About the Authors

Keshav Rai

Affiliations Department of Microbiology, B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal, Department of Zoology, West Bengal State University, Barasat, West Bengal, India

Narayan Raj Bhattarai

Affiliation Department of Microbiology, B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal

Manu Vanaerschot

Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, United States of America

Hideo Imamura

Affiliation Department of Biomedical Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium

Gebreyohans Gebru

Affiliation Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture, Aksum University, Aksum, Ethiopia

Basudha Khanal

Affiliation Department of Microbiology, B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal

Suman Rijal

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal

Marleen Boelaert

Affiliation Department of Public Health, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium

Chiranjib Pal

Affiliation Department of Zoology, West Bengal State University, Barasat, West Bengal, India

Prahlad Karki

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal

Jean-Claude Dujardin

jcdujardin@itg.be (JCD); gvdauwera@itg.be (GVdA)

Affiliations Department of Biomedical Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, Belgium

Gert Van der Auwera

jcdujardin@itg.be (JCD); gvdauwera@itg.be (GVdA)

Affiliation Department of Biomedical Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: KR MV JCD GVdA. Data curation: KR GVdA. Formal analysis: KR MV GVdA. Funding acquisition: NRB SR MB JCD. Investigation: KR MV GG. Methodology: KR MV HI JCD GVdA. Project administration: KR NRB JCD. Resources: KR NRB BK SR MB PK JCD. Software: HI KR. Supervision: NRB MV CP JCD GVdA. Validation: KR NRB MV GG GVdA. Visualization: KR GVdA. Writing – original draft: KR GVdA. Writing – review & editing: KR NRB MV HI GG MB JCD GVdA.