Babesiosis is a tick-borne hemoprotozoan disease of domestic and wild animals. The disease is caused by various species of Babesia and some species of Babesia have also zoonotic significance. The parasite in vertebrate hosts' remains in erythrocytes and the morphology of Babesia spp. is not uniform in all vertebrate hosts. With the advancement of science, particularly the use of molecular techniques made it easy to study the evolution of parasites and thereby reclassifying Babesia spp. as per their phylogeny and to establish the relation of one isolate of Babesia spp. with isolates throughout the world. An attempt also made in this communication to enlighten the readers regarding relationship of one isolate of Babesia spp. of a particular area to another isolate of Babesia spp. of that area or other parts of the world and phylogenetic classification of Babesia spp. was also discussed. It has been concluded that as the study on Babesia is complex in nature so monitoring of the infection with the use of modern techniques is very much needed to control the infection. Second, more research work on phylogenetic relationship of Babesia spp. isolated from different hosts is needed, particularly in India to know the evolution of Babesia spp. of a particular area, as it has great importance to study the trans boundary diseases of animals.

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Babesiosis is a protozoan parasitic infection affecting humans and animals. These infections are commonly transmitted by various species of Ixodes ticks depending upon the geographical location. They can also be transmitted by packed cell transfusion and transplacental route from mother to child. Various species have been reported to cause human infections, of which Babesia microti is the most common species reported globally. Usually, Babesia infections are asymptomatic or mild, but can be severe/life-threatening in immunosuppressed or splenectomized individuals. A high index of clinical suspicion in residents of endemic areas or individuals who had a recent travel history to such areas, with laboratory confirmation can guide an early institution of appropriate antimicrobial therapy, thereby preventing complications and death.

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"Microethics" is an avant-garde in the field of ethics. When the term "ethics" is brought into discussion in medical education or clinical practice, it customarily points to the traditional ethics, that is, biomedical ethics that deals with the ethical issues faced during unaccustomed or rare clinical circumstances. In contrast, microethics is a continuous ethical science existing in the physician-patient interaction that happens each day in every physician's clinical liaison. These ethical issues of everyday importance need to be introduced in the ethics training programs of medical institutions to provide insight and thereby promoting improvement in medical care and outcome.

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Context: Microsporidia, which causes chronic diarrhoea in immunocompromised hosts, are often missed. The commonest diagnostic techniques include modified trichrome (MT) stain; however, it requires expertise and does not identify the species, which is important therapeutically. Other diagnostic techniques include Calcoflour white staining and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Data on comparative utility of different diagnostic techniques are scanty. Aim: Comparison of Calcoflour white, MT staining and PCR for the diagnosis of intestinal microsporidiosis. Subjects and Methods: Fecal samples of consecutive immunocompromised patients were evaluated for Microsporidia using Calcoflour white, MT stain and PCR. Species were identified by restriction fragment length polymorphism using HindIII and HinfI. Presence of Microsporidia by two or more techniques was considered true positive. Absence of Microsporidia by all three techniques was taken as true negative. Results: Of 730 patients, Microsporidia was detected in 28 (3.8%), 250 (34.2%) and 30 (4.1%) patients by MT, Calcoflour white stains and PCR, respectively. Enterocytozoon bieneusi was identified in all 30 (4.1%) patients. 30 (4.1%) and 479 (65.6%) patients were true positive and true negative, respectively. Sensitivity and specificity of Calcoflour white, MT stains and PCR were 100%, 93.8%, 96.8% and 68.5%, 100% and 99.8%, respectively. Diagnostic accuracy of MT stain and PCR was superior to Calcoflour white (99.6% vs. 69.8%; P < 0.05). Conclusions: Though Calcoflour white stain is a highly sensitive, but it is nonspecific technique. MT stain and PCR with high sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy are useful diagnostic techniques. Furthermore, PCR is useful for species identification, which has therapeutic implications.

