Johannes Blum

..However, new molecular diagnostic technologies are under development. A promising new drug combination is currently evaluated in a phase 3 b study and further new drugs are under evaluation...

..However, a transitory adrenal insufficiency was suspected in 8% of HAT patients at admission and in 9% at discharge. All values were normal at follow-up 3 months later...

..Anthelminthic treatment may induce a host reaction with inflammation and deterioration of the clinical picture and has to be performed cautiously and under protection with corticosteroids...

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..We performed serologic tests because the patient was worried about HAT after receiving tsetse bites. The possibilities of an infection with human 'apathogenic' trypanosomes such as T. b. brucei, T. congolense or T. vivax are discussed...

..HAT cardiopathy in general is benign and does not cause relevant congestive heart failure and subsides with treatment. We review the differences between the American and African trypanosomiasis with the main focus on the heart...

..An overview of published treatment options and a treatment recommendation is given for each of the most important species. The level of evidence of the studies leading to these recommendations is given...

..Statistical analysis yielded no significant differences for adverse events between the two treatment protocols. The new schedule reduces the amount and cost for the drug by about one third, and those for hospitalisation by about half...

..4-61.2%). Fever is most frequently reported in children between 2 and 14 years of age (26.1-28.7%) and malnutrition is significantly more frequently observed in children of all ages (43-56%) than in adults (23.5%)...

..Assessment of the safety and efficacy of a 10-day melarsoprol schedule in second stage T.b. rhodesiense patients and the effect of suramin-pretreatment on the incidence of encephalopathic syndrome (ES) during melarsoprol therapy...

..WHO has stated that if national control programmes, international organisations, research institutes, and philanthropic partners engage in concerted action, elimination of this disease might even be possible...

..Documentation of its safety profile in field conditions will support its wider use...

..Despite these problems, melarsoprol is likely to remain the drug of choice for the next decade. We therefore did a randomised trial comparing the standard treatment schedule with a new, concise regimen...

..5), headache (RR 2.5), bullous eruptions (RR 4.5) and systolic hypotension (RR 2.6) were associated with an increased risk for the occurrence of encephalopathic syndromes especially of the coma type...

..Elimination of the disease is considered feasible provided better tools for diagnosis and treatment can be made available...

..The diagnosis of HAT in Africans living outside the endemic region is often missed or delayed, leading to presentation with advanced stages of the disease...

..Leprosy is still an important and debilitating disease with a broad clinical spectrum. However, this disease occurs most often endemically, and as an imported disease it can also still be recognized in the nonendemic industrialized world...

..While most surveys on travel health knowledge, attitudes, and practices focus on malaria and vaccine-preventable diseases, noninfectious travel risks were included in this study...

..Mefloquine, doxycycline, chloroquine plus proguanil, and presumably soon also atovaquone plus proguanil are available in Switzerland for chemoprophylaxis...

..This review presents the most important parasitic causes of urticaria and provides relevant details regarding personal history, clinical presentation, diagnosis and therapy...

..Although only used in a small number of patients thus far, liposomal amphotericin B shows promising results. Further studies are needed to find efficacious and better-tolerated drugs for new world leishmaniasis...

..The ability to properly diagnose and manage these complications is important. Spleen-conserving procedures should be the standard whenever possible especially in patients with a high likelihood of future exposure to malaria...