Thesis / Dissertations (SEAMEO-TROPMED Projects)

Autoimmunity is the failure of the body's immune system to recognize its own tissues as self and induction of an immune response against them. Any disease that results from such an aberrant immune response is termed an autoimmune disease

In the second edition of Dengue haemorrhagic fever: diagnosis, treatment, prevention and control, the World Health Organization' (WHO), dengue fever (DF) is defined as "an acute viral febrile disease frequently presenting with headaches, bone or joint and muscular pains, rash and leukopenia as symptoms,"while dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) is said to be characterized by four major clinical manifestations: high fever, haemorrhagic phenomena, often with hepatomegaly, and, in severe cases, signs of circulatory failure." Patients with DHF may develop dengue shock syndrome (DSS) which is a hypovolaemic shock due to plasma leakage.

When foreign antigen gains entry into the bod several important changes may by initiated , collectively known as the immune response , which result in the elimination of the alien antigen A remarkable feature of this phenomenon is the ability of the adult mammal to distinguish between its own antigens ( known as self antigen) and those external or foreign origin ( known as non self antigens) This means that as a general rule, antibody is selectively produced in response to foreign substances yet it is not produced to antigens that are recognized as "self

The storage and preservation of mycobacterial reference strains and clinical iso lates is an important part of good laboratory practice in a mycobacteria laboratory. The storage of reference- and control strains facilitates a reliable control on intra- and inter. test reproducibility. Furthermore, to study various aspects of the epidemiology of tuber culosis it is important to be able to study serial isolates of individual patients or of pa tients associated with particular place- or time factors

Opportunistic invasive fungal infections are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised host (patients), In this paper we will primarily discuss a certain group of fungi that result in such infections known as phaeohyphomycosis.