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UANL Studies Two Tropical Diseases

Date: (17/11/2009)

Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas

Leishmaniasis and Chagas disease, more frequent in the country’s southeast, are being investigated in the School of Biological Sciences´ Medical Entomology Laboratory.

Field work in Doctor Coss, Nuevo Leon. Light traps for the leishmaniasis-transmitter mosquitoes capture chek-up.

By Mayra Silva Almanza

There are diseases that generally appear in certain regions, which could make people think these will not show up elsewhere. But the risk actually exists, and both the doctors and the population must be aware of it.

Doctor Eduardo A. Rebollar Tellez — at the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon’s (UANL) School of Biological Sciences’ Medical Entomology Laboratory — has devoted himself to the study of two essentially tropical diseases: Leishmaniasis and the Chagas disease.

Both exist in the country. Tabasco, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Chiapas, and Yucatan, are the states with the most reported cases, and as a result, where the investigation mainly takes place.

Doctor Eduardo A. Rebollar Tellez has specialized, since his Master’s and doctorate’s thesis, particularly in mosquitoes — Leishmaniasis´s transmitters Leishmaniasis — and more recently in bugs — transmitters of the Chagas disease.

Thanks to the work that has been carried out in the Yucatan, Campeche, and Quintana Roo, there are already statistics and the diseases´ panorama of such states.

Currently, an arduous study is getting started in the Soconusco coffee plantation area in Chiapas, and in the Tabasco’s Chontalpa area where the cacao crops are plentiful. This, without losing sight of the new areas to be studied such as the Mexico’s northeast.

In order to achieve this, several institutions have teamed up together — the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, through the Biology Institute and the School of Medicine; the University of Guadalajara in Autlan; the Juarez Autonomous University of Tabasco; the National Public Health Institute, and the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, through the Medical Entomology laboratory — which being aware of the problematic, focus on the diseases´ clinical, molecular, as well as entomological, mastozoology, and cultural aspects.

“We are all participating in the same subject matter, but each one is working with what is closer to their geographical area. This multi- and inter-disciplinary project is entitled: “Complex ecological networks: applications to the emerging diseases and biodiversity” of which Doctor Christopher Stephens — from the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s Nuclear Sciences Institute — is in charge of. Besides, the whole investigation group is partaking in the integration of the National Council for Science and Technology’s thematic networks.

“We focus in a field where no one had worked before. The bad thing is that the Ministry of Health does not recognize the diseases´ seriousness, which means no early diagnosis, follow-up, or medicines — the doctors that go to communities do not even know of them.”

“These diseases belong to the rural areas and the foreseen risk is that if we keep altering the environment, these will reach the cities as it has happened in Rio de Janeiro with the leishmaniasis in Brazil. The problem is that we do not have immunity that protects us,” commented Doctor Rebollar.

The only city in Mexico of which there are wide-ranging statistics about the leishmaniasis´ transmission risk is Chetumal. The flies and other insects presence was studied, which showed a large number of infected transmitters with the parasite. There has not been much control and prevention since then, leading Quintana Roo to become one of the states with higher Leishmaniasis and Chagas disease.

We invite you to keep reading the secong part: Chagas Illness and Leishmaniasis, Disabling Illnesses

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