Dataset Information

Co-endemicity of loiasis and onchocerciasis in rain forest communities in southwestern Nigeria.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Loiasis is currently receiving attention as a disease of public health importance because of the possibility of increased risk of developing neurologic serious adverse event following mass ivermectin treatment against onchocerciasis in individual co-infected with Onchocerca volvulus and Loa loa.

Methodology/principal findings

Rapid assessment procedure for loiasis (RAPLOA) was conducted in 12 communities covering the 3 senatorial districts of Osun State, Nigeria. A total of 960 people were interviewed for history of eye worm using the WHO guidelines for rapid assessment. The survey confirmed the presence of loiasis in all the 12 communities with 4 in Osun East/Ife south senatorial district being at high risk with a prevalence of over 40%. Based on the RAPLOA results, communities within Osun East/Ife south senatorial district were selected for microfilaraemic assessment of L. loa and O. volvulus. A total of 1115 and 1091 individuals were screened for L. loa and O. volvulus microfilaria worms respectively. 160 (14.3%) had L. loa microfilaria detected in their blood with 8 (5.0%) individuals having L. loa loads above 8000 mf/ml. 166 (15.2%) subjects had O. volvulus microfilaria (range 4-504 mf/ml) detected in their skin snip. 30 (2.69%) subjects were co-infected with both L. loa and O. volvulus. There was a significant variation in the prevalence (2.1% to 33.3%) of onchocerciasis in the communities studied (p = 0.001). Five (41.7%) of the studied communities had a prevalence that is equal to or greater than 20%.

Conclusions/significance

Low prevalence of onchocerciasis and loiasis co-infection in this study suggests that loiasis may not pose a serious epidemiological threat to the continuous distribution and sustainability of ivermectin for the treatment of onchocerciasis. Evaluation of the interruption of onchocerciasis transmissions in this region using all the indicators set forth by WHO is therefore suggested.

SUBMITTER: Ojurongbe O

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4374772 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Co-endemicity of loiasis and onchocerciasis in rain forest communities in southwestern Nigeria.

Ojurongbe Olusola O Akindele Akeem Abiodun AA Adeleke Monsuru Adebayo MA Oyedeji Matthew Oyebode MO Adedokun Samuel Adeyinka SA Ojo Josephine Folashade JF Akinleye Callistus Adewale CA Bolaji Oloyede Samuel OS Adefioye Olusegun Adelowo OA Adeyeba Oluwaseyi Adegboyega OA

PLoS neglected tropical diseases 20150326 3

<h4>Background</h4>Loiasis is currently receiving attention as a disease of public health importance because of the possibility of increased risk of developing neurologic serious adverse event following mass ivermectin treatment against onchocerciasis in individual co-infected with Onchocerca volvulus and Loa loa.<h4>Methodology/principal findings</h4>Rapid assessment procedure for loiasis (RAPLOA) was conducted in 12 communities covering the 3 senatorial districts of Osun State, Nigeria. A tota ...[more]

PMID: 25812086

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundMalaria and intestinal helminths co-infection are major public health problems particularly among school age children in Nigeria. However the magnitude and possible interactions of these infections remain poorly understood. This study determined the prevalence, impact and possible interaction of Plasmodium falciparum and intestinal helminths co-infection among school children in rural communities of Kwara State, Nigeria.MethodsBlood, urine and stool samples were collected from 1017 primary school pupils of ages 4-15 years. Stool samples were processed using both Kato-Katz and formol-ether concentration techniques and microscopically examined for intestinal helminths infection. Urine samples were analyzed using sedimentation method for Schistosoma haematobium. Plasmodium falciparum was confirmed by microscopy using thick and thin blood films methods and packed cell volume (PCV) was determined using hematocrit reader. Univariate analysis and chi-square statistical tests were used to analyze the data.ResultsOverall, 61.2% of all school children had at least an infection of either P. falciparum, S. haematobium, or intestinal helminth. S. haematobium accounted for the largest proportion (44.4%) of a single infection followed by P. falciparum (20.6%). The prevalence of malaria and helminth co-infection in the study was 14.4%. Four species of intestinal helminths were recovered from the stool samples and these were hookworm (22.5%), Hymenolepis species (9.8%), Schistosoma mansoni (2.9%) and Enterobius vermicularis (0.6%). The mean densities of P. falciparum in children co-infected with S. haematobium and hookworm were higher compared to those infected with P. falciparum only though not statistically significant (p = 0.062). The age distribution of both S. haematobium (p = 0.049) and hookworm (p = 0.034) infected children were statistically significant with the older age group (10-15 years) recording the highest prevalence of 47.2% and 25% respectively. Children who were infected with S. haematobium (RR = 1.3) and hookworm (RR = 1.4) have equal chances of being infected with P. falciparum as children with no worm infection. On the other hand children infected with Hymenolepis spp. (p<0.0001) are more likely to be infected with P. falciparum than Hymenolepis spp. uninfected children (RR = 2.0).ConclusionsThese findings suggest that multiple parasitic infections are common in school age children in rural communities of Kwara State Nigeria. The Hymenolepis spp. induced increase susceptibility to P. falciparum could have important consequences on how concurrent infections affect the expression or pathogenesis of these infections.

