It runs several league and cup competitions in the city.
BACKGROUND:Aedes aegypti is the main vector of arboviral diseases worldwide. The species invaded and became established in southern Iran in 2020. Insecticide-based interventions are primarily used for its control. With insecticide resistance widespread, knowledge of resistance mechanisms is vital for informed deployment of insecticidal interventions, but information from Iranian Ae. aegypti is lacking. METHODS:Fifty-six Ae. aegypti specimens were collected from the port city of Bandar Lengeh in Hormozgan Province in the South of Iran in 2020 and screened for kdr mutations. The most common kdr mutations in Latin America and Asia (V410L, S989P, V1016G/I and F1534C), especially when present in combinations, are highly predictive of DDT and pyrethroid resistance were detected. Phylogenetic analyses based on the diversity of S989P and V1016G/I mutations were undertaken to assess the phylogeography of these kdr mutations. RESULTS:Genotyping all four kdr positions of V410L, S989P, V1016G/I and F1534C revealed that only 16 out of the 56 (28.57%) specimens were homozygous wild type for all kdr mutation sites. Six haplotypes including VSVF (0.537), VSVC (0.107), LSVF (0.016), LSIF (0.071), VPGC (0.257) and LPGC (0.011) were detected in this study. For the first time, 11 specimens harbouring the V410L mutation, and 8 samples with V1016I mutation were found. V410L and V1016I were coincided in 8 specimens. Also, six specimens contained 1016G/I double mutation which was not reported before. CONCLUSIONS:The relatively high frequency of these kdr mutations in Iranian Ae. aegypti indicates a population exhibiting substantial resistance to pyrethroid insecticides, which are used widely in control operations and household formulations. The detection of the 410L/1016I kdr mutant haplotype in Iranian Ae. aegypti suggests possible convergence of invasive populations from West Africa or Latin America. However, as Iran has very limited maritime/air connections with those African countries, a Latin American origin for the invasive Ae. aegypti in Iran is more plausible.
BACKGROUND: Cryptococcal meningitis (CM) is the commonest neurological complication in patients with advanced HIV. Visual disturbance is a frequent presenting symptom. Papilloedema is commonly reported but other ophthalmic findings are not well described. METHODS: We performed an observational study comparing severely immunocompromised HIV-infected patients with and without CM to determine the nature and prevalence of retinal pathology attributable to CM. 70 adult patients were enrolled in Blantyre Malawi, 35 with CM and 35 HIV-infected patients without CM. RESULTS: 79% (19/24) of CM patients examined on day one had evidence of retinal abnormalities compared to 17% (6/35) of HIV-infected controls (p <0.001). In the CM group, retinal whitening was the commonest abnormality (50%), followed by optic disc swelling (29%), haemorrhage (25%) and vascular abnormalities (7%). Retinal whitening was the only abnormality observed in the comparator group (17%). In CM, there was no significant difference between those with and without retinal abnormalities in fungal burden (13,550 cfu/ml vs. 9,150 cfu/ml; p = 0.65), CD4 count (28 cells/µl vs. 76 cells/µl; p = 0.79) or CSF opening pressure (21cm H20 vs. 27cm H20; p = 0.5). There was no association between presence/absence of retinal abnormalities and death (40% 10-week mortality vs. 26%; p = 0.6). CONCLUSIONS: Whether the presence of CM retinopathy could be used as a marker of disease severity warrants further investigation. The observed ophthalmic findings provide a descriptive framework for CM retinopathy to be utilised in future CM studies. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN (ISRCTN45035509) 19/06/2012.