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Background: With few exceptions, members of the Leishmania donovani complex such as L. donovani, L. infantum and L. chagashi are the etiological agents of visceral leishmaniasis or kala-azar. Promastigotes of Leishmania spp. lose their Pathogenicity; the ability to establish infection in a susceptible host, after prolonged culture. The molecular basis of this evolution of pathogenic to nonpathogenic culture has not been very well understood. It has been proposed that the loss of pathogenicity is associated with the gradual disappearance of selective parasite proteins. An alternative hypothesis is that during prolonged culture, the pathogenic clonal population of the parasite is deleted from the mixed population due to their selection pressure. This clonal deletion is proposed to be responsible for the emergence of the nonpathogenic population. Study Methodology and Results: We have a done a series of two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis followed by western blot experiments to study the antigenic profile of few L. donovani isolates of Indian origin. We observed a gradual and significant downregulation of expression of a group of low molecular weight proteins (LMW, molecular weight 20-30 kDa) which are associated with loss of pathogenicity. These proteins are recognized only by antiserum raised against the whole cell extract of one of the pathogenic Indian L.donovani isolates, Ag83, and remained undetected by antiserum raised against the nonpathogenic AG83 isolates. These LMW proteins were also present in the nonpathogenic extract in very low levels and remained undetected by the virulent serum, indicating a phenomenon of simultaneous downregulation of the expression and altered immunogenicity. LMW proteins were universally expressed in all early passage Indian isolate we tested and also detected in two clones obtained from pathogenic parasite culture. The antigenic patterns of none of the eight clones obtained from nonpathogenic culture were not exactly similar with the pathogenic clones. Conclusion: Therefore, our data strongly support the hypothesis that the loss of pathogenicity of L. donovani is associated with a change in antigenic profile, but not due the selective deletion of pathogenic clones.

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A 22-year-old male presented with 6 days history of intermittent fever with chills, 2 days history of upper abdomen pain, distension of abdomen, and decreased urine output. He was diagnosed to have Plasmodium vivax malaria, acute pancreatitis, ascites, and acute renal failure. These constellations of complications in P. vivax infection have never been reported in the past. The patient responded to intravenous chloroquine and supportive treatment. For renal failure, he required hemodialysis. Acute pancreatitis, ascites, and acute renal failure form an unusual combination in P. vivax infection.

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We are reporting a case of hemolytic uremic syndrome, a rare manifestation of Plasmodium vivax malaria. A young driver was admitted with acute febrile illness, decreased urine output, anemia, thrombocytopenia, jaundice, and increased serum lactate dehydrogenase. He showed a partial response to antimalarial drugs. However, he was readmitted with worsening renal parameters. His kidney biopsy revealed chronic thrombotic microangiopathy. He remained dialysis dependent and later underwent renal transplantation successfully, with excellent graft function at 1-year.

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Enterobius vermicularis is a common parasitic infection of the intestine which is rarely symptomatic. It is unusual to find it in the wall or outside the gastrointestinal tract. We encountered five such cases where we observed the worm outside the lumen of the intestine. The pathological findings and the clinical features are discussed. This case series highlight that E. vermicularis can be the cause of pathology within the abdomen and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of some commonly encountered abdominal conditions.

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Hydatidosis or cystic echinococcosis is a zoonosis caused by the larval stage of the cestode Echinococcus. Even though different measures are taken including the use of a vaccine in livestock to stop transmission, the continuous diagnoses of cases, mainly of liver and pulmonary hydatidosis, show the failure of the control programs for hydatidosis in our country. A clinical case of pulmonary hydatidosis in a patient from a rural endemic area in Southern Argentina is described.

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Malaria, the most important of the parasitic diseases of humans, is transmitted in 108 countries containing 3 billion people and causes nearly 1 million deaths each year. With the re-emergence of malaria various life-threatening complications of malaria have been observed. Unarousable coma/cerebral malaria, severe normochromic, normocytic anemia, renal failure, pulmonary edema/adult respiratory distress syndrome, hypoglycemia, hypotension/shock, bleeding/disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), hemoglobinuria and jaundice are few of the common complications of severe malaria. Symmetrical peripheral gangrene (SPG) has been reported as a rare complication of malaria. We report a rare and unique case of Plasmodium falciparum malaria complicated by DIC, severe normocytic normochromic anemia, and SPG.

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