Neurocysticercosis (NCC), which is caused by accidental ingestion of eggs of the pork tapeworm, Taenia solium, was common in Bali, Indonesia until the early 1990s. However, improved education on hygiene and sanitation, a move to keeping pigs indoors, and improvement of economic and living conditions have substantially reduced the occurrence of NCC in Bali. Since 2011, T. solium tapeworm carriers (T. solium taeniasis) and heavily infected pigs and dogs have exclusively been detected from villages in mountainous regions of northeastern Bali where NCC and ocular cysticercosis (OCC) cases have also been identified. In response to this continued area of high infection, a one-day workshop was convened to discuss how to prevent and control this potentially lethal zoonotic parasitic infection in Bali. This review presents an overview of the current status of T. solium taeniasis and cysticercosis in Indonesia and proposes a strategy for the prevention and control of this zoonosis in Bali.
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.
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
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