Emerging Infectious Disease

(Basic awareness and understanding of antimicrobial resistance and prevailing mechanisms can aid emergency physicians in providing appropriate care to patients with infections due to a multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO). Empiric treatment of MDRO infections should be approached with caution and guided by the most likely pathogens based on differential diagnosis, severity of the illness, suspected source of infection, patient-specific factors, and local antibiotic susceptibility patterns. Newer broad-spectrum antibiotics should be reserved for critically ill patients where there is a high likelihood of infection with an MDRO...

Antibiotic stewardship is a core component of emergency department (ED) practice and impacts patient safety, clinical outcomes, and public health. The unique characteristics of ED practice, including crowding, time pressure, and diagnostic uncertainty, need to be considered when implementing antibiotic stewardship interventions in this setting. Rapid advances in pathogen detection and host response biomarkers promise to revolutionize the diagnosis of infectious diseases in the ED, but such tests are not yet considered standard of care...

Substance use disorders (SUDs) intersect clinically with many infectious diseases, leading to significant morbidity and mortality if either condition is inadequately treated. In this article, we will describe commonly seen SUDs in the emergency department (ED) as well as their associated infectious diseases, discuss social drivers of patient outcomes, and introduce novel ED-based interventions for co-occurring conditions. Clinicians should come away from this article with prescriptions for both antimicrobial medications and pharmacotherapy for SUDs, as well as an appreciation for social barriers, to care for these patients...

Emergency departments (ED) provide care to populations with high rates of communicable diseases, like HIV, hepatitis C virus, and syphilis. For many patients, the ED is their sole entry point into the healthcare system and they do not routinely access screening and prevention services elsewhere. As such, the ED can serve an important public health role through communicable disease identification, treatment, and prevention. In this article, we examine national recommendations, peer-reviewed literature, and expert consensus to provide cutting edge strategies for implementing communicable infectious disease screening and prevention programs into routine ED care...

AIMS: To identify and compare new or increased nursing tasks in South Korea during the pandemic, categorized by hospital type and department. BACKGROUND: Although COVID-19 is no longer considered a global public health emergency, the threat of novel infectious diseases remains. Reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic is essential to prepare effectively for future outbreaks. METHODS: This cross-sectional exploratory study, following the STROBE checklist, included 948 registered nurses with more than a year of clinical experience currently working in various hospitals...

OBJECTIVES: Determine SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody incidence over time in unvaccinated pediatric healthcare workers (pHCWs). DESIGN: Prospective longitudinal cohort of unvaccinated pHCWs measuring incidence of new infection after initial prevalence was established at 4.1% with seropositive predominance in emergency department (ED)-based pHCWs. Serum samples were collected at follow-up visits to detect new SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity. Univariate analysis was performed to estimate different incidence rates between participant demographics, job, employment location and community risk factors...

Streptococcosis, an emerging infectious disease caused by Streptococcus agalactiae, has had adverse effects on farmed tilapia. Several vaccines have been developed to prevent this disease and induce a specific immune response against S. agalactiae infection. In this study the use of MONTANIDE™ GR01, a new adjuvant for oral vaccination, was optimized for use in tilapia under laboratory and field studies. In the laboratory trial the immune response and protective efficacy of two doses of MONTANIDE™ GR01, 20% (w/w) and 2% (w/w), included into the feed-based adjuvanted vaccines were assessed comparatively...

Henipavirus (HNV) is well known for two zoonotic viruses in the genus, Hendra virus (HeV) and Nipah virus (NiV), which pose serious threat to human and animal health. In August 2022, a third zoonotic virus in the genus Henipavirus, Langya virus (LayV), was discovered in China. The emergence of HeV, NiV, and LayV highlights the persistent threat of HNV to human and animal health. In addition to the above three HNVs, new species within this genus are still being discovered. Although they have not yet caused a pandemic in humans or livestock, they still have the risk of spillover as a potential threat to the health of humans and animals...

We characterized the evolution and molecular characteristics of avian influenza A(H7N9) viruses isolated in China during 2021-2023. We systematically analyzed the 10-year evolution of the hemagglutinin gene to determine the evolutionary branch. Our results showed recent antigenic drift, providing crucial clues for updating the H7N9 vaccine and disease prevention and control.

mRNA lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) have emerged as powerful modalities for gene therapies to control cancer and infectious and immune diseases. Despite the escalating interest in mRNA-LNPs over the past few decades, endosomal entrapment of delivered mRNAs vastly impedes therapeutic developments. In addition, the molecular mechanism of LNP-mediated mRNA delivery is poorly understood to guide further improvement through rational design. To tackle these challenges, we characterized LNP-mediated mRNA delivery using a library of small molecules targeting endosomal trafficking...