Background Gambiense human African trypanosomiasis (gHAT) is marked for elimination of transmission (EoT) by 2030. We examined the cost-effectiveness (CE) of EoT in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the country with the highest burden.Methods In 165 health zones (HZs), we modelled the transmission dynamics, health outcomes, and economic costs of six strategies during 2026-40, including cessation activities once reported cases reach zero. Uncertainty in CE was assessed within the net monetary framework, presenting optimal strategies across willingness-to-pay (WTP) values, in costs per disability-adjusted life-year averted. We assessed the optimal strategy for CE and EoT in each health zone separately, but present results by health zone, by coordination, and for the whole country.Results Status quo strategies, CE strategies (WTP = $500), and strategies with a high probability of EoT by 2030 are predicted to yield EoT by 2030 in 118 HZs, 123 HZs, and 134 HZs respectively, at a cost by 2040 of $67.8M [95% PI: $36.7M-113M], $93.3M [95% PI: $51.6M-153M], $185M [95% PI: $111M-309M]. A more lenient timeline of EoT by 2040 would lead to EoT in 152 HZs at a cost of $158M [95% PI: $91.6-265M], leaving 13 HZs shy of the goal. Costs would have to be front-loaded; in 2026, while status quo strategies would cost $8.75M [95% PI: $7.01M-11.2M], elimination strategies would cost $27.0 [95% PI: $21.0M-35.2M]. Investing in EoT by 2030 is predicted to reduce 68% of gHAT deaths from 7979 [95% PI: 770-27,868] with status quo strategies to 2576 [95% PI: 255-9133].Conclusions Current tools could make considerable progress to maximise the probability of EoT by 2030, but novel tools could help in select health zones are facing a low probability of EoT even with more ambitious strategies.
Background:The mosquito's gut microbiota plays a crucial role in determining its capacity to transmit harmful viruses and parasites. Accordingly, manipulating mosquito gut microbiota is a promising avenue towards reducing mosquito-borne human pathogen transmission. A successful microbial control campaign will require a thorough understanding of how bacteria are transmitted through mosquito populations. Through two parallel but complementary studies using the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti as a focal host species, we surveyed vertical transmission of bacteria from individual mothers to cohorts of offspring maintained in a closed system. Results:Laboratory- and field-derived mothers deposited bacteria that support offspring development, and the relative abundance of commonly transmitted taxa correlated with offspring fitness. Maternally transmitted bacteria were detected in both larval and adult offspring, and the relative abundances of specific taxa differed between life stages. Microbiota composition in adult offspring closely resembled microbiota composition in mothers, despite dramatic shifts in the relative abundance of specific microbial community members during the larval stage. Variability in microbiota composition in offspring was also greater than variability across the population of egg-laying mothers. Eggs that underwent a period of desiccation before hatching produced larval communities dominated by endospore-forming bacteria that were rare in maternal samples. Conclusions:Overall, our results demonstrate the vertical transmission of mosquito-associated microbiota across generations, including bacterial taxa that could potentially be leveraged for mosquito and mosquito-borne disease control.
The members of Anopheles gambiae species complex are ubiquitous in Afro-tropics. They have been exposed continuously to insecticides, contributing to evolution of resistance within the complex. This study used whole genome sequence data from phase 3 of the An. gambiae 1000 Genomes Project to investigate the population structure and resistance mechanisms of a newly identified species, An. gambiae Bissau molecular form (Bissau) in The Gambia. Bissau exhibited subtle divergence from sister taxa An. coluzzii (Fixation index (FST) of 0.013) and An. gambiae s.s. (FST of 0.023), suggesting ongoing geneflow among them. It also displayed a low but evident level of sub-clustering correlating with geographical location, contrary to sister taxa whose populations were not spatially structured. Additionally, Bissau displayed a higher number of substitutions, though at very low frequencies, in target site regions (specifically Vgsc and Ace-1) of the genome compared to its sister taxa. The well-established Vgsc-L995F mutation, normally associated with dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) and pyrethroid resistance, was detected in all taxa. Also present, but at a lower frequency (< 20%) was N1570Y allele, normally associated with increased level of pyrethroid resistance when it co-occurs with L995F. Additionally, variants T791M and A1746S were found to occur alongside L995F in Bissau population at an elevated linkage disequilibrium (LD r2 = 0.7). These findings accentuate the critical role this novel species could play on the emergence and spread of insecticide resistance in The Gambia.
