66 US military recruits, 56 from the Federated States of Micronesia and 10 from the Republic of the Marshall Islands, collectively referred to as Micronesia. Antibody seronegativity levels for 12 vaccine-preventable (or potentially so) diseases were: measles (52%), mumps (14%), rubella (21%), varicella (38%), diphtheria (39%) tetanus (0%), polio type 1 (4%), polio type 2 (0%), polio type 3 (14%), hepatitis A (9%), hepatitis B (17%), and hepatitis C (98%). Compared with Army recruits in general, Micronesian recruits were significantly more likely to be seronegative for measles and varicella and seropositive for hepatitis types A and B. Personal histories of disease were felt to be inadequate in predicting antibody status.

Acidente radioativo em Goiânia: abordagem evolutiva, dois anos após / Radioactive accident in Goiânia: evolutive approach, 2 years after

Os autores precedem a uma breve revisäo de três casos graves de exposiçäo às radiaçöes ionizantes, de vítaminas do acidente radioativo de Goiânia, dois anos após o estado atual das radiodermites, quadro hematológico, seqüelas adquiridas e as medidas diagnósticadas e terapêuticas enviadas no acompanhamento dos pacientes. Procuram estabelecer as analogias existentes entre este acidente e os episódio nucleares de Hiroshima e Nagasaki, buscando mostrar a experiência adquirida com as vítimas daquelas explosöes atômicas e a sua aplicaçäo ao caso aqui sucedido. Concluindo, enfatizam as maiores possibilidades, hoje existentes, em relaçäo a recursos diagnósticos e terapêuticos para detectar precocemente lesöes, doenças ou conseqüências tardias devidas à exposiçäo tadioativa

ELISA antibodies to cysticerci of Taenia solium in human populations in New Guinea, Oceania, and Southeast Asia.

The presence of ELISA antibodies to cysticerci of Taenia solium was surveyed in populations of New Guinea, Micronesia, and several areas of Southeast Asia. It is confirmed that cysticercosis in New Guinea remains limited to the primary Wissel Lakes focus in Irian Jaya, where the disease was introduced by the importation of infected pigs, and that it has not spread to populations east or south of the Wissel Lakes, or to Papua New Guinea. On the island of Bali, Indonesia, 21% of sera were positive from one village where pigs are especially numerous, whereas in Sumatra, Indonesia, only 3%-4% of sera were positive. In Singapore, there was a higher proportion of positive sera among the Chinese (13%) than among the Indian (5%) or Malay (3%) Moslems. From 3 to 13% of sera from populations in Micronesia, Burma, Vietnam, and the Philippines were also found to react with cysticercus antigen. However, the problem of incomplete ELISA specificity raises the possibility that in areas not known to be endemic for T. solium, seropositive results could represent either subclinical infection with cysticerci or crossreactivity to other parasitic infections.