Ancient horizontal transfers of retrotransposons between birds and ancestors of human pathogenic nematodes.

Parasite host switches may trigger disease emergence, but prehistoric host ranges are often unknowable. Lymphatic filariasis and loiasis are major human diseases caused by the insect-borne filarial nematodes Brugia, Wuchereria and Loa. Here we show that the genomes of these nematodes and seven tropical bird lineages exclusively share a novel retrotransposon, AviRTE, resulting from horizontal transfer (HT). AviRTE subfamilies exhibit 83-99% nucleotide identity between genomes, and their phylogenetic distribution, paleobiogeography and invasion times suggest that HTs involved filarial nematodes. The HTs between bird and nematode genomes took place in two pantropical waves, >25-22 million years ago (Myr ago) involving the Brugia/Wuchereria lineage and >20-17 Myr ago involving the Loa lineage. Contrary to the expectation from the mammal-dominated host range of filarial nematodes, we hypothesize that these major human pathogens may have independently evolved from bird endoparasites that formerly infected the global breadth of avian biodiversity.

A historical note on an imported case of loiasis in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1964.

Loiasis is a filarial disease transmitted by the Chrysops spp. tabanid flies in West and Central Africa. It is most commonly diagnosed by the clinical manifestations of Calabar swellings (transient localized inflammatory edema) or, most dramatically, by the appearance of a migrating worm through the conjunctival tissues or the bridge of the nose. We report the case of a 35-year-old resident in the city of Rio de Janeiro who displayed a moving Loa loa in the bulbar conjunctival tissue two years after returning from a six-month trip to Uganda. Surgical removal of the worm was performed.

A historical note on an imported case of loiasis in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1964 / Nota histórica sobre caso importado de loíase no Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 1964

Loiasis is a filarial disease transmitted by the Chrysops spp. tabanid flies in West and Central Africa. It is most commonly diagnosed by the clinical manifestations of Calabar swellings (transient localized inflammatory edema) or, most dramatically, by the appearance of a migrating worm through the conjunctival tissues or the bridge of the nose. We report the case of a 35-year-old resident in the city of Rio de Janeiro who displayed a moving Loa loa in the bulbar conjunctival tissue two years after returning from a six-month trip to Uganda. Surgical removal of the worm was performed.

A loaíase é uma filaríase transmitida por tabanídeos (mutucas) do gênero Chrysops na África central e ocidental, comumente diagnosticada pela apresentação clínica de edema de Calabar (edema inflamatório transitório e localizado) ou, mais dramaticamente, pela migração de um verme adulto pelo tecido conjuntival ou asa do nariz. Descrevemos o caso clínico de um paciente do sexo masculino, 35 anos, residente no Rio de Janeiro, que se apresentou com um verme adulto de Loa loa migrando sobre o tecido conjuntival bulbar dois anos após retornar de uma viagem de seis meses de duração a Uganda. Procedeu-se a remoção cirúrgica do verme.

[Discovery of Loa ophthalmia by the French ship's surgeon François Guyot (1742-1816)]. / Die Entdeckung der Loa-Ophthalmie durch den französischen Schiffschirurgen François Guyot (1742-1816).

We are indebted to François Guyot (4. 10. 1742-13. 6. 1816) for the term "loa," designating a species of filaria, pathogenic in humans, which is common tropical West Africa. Biographical details about this French ship's surgeon are published here for the first time. On several slave-trading voyages between Africa and America, Guyot noticed that some of the negroes suffered from recurrent ophthalmia. He established that it was caused by a worm roaming around under the conjunctiva, and succeeded in extracting the parasite. In 26 May 1781 Guyot submitted a report on his findings to the "Académie Royale de Chirurgie" in Paris. This article discusses details of the report, which was hitherto believed lost.

Historical note on Loa loa: a reinterpretation.

Loa loa, also known as the African eye worm, is a common parasite in the central part of West Africa. As Chrysops silacea and C. dimidiata, the only important vectors of loaiasis, are found exclusively in the tropical rain forests of West Africa, the parasite's transmission is confined to this region. References by early writers to the extraction of Loa loa from the eye of a man on the Island of Ormus (today known as Hormuz or Hormus) in the Persian Gulf apparently were based on a misinterpretation of an illustration by de Bry (1595) of the blinding of a royal relative.

[The first description of Loa-loa infestation of the eye by Pigafetta a historical error (author's transl)]. / Die Erstbeschreibung der Augen-Loa-Erkrankung durch Pigafetta (1598) - ein historischer Irrtum

Contrary to common theory (Belding 1965), there is no reference to the African Eyeworm in Pigafetta's work. Philipp Pigafetta (1533-1603) translated the oral Africa report of the Portuguese Eduart Lopez into the Italian language. The de Bry Brothers published in 1597 the German version of this travel report, and in 1598 the Latin version followed.