Bmc Infect Dis
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Human babesiosis is a rare tick-borne infectious disease. The clinical presentation ranges from an asymptomatic form to a life threatening infection with severe hemolysis. Human babesiosis due to Babesia microti is the most common and is endemic in North America. ⋯ Babesiosis should be considered in patients who traveled in endemic areas, especially North America for the most common agent Babesia microti.
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Opt-out HIV testing is offered at 70% of antenatal care (ANC) clinics in Mozambique through the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) program. If routine data from this program were of sufficient quality, their heightened coverage and continuous availability could complement or even replace biannual sentinel serosurveys that currently serve as the primary HIV surveillance system in Mozambique. ⋯ We found low PPA of PMTCT test results compared to surveillance data which is indicative either of testing errors or data reporting problems. Nonetheless, PPA improved significantly from 2007 to 2009, a possible positive trend that should be investigated further. Although use of PMTCT test results would not dramatically change HIV prevalence estimates among pregnant women, the impact of site-level differences on surveillance models should be evaluated before these data are used to replace or complement ANC surveillance surveys.
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Bloodstream infections in neonates and infants are life-threatening emergencies. Identification of the common bacteria causing such infections and their susceptibility patterns will provide necessary information for timely intervention. This study is aimed at determining the susceptibilities of bacterial etiological agents to commonly-used antimicrobial agents for empirical treatment of suspected bacterial septicaemia in children. ⋯ Coagulase Negative, Coagulase Positive Staphylococci, Salmonella and Klebsiella were the aetiological agents of bloodstream infection among children at TTH. While gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria showed low susceptibility to Ampicillin, Tetracycline and Cotrimoxazole, the GNR were susceptible to Gentamicin and third-generation cephalosporins.
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Vaccination strategies for future influenza pandemics: a severity-based cost effectiveness analysis.
A critical issue in planning pandemic influenza mitigation strategies is the delay between the arrival of the pandemic in a community and the availability of an effective vaccine. The likely scenario, born out in the 2009 pandemic, is that a newly emerged influenza pandemic will have spread to most parts of the world before a vaccine matched to the pandemic strain is produced. For a severe pandemic, additional rapidly activated intervention measures will be required if high mortality rates are to be avoided. ⋯ The effectiveness and cost effectiveness consequences of the time-critical interplay of pandemic dynamics, vaccine availability and intervention timing has been quantified. For moderate and extreme pandemics, vaccination combined with rapidly activated antiviral and social distancing interventions of sufficient duration is cost effective from the perspective of life years saved.
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Limited data suggest that fluorine-18 fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (F-18 FDG) positron emission tomography combined with computed tomography (PET/CT) scan may be useful for diagnosing infections of the spine. Brucellar spondylodiskitis might be devastating and current imaging techniques lack sensitivity and specificity. The aim of this prospective study was to determine the role of F-18 FDG PET/CT scan in the diagnosis of brucellar spondylodiskitis and in monitoring the efficacy of its treatment. ⋯ Our study suggests that in patients with brucellar spondylodiskitis F-18 FDG PET/CT scan can provide additional information on the spread of the infection, compared to MRI. Successful treatment is associated with a significant decrease in SUVmax values; thus, PET/CT scan may be a complementary method for determining the efficacy of treatment.