The multifaceted benefits of Lepisanthes fruticosa position it is not only as a promising agricultural commodity but also as a versatile resource with implications for health, biodiversity, and economic growth. Lepisanthes fruticosa has a rich history of traditional use for treating various ailments such as fever and diarrhea. Beyond its traditional uses, the plant's antioxidant properties suggest potential applications in combating oxidative stress-related conditions. Its antihyperglycemic properties indicate promise in managing elevated blood sugar levels, while its antibacterial and antiviral attributes hint at potential applications in infectious disease control...

INTRODUCTION: Sepsis in people is defined as a life-threatening organ dysfunction (OD) caused by a dysregulated host response to infection. In veterinary medicine, sepsis is still defined by the presence of systemic inflammation plus the evidence of infection. Based on recent veterinary studies, multiorgan dysfunction syndrome (MODS) has been associated with a worse outcome in sepsis. Thus, the screening for OD is warranted to identify the most critically ill patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic value of new-onset OD for the prediction of sepsis and outcome in a population of critically ill dogs with systemic inflammation...

BACKGROUND: Sepsis is a major health problem worldwide and is associated with high morbidity and mortality with every hour delay in initiation of therapy. A conventional method of blood culture and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST) takes around 48-72 hours. Empirical antibiotics need to be administered until the sensitivity report is made available. It has been estimated that 20-50% of the empirical antibiotics are inappropriate, resulting in prolonged hospital stays, adverse effects, and emergence of drug resistance...

Pertussis re-emergence is a global public health concern. The reported incidence of pertussis in China from 2018 to 2022 was comparable to that in the late 1980s. In fact, the incidence of pertussis is still significantly underestimated in China, owing to a lack of comprehensive active pertussis surveillance, missed diagnosis of atypical pertussis cases, and the fact that many medical institutions do not perform pertussis laboratory diagnosis. Meanwhile, China is also faced with the clinical issue that Bordetella pertussis is highly resistant to first-line macrolide treatment...

According to the World Health Organization, infectious diseases, particularly those caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria (MDR), are projected to claim the lives of 15 million people by 2050. Septicemia carries a higher morbidity and mortality rate than infections caused by susceptible Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and MDR-mediated ocular infections can lead to impaired vision and blindness. To identify and develop a potential drug against MDR P. aeruginosa, we employed in silico reverse genetics-based target mining, drug prioritization, and evaluation...

Infectious bursa disease (IBD) is an acute, highly contactable, lethal, immunosuppressive infectious disease caused by the Infectious bursa disease virus (IBDV). Currently, the emerged novel variant IBDV (nVarIBDV) and the sustainedly prevalent very virulent IBDV (vvIBDV) are the two most prevalent strains of IBDV in China. The antigenic properties of the two prevalent strains differed significantly, which led to the escape of nVarIBDV from the immune protection provided by the existing vvIBDV vaccine. However, the molecular basis of the nVarIBDV immune escape remains unclear...

INTRODUCTION: Intestinal infections are a significant health issue; antibiotics are essential in treating acute intestinal infections. However, evidence in the literature shows that the excessive use of antibiotics has created many threats to human health. This work aimed to study the impact of apple pectin in combination with antibiotics on treating patients with amebiasis and dysentery. METHODOLOGY: Patients suffering from acute intestinal diseases (amebiasis and dysentery) were treated with traditional antibiotic therapy and a new formula containing antibiotics with low and high methoxylated apple pectin in a randomized block design...

The ever-increasing demand for wildlife-derived raw or processed meat commonly known as bushmeat, has been identified as one of the critical factors driving the emergence of infectious diseases. This study focused on examining the bacterial community composition of smoked and fermented bushmeats, specifically grasscutter, rat, rabbit, and mona monkey. The analysis involved exploring 16Sr RNA amplicon sequences isolated from bushmeat using QIIME2. Microbiome profiles and their correlation with proximate components (PLS regression) were computed in STAMP and XLSTAT, respectively...

INTRODUCTION: Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging infectious disease caused by a novel bunyavirus infection with a high lethality rate. The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in coagulation parameters in patients with SFTS, aiming to provide clinical evidence for early diagnosis, treatment, and disease analysis. METHODS: A total of 40 patients with SFTS attended from April 1, 2020 to May 21, 2022 in Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital were selected and grouped according to the duration of the disease, mild and severe disease, cure and death, with 50 healthy physical examiners as controls, and the risk of severe and death disease was predicted using ROC curves...

Bacteriophages (phages), viruses that infect bacteria, are found in abundance not only in the environment but also in the human body. The use of phages for the diagnosis of melioidosis, a tropical infectious disease caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei , is emerging as a promising novel approach, but our understanding of conditions under which Burkholderia prophages can be induced remains limited. Here, we first demonstrated the isolation of Burkholderia phages from the hemocultures of melioidosis patients. The B...