This study aimed to analyse the patterns of diversity, blood sources and Leishmania species of phlebotomines in a focus of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Arboledas, Eastern Colombia. In total, 1729 phlebotomines were captured in two localities (62.3% Siravita and 37.7% Cinera) and five environments of Norte de Santander. We identified 18 species of phlebotomines: Pintomyia ovallesi (29.8%), Psychodopygus davisi (20.3%), Pi. spinicrassa (18.5%) and Lutzomyia gomezi (15.8%) showed the highest abundance. Species diversities were compared between Cinera (15.00) and Siravita (20.00) and among five microenvironments: forest remnants (19.49), coffee plantations (12.5), grassland (12.99), cane plantations (11.66) and citrus plantations (12.22). Leishmania DNA was detected in 5.8% (80/1380) of females, corresponding mainly to Pi . ovallesi (22/80; 27.2%), Lu . gomezi (17/80; 21.3%) and Pi . spinicrassa (11/80; 13.8%). Leishmania species were 63.1% L. braziliensis , 18.5% L . panamensis , 13.2% L . infantum and 6.1% L . amazonensis . The most frequent feeding sources were Homo sapiens (50%), Bos taurus (13.8%) and Canis lupus familiaris (10.3%). This focus of cutaneous leishmaniasis has a high diversity of Leishmania -carrying phlebotomines that feed on domestic animals. The transmission of leishmaniasis to human hosts was mainly associated with Lu . gomezi , Pi . ovallesi and L . braziliensis .

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Leishmaniasis is an infectious disease that belongs to the top 10 neglected tropical diseases. It mainly affects the poor population from tropical and subtropical areas of the World, which lacks sufficient resources and means to fight against this disease. With this in mind, the European Commission has funded an international collaborative research project in which are participating various institutions from South America, North Africa and Europe. The main objective of this project is the development of a fast, less expensive, non-invasive and easy to use alternative method for leishmaniasis diagnosis in dogs, one of the main reservoirs of leishmaniasis spread to humans. In this perspective article, we present our personal insight and opinion regarding the challenges of realizing a joint international research project on leishmaniasis in Colombia, a country where leishmaniasis is endemic, as well as regarding the involvement of the Public Health institutions and the local population from this country.

Introducción. Belminus ferroae es un triatomino de comportamiento entomófago, sin embargo, puede alimentarse de vertebrados ocasionalmente. No se ha demostrado infección natural por Trypanosoma cruzi en esta especie, como tampoco la metaciclogénesis del parásito.Objetivo. Examinar la metaciclogénesis de T. cruzi en B. ferroae y la capacidad infectiva de las heces o sus contenidos intestinales en roedores.Materiales y métodos. Se analizaron las heces y la orina expulsadas espontáneamente por los insectos o mediante compresión abdominal o extracción del contenido intestinal a los 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 y 60 días. Se cuantificó la carga parasitaria de T. cruzi y sus formas evolutivas se identificaron con tinción de Giemsa. Asimismo, se evaluó en ratones albinos la apacidad infectiva de los tripomastigotes metacíclicos de T. cruzi obtenidos de las heces o contenidos intestinales de los especímenes infectados.Resultados. El análisis parasitológico reveló tres (15 %) insectos infectados con T. cruzi a los 30 (n=1), 40 (n=1) y 50 (n=1) días después de la infección con cargas parasitarias de hasta 1,62 x 105 tripanosomas/mm3 y porcentajes de metaciclogénesis entre el 3,5 y el 6,78 %. Conclusiones. Se demuestra por primera vez, en una especie del género Belminus, la metaciclogenésis de T. cruzi en condiciones de laboratorio y la capacidad infectiva de las heces para un huésped vertebrado.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the emergence of new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants, including the Mu variant (B.1.621), first identified in Colombia in January 2021. 1 This variant exhibits a distinct mutational profile, predominantly in the spike protein region 2 which impact the virus's ability to be recognized by antibodies from natural infection or vaccination. 3,4 Mu variant has been highly prevalent in Colombia, (https://outbreak.info/ location-reports?loc=VEN%26alias=Mu%26dark=true%26selected=Mu) and associated with a significant number of COVID-19-related deaths. 2 Investigations into its emergence and spread have been conducted in various Colombian departments and neighboring countries, including Venezuela, 5 where it was introduced through population displacement via the frontier with Colombia. 6 Despite the wellknown spread and dispersion of SARS-CoV-2 among both countries, few studies have assessed the epidemiological impact, genomic features, and phylogenetic relationship of the Mu variant in Colombian departments bordering the Western Venezuelan states with the highest prevalence of COVID-19 cases. This data is of utmost importance, particularly in context of the ongoing Venezuelan humanitarian and refugee crisis. Twenty-four SARS-CoV-2 positive samples collected between May 2021 and February 2022 were analyzed, with16 and 8 fromColombian and Venezuelan patients respectively. Whole genome analysis and lineage identification were performed as previously reported. 7 The sociodemographic characteristics of patients are included in Supporting Information: Table 1.Comparative genomics analysis was conducted to assess phylogenomic relationships of 24 genomes, these were compared against 18 111 Colombian genomes, 542 Venezuelan genomes and 2365 reference genomes (representative selection of all SARS-CoV-2