Project description:BACKGROUND: Planktonic bacteria are recognized as important drivers of biogeochemical processes in all aquatic ecosystems, however, the taxa that make up these communities are poorly known. The aim of this study was to investigate bacterial communities in aquatic ecosystems at Ilha Grande, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a preserved insular environment of the Atlantic rain forest and how they correlate with a salinity gradient going from terrestrial aquatic habitats to the coastal Atlantic Ocean. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We analyzed chemical and microbiological parameters of water samples and constructed 16S rRNA gene libraries of free living bacteria obtained at three marine (two coastal and one offshore) and three freshwater (water spring, river, and mangrove) environments. A total of 836 sequences were analyzed by MOTHUR, yielding 269 freshwater and 219 marine operational taxonomic units (OTUs) grouped at 97% stringency. Richness and diversity indexes indicated that freshwater environments were the most diverse, especially the water spring. The main bacterial group in freshwater environments was Betaproteobacteria (43.5%), whereas Cyanobacteria (30.5%), Alphaproteobacteria (25.5%), and Gammaproteobacteria (26.3%) dominated the marine ones. Venn diagram showed no overlap between marine and freshwater OTUs at 97% stringency. LIBSHUFF statistics and PCA analysis revealed marked differences between the freshwater and marine libraries suggesting the importance of salinity as a driver of community composition in this habitat. The phylogenetic analysis of marine and freshwater libraries showed that the differences in community composition are consistent. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our data supports the notion that a divergent evolutionary scenario is driving community composition in the studied habitats. This work also improves the comprehension of microbial community dynamics in tropical waters and how they are structured in relation to physicochemical parameters. Furthermore, this paper reveals for the first time the pristine bacterioplankton communities in a tropical island at the South Atlantic Ocean.

Project description:Biodiversity assessment of tropical taxa is hampered by their tremendous richness, which leads to large numbers of singletons and incomplete inventories in survey studies. Species estimators can be used for assessment of alpha diversity, but calculation of beta diversity is hampered by pseudo-turnover of species in undersampled plots. To assess the impact of unseen species, we investigated different methods, including an unbiased estimator of Shannon beta diversity that was compared to biased calculations. We studied alpha and beta diversity of a diverse ground ant assemblage from the Southeast Asian island of Borneo in different types of tropical forest: diperocarp forest, alluvial forest, limestone forest and heath forests. Forests varied in plant composition, geology, flooding regimes and other environmental parameters. We tested whether forest types differed in species composition and if species turnover was a function of the distance between plots at different spatial scales. As pseudo-turnover may bias beta diversity we hypothesized a large effect of unseen species reducing beta diversity. We sampled 206 ant species (25% singletons) from ten subfamilies and 55 genera. Diversity partitioning among the four forest types revealed that whereas alpha species richness and alpha Shannon diversity were significantly smaller than expected, beta-diversity for both measurements was significantly higher than expected by chance. This result was confirmed when we used the unbiased estimation of Shannon diversity: while alpha diversity was much higher, beta diversity differed only slightly from biased calculations. Beta diversity as measured with the Chao-Sørensen or Morisita-Horn Index correlated with distance between transects and between sample points, indicating a distance decay of similarity between communities. We conclude that habitat heterogeneity has a high influence on ant diversity and species turnover in tropical sites and that unseen species may have only little impact on calculation of Shannon beta diversity when sampling effort has been high.

Project description:Although indigenous forest management practices have been used effectively by local people in the management and conservation of forest resources, these practices are eroding, causing negative consequences on the welfare of the people and their forests. To stem the erosion of the indigenous practices and instead stimulate, preserve, or improve their use, this study determines the socioeconomic factors that drive the household's use of the practices in the management and conservation of plant species of non-wood forest products (NWFPs). The study was carried out in Nigeria derived savannah. Data was collected from 200 randomly selected households in 10 randomly selected forest communities. Multivariate probit model was used to estimate the socioeconomic factors that influence the simultaneous use of indigenous forest management practices by households. Given multiple use of the practices, the result shows that the indigenous forest management practices used by the households are selective weeding (82.98%), controlled harvesting (82.45%), enrichment planting (75.53%), fire breaks (76.06%) and indigenous protective mechanism (45.74%). The majority (71.28%) of the respondents said they managed bush mango (Irvingia gabonensis and wombulu) using the practices, while the lowest proportion (21.28%) managed bush buck (Gongronema latifolium). The result of the multivariate probit model shows that virtually all the indigenous forest management practices are positively and significantly associated and are thus, complements. However, local protective mechanisms and controlled harvesting, local protective mechanisms and selective weeding, and local protective mechanisms and enrichment planting are not significantly associated. Farming occupation significantly increases the likelihood of simultaneous use of controlled harvesting, enrichment planting, and fire breaks as indigenous forest management practices in the management and conservation of NWFP. On the other hand, age significantly reduces the likelihood of the use of controlled harvesting and selective weeding. The study recommends the provision of support for young people who are more likely to be involved in the indigenous forest management practices; support to farmers who simultaneously use the practices, for example, through the provision of credit facilities; and a proper definition of user rights in community forests.

Dataset Information

Co-endemicity of loiasis and onchocerciasis in rain forest communities in southwestern Nigeria.

Background

Methodology/principal findings

Conclusions/significance

Publications

Co-endemicity of loiasis and onchocerciasis in rain forest communities in southwestern Nigeria.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure