We compared the performance of loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) with that of a multiplex PCR method for differential detection of human Taenia parasites in fecal specimens from taeniasis patients. The LAMP method, with no false positives, showed a higher sensitivity (88.4%) than the multiplex PCR (37.2%). Thus, it is expected that the LAMP method has a high value for molecular diagnosis of taeniasis.Differential detection of Taenia species (Taenia saginata, T. asiatica, and T. solium) is a key point for control and prevention of taeniasis/cysticercosis in areas where Taenia disease is endemic. The identification of the carriers of T. solium tapeworms is most important for the prevention of cysticercosis, the most severe Taenia disease. Diagnosis of taeniasis by stool examination to detect taeniid eggs, the most common method, lacks both sensitivity and specificity because the eggs of Taenia species are morphologically indistinguishable. Moreover, Taenia species identification relying on comparative morphology of proglottids also lacks specificity.The coproantigen detection method has proved to be a useful application in epidemiological surveys (1, 5), but this method is genus specific, not species specific. Recently, a T. solium-specific coproantigen enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has been developed and shown to be potentially useful for mass screening (4). However, this test fails to identify T. saginata and T. asiatica taeniasis patients. Therefore, molecular tools are more reliable for differential identifications of taeniid parasites. Several PCR technique-based detection methods for Taenia species in fecal samples, including the multiplex PCR method with mitochondrial DNA (18), the PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism method with mitochondrial DNA (15, 16), and the nested-PCR method with the Tso31 gene encoding the T. solium oncosphere-specific protein (10), have been reported. We have recently developed a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) method targeting cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) and cathepsin L-like cysteine peptidase (clp) genes for differential detection of Taenia species (13). This method utilizes a Bst DNA polymerase with strand replacement activity and four primers that recognize six sequences on the target DNA under isothermal conditions. This method has proved to be simple and highly sensitive and specific for differential detection of Taenia species by using DNA prepared from proglottids, cysticerci, and fecal samples of taeniasis patients (12) without using sophisticated and expensive equipment. In the present study, we evaluated its sensitivity and specificity with fecal specimens from taeniasis patients by comparison of the results obtained by the LAMP method with those obtained by the multiplex PCR method.Thirty-six fecal samples were collected in China from 26 T. saginata taeniasis patients, 5 T. asiatica taeniasis patients, and 5 T. solium taeniasis patients, and 7 fecal samples from Indonesia were obtained from T. saginata taeniasis p...

Blastocystis spp. is the most common enteric parasitic infection found in several community surveys from developing countries. Blastocystis infections may cause gastrointestinal symptoms, but also cause extraintestinal symptoms such as urticaria and joint pain. Blastocystis infection can also be asymptomatic or a carrier. However, the prevalence of Blastocystis infection in children has not yet been fully investigated in Indonesia, particularly in Bali Province. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of Blastocystis and other intestinal parasites in elementary school children stools in Dukuh village, Karangasem regency. A cross sectional study was conducted in September 2016. A total of 103 school children stools were collected by informed consent and parasites were examined by microscopy with wet mounts method using Lugol’s iodine solution. Thirty-five school children were infected with Blastocystis spp. (35/103, 34%) that consisted of a single infection (29/35, 82.9%) and mix infection with other parasites (6/35, 17.1%). The mix infections were Blastocystis spp. and hookworm infection (1/6, 16.7%), Blastocystis spp. and Entamoeba coli (1/6, 16.7%), Blastocystis spp. and Giardia lamblia (2/6, 33.3%), Blastocystis spp. and Entamoeba histolytica/ Entamoeba dispar (1/6, 16.7%) and Blastocystis spp. and Entamoeba histolytica/ Entamoeba dispar and Giardia lamblia (1/6, 16.7%). The vacuolar forms of Blastocystis were dominantly found, in which was non-infectious form, whereas the infectious form is the cyst form and Blastocystis density was observed less than 5 cells per field of view at 400 magnification in all cases. This study concluded that the high prevalence of Blastocystis infection in elementary school children in Dukuh Village, Karangasem District, Bali that were dominantly single infections and several mix infections with other intestinal parasites. The high prevalence of Blastocystis infection in elementary school children suggested that it needs proper prevention measures for the children in this study area.

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BACKGROUND: Currently, there is no vaccine against malaria in humans, the development of resistance to anti-malarial drugs, causing the need to find new alternatives to overcome malaria infections. This study aimed to determine effect of Spondias pinnata in increasing cellular immunity, especially phagocytosis activity of peritoneal macrophages against Plasmodium berghei infection.METHODS: This was an experimental study with two stages of research, each stage requires 36 Balb/c mice, aged 2 months and weight 20-25 grams. After one week of acclimatization, the mice were put into 6 different groups, each group consisted of 6 mice. The negative control was a group of mice given distilled water for 14 days then infected by P. berghei in the 15th day. Meanwhile, T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 groups were given S. pinnata leaves ethanol extract with dose of 25, 50, 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg body weight (BW)/day, respectively, and then infected by P. berghei in the 15th day.RESULTS: The results showed that the lowest parasitemia and the highest capacity of macrophage to phagocytose latex was found in treatment group T3 that received 50 mg/kg BW of S. pinnata leaves ethanol extract. Based on analysis of the Pearson correlation test, there was a significant correlation between percent phagocytosis and parasitemia (p<0.05).CONCLUSION: Ethanol extract of S. pinnata leaves lower the parasite number of P. berghei in Balb/c mice and increase the capacity of macrophage to phagocytose latex. However, the mechanisms of how S. pinnata leaves extract in activating phagocytosis capacity and reducing parasitemia still need further investigation.KEYWORDS: phagocytosis, Plasmodium berghei, parasite number, Spondias pinnata

Background and Aim: To effectively control dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), it is necessary to assess the risk of vertical virus transmission in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. This study aimed to detect dengue virus (DENV) transovarial transmission in A. aegypti collected from DHF patients' residences in Denpasar, Bali. Materials and Methods: A. aegypti samples were acquired by rearing A. aegypti eggs collected from ovitraps placed in the homes of DHF patients. Ovitraps were installed for 7 days and viewed using a loupe to determine whether there were Aedes spp. eggs present. An immunocytochemical method was utilized with 200 samples, and virus detection was performed using a reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Results: Of the 10 DHF patient houses fitted with ovitraps, four produced positive ovitraps from which larvae developed (house index=40%). Of the 50 ovitraps mounted in the 10 homes, 14 ovitraps were positive and contained A. aegypti eggs (ovitrap index=28%). Of these 14 positive ovitraps containing A. aegypti eggs, 10 ovitraps produced larvae. Immunocytochemical tests were conducted on A. aegypti eggs from the four houses under study. It was found that from the 200 samples collected, 197 samples could be observed, and 11 samples (5.6%) were positive for DENV antigen. RT-PCR examination conducted on mosquitoes reared from the four houses studied obtained a negative virus content result. Conclusion: This study found the presence of DENV antigen to be as high as 5.6%. This means that potential for transovarial transmission exists within DHF patients' homes in Denpasar, Bali. Aedes control strategy in Denpasar should address this finding, in addition to the current approaches which have focused primarily on the elimination of larval breeding habitats and control of adults using insecticidal fogging during outbreaks.

Background: Dengue hemorrhagic fever the spread of which is mediated by Aedesaegypti mosquito that becomes a health problem in Indonesia every year. Some natural and chemical substances had been experimented to combat Aedesaegypti, one of them is detergent solution. This study aims to investigate the effect of several concentrations of detergent to kill Aedesaegypti larvae, and to find out the lethal concentration (LC)50, LC90, and LC95. Method: Randomized posttest only control group design was applied to observe the percentage of Aedesaegypti larvae instar III-IV killed when they contacted to various detergent concentrations within 24 hour of observation. Results: This study result showed that detergent with the concentration of 0.12 g/l; 0.14 g/l; 0.16 g/l; 0.18 g/l; 0.20 g/l; 0.22 g/l and 0.24 g/l respectively showed the killing of Aedesaegypti larvae 37.6%, 42.4%, 74.4%, 85.6%, 89.6%, 95.2% and 100%, respectively. Probit analysis showed that LC50 = 0.14 gram/liter, LC90 = 0.20 g/l and LC95=0.22 g/l.

The success of the anti-helminth mass treatment use Albendazole makes detection of soil transmitted helminth infections even more difficult to do microscopically. It is hoped that the molecular method was able to help increase the detectability of Soil Transmitted Helminth infection. The research aimed is to evaluate effectiveness of Albendazole administration in Bali, to identify the presence of β-tubulin gene as molecular diagnosis of STHs infection among children who treated by Albendazole. This study is a cross-sectional study that recruits elementary school children aged 6-12 years as subjects. Stool examination was carried out using the Kato-Katz technique, then followed by a molecular method using the B-tubulin gene as the target gene. The results showed that only 1 sample out of 140 examined using Kato-Katz was positive for Trichuris trichiura. 30 samples were then extracted from the faeces and performed Polymerase Chain Reaction. A total of 4 positive samples detected the B-tubulin Ascaris lumbricoides gene and 1 positive sample of the B-tubulin Trichuris trichiura gene. In conclusion, albendazole is still effective to treat STH infection, the molecular method has a higher detectability than the microscopic method.

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