Background: In developed countries, giardiasis is considered a travel related disease. However, routine surveillance data from Germany indicate that >50% of infections were acquired indigenously. We studied the epidemiological ...

Background: Corynebacterium diphtheriae, the causative agent of diphtheria, is well-investigated in respect to toxin production, while little is known about C. diphtheriae factors crucial for colonization of the host. In ...

Background: For years the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has been annually pooling and reviewing the data from the German population-based cancer registries and evaluating them together with the cause-of-death statistics ...

Foamy viruses are frequently found in non-human primates and apes in captivity. However, data on simian foamy virus (SFV) infection in apes from the wild are limited. Necropsy specimens were collected from 14 West African ...

„Gefährliches Hantavirus – Die Seuche kommt mit dem Wind“ titelte der Spiegel in seiner Ausgabe vom 25. August 2008 und skizzierte diverse Szenarien dieser Erkrankung, die im Jahr 2007 in Deutschland sprunghaft ...

Background: In March of 2003, an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) occurred in Northern Vietnam. This outbreak began when a traveler arriving from Hong Kong sought medical care at a small hospital (Hospital ...

Background: Homozygosity (Δ32/Δ32) for the 32 bp deletion in the chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) gene is associated with strong resistance against HIV infection. Heterozygosity is associated with protection of HIV-1 disease ...

Pharmazeutische Maßnahmen wie die Impfung und die antivirale Prophylaxe sind nur 2 Bausteine zum Infektionsschutz der Bevölkerung. Ein dritter, entscheidender Baustein sind einfache, nicht-pharmazeutische Maßnahmen wie die ...

Background: Hepatitis E is an increasingly diagnosed human disease in Central Europe. Besides domestic pigs, in which hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection is highly prevalent, wild boars have been identified as a possible ...