Browsing by Autor "Taryn Clark"

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Antimicrobial Resistance in Hospital-acquired Bloodstream Infections among Children in a Pediatric Hospital in Bolivia
(Medknow, 2025) Diana Rodríguez; Shirley Equilia; Cristian Roca; Erica Ludi; Graciela Espada; Z Garcia; Blanca Machuca; Taryn Clark; Robert H. Gilman
In the present study, we report that isolated bacteria showed significant resistance to multiple drugs, and most demonstrated increased resistance over time. Worryingly, <i>K</i>. <i>pneumoniae</i> showed an increasing resistance to commonly used antibiotics. Overall, despite the limitations, our study, which is one of the first of its kind in Bolivia, demonstrates the need for stricter policies of antibiotic stewardship in similar settings due to the global threat of AMR.
Building Public Health Capacity through a Sustainable South–South–North Training Program
(American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2020) Taryn Clark; Manuela Verástegui; Freddy Tinajeros; Maritza Calderón; Rony Colanzi; Robert H. Gilman
Capacity building in public health is an urgent global priority. Recently, there has been an increasing emphasis on South-South and triangular cooperation. We describe our experience with a public health training collaboration between Peru and Bolivia, with Peru providing capacity building and expertise to Bolivia, while receiving supportive funding and training from the United States. This collaboration has led to a groundswell of research on clinically significant diseases, outreach to more than 800 scientists, several dozen publications, and the start of four institutional review boards. South-South and South-South-North collaborations should publish their experiences, and Northern funding organizations should consider funding such collaborations.
HIV and Chagas Disease: An Evaluation of the Use of Real-Time Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction to Measure Levels of Trypanosoma cruzi Parasitemia in HIV Patients in Cochabamba, Bolivia
(American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2021) Melissa Reimer-McAtee; Carolina Mejía; Taryn Clark; Jules Terle; Mónica J. Pajuelo; Jeanne Cabeza; Meredith H Lora; Edward Valencia; Rosario Castro; Daniel Lozano
This cross-sectional study evaluated epidemiologic characteristics of persons living with HIV (PWH) coinfected with Trypanosoma cruzi in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and estimated T. cruzi parasitemia by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) in patients with and without evidence of reactivation by direct microscopy. Thirty-two of the 116 HIV patients evaluated had positive serology for T. cruzi indicative of chronic Chagas disease (27.6%). Sixteen of the 32 (50%) patients with positive serology were positive by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), and four of the 32 (12.5%) were positive by direct microscopy. The median parasite load by qPCR in those with CD4+ < 200 was 168 parasites/mL (73-9951) compared with 28.5 parasites/mL (15-1,528) in those with CD4+ ≥ 200 (P = 0.89). There was a significant inverse relationship between the degree of parasitemia estimated by qPCR from blood clot and CD4+ count on the logarithmic scale (rsBC= -0.70, P = 0.007). The correlation between T. cruzi estimated by qPCR+ blood clot and HIV viral load was statistically significant with rsBC = 0.61, P = 0.047. Given the significant mortality of PWH and Chagas reactivation and that 57% of our patients with CD4+ counts < 200 cells/mm3 showed evidence of reactivation, we propose that screening for chronic Chagas disease be considered in PWH in regions endemic for Chagas disease and in the immigrant populations in nonendemic regions. Additionally, our study showed that PWH with advancing immunosuppression have higher levels of estimated parasitemia measured by qPCR and suggests a role for active surveillance for Chagas reactivation with consideration of treatment with antitrypanosomal therapy until immune reconstitution can be achieved.