Air & Water Borne Diseases
Open Access

Review Article

Molecular Diagnosis of Vector-Borne Parasitic Diseases

¹Carolina Hernández, Red Chagas Colombia, Group of Parasitology, National Institute of Health, Bogota, Colombia

²Juan David Ramírez, Red Chagas Colombia, Group of Parasitology, National Institute of Health, Bogota, Colombia

*Corresponding Author:

Juan David Ramírez
Red Chagas Colombia, Group of Parasitology
National Institute of Health, Bogota, Colombia
E-mail: jdramirez85@gmail.com

Received Date: June 21, 2013; Accepted Date: July 24, 2013; Published Date: July 26, 2013

Citation: Hernández C, Ramírez JD (2013) Molecular Diagnosis of Vector- Borne Parasitic Diseases. Air Water Borne Diseases 2:110. doi:10.4172/2167-7719.1000110

Copyright: © 2013 Hernández C, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Vector-borne diseases still represent a serious problem in public health despite of the efforts of the surveillance and public health systems to mitigate these pathologies. Among these infections, those diseases caused by parasitic protozoa such as Chagas disease, malaria, leishmaniasis and African trypanosomiasis still represent serious issues in public health. These diseases are also named as neglected diseases affecting vulnerable populations around the world. One of the main goals in the basic research of these diseases is the deployment of accurate, reliable and feasible methods for the diagnosis of the etiological agents. Due to the rise of DNA technologies, several researchers have been able to develop rapid methods for the molecular diagnosis of vector-borne parasitic diseases. Herein we conducted a systematic review about the old-fashioned and current methodologies for the diagnosis of Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, sleeping sickness and malaria with special emphasis on molecular diagnosis to update the reader about their availability and feasibility. One of the purposes of this review is to encourage the researchers to deploy new methodologies that can be easily applied in endemic countries with no sophisticated methodology. This is imperative since an early diagnosis will enhance an early, rapid and appropriate treatment for populations that suffer these complex diseases.

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