Infection with the larval stage of Taenia solium, the pork tapeworm, is one of the leading causes of acquired epilepsy in endemic countries. T. solium is a parasitic worm of medical and veterinary importance, a food-borne zoonosis that requires cross-sector coordination to control and manage infections and transmission.
When assessing the worldwide impact of parasitic diseases, schistosomiasis is second only to malaria. In fact, in 2021, large-scale (preventive) schistosomiasis treatment in countries with moderate to high transmission was required for at least 250 million people. However, this disease affects both humans and animals. Its causative blood flukes have a remarkable ability to diverge and adapt, consequently posing numerous challenges to control efforts. A reframing of this public health problem and the corresponding measures to tackle it, is therefore needed.
Poverty, inequality, and vector-borne disease feed into one another. How do we break the loop?
Krisztian Magori summarizes the story of the largest contiguous area release of Wolbachia-infected Aedes mosquitoes and its impact on dengue in three cities in Colombia, based on a pair of publications by the World Mosquito Program published recently in PLOS NTD, in six acts.
The bacteria that causes plague may be able to transmit in ways previously unknown for us. For the first time, Anderson and co-authors have released a pre-print suggesting that the infected flea can pass the bacteria into new generations, likely due to direct infection of the reproductive organs.