Notes

Architectural microenvironment involving biodegradable polyester techniques for medication stability and also launch control.
El Alamein, on Egypt's Mediterranean coast, was the theater of war for one of the most important and decisive battles of the Second World War. The Allied victory in November 1942 opened the end of the Western Desert Campaign. The battle revived the morale of the Allies, being the first big success against the Axis since Operation Crusader in late 1941. The German threat to Egypt, the Suez Canal and the Middle Eastern and Persian oil fields was eliminated and the doors for Mediterranean advance were opened. Fighting in the desert under extreme human conditions exposed all the involved armies to health hazards going beyond those arising from common battle injuries. The outcome of the battle was influenced by a gap in morbidity and mortality derived from different approaches in infectious disease management between armies. The attention of the British for medical research, pharmacological experimentation, hygiene strategies and prevention may have been as important as warfare strategies in deciding the fate of the battle. Examples of some of these advances include wound nursing, control of endemic diseases, surveillance of difficult hygienic conditions, prevention of faecal-oral transmission diseases. During El Alamein Battle soldiers on both fronts where engaged in two wars the first one, vertical, was against the enemy uniform; the second one, horizontal, was against invisible enemies called pathogens. Only surviving the horizontal war meant preserve enough units and morale in order to win El Alaman Battle.Crusted scabies is an infrequent disease caused by Sarcoptes scabiei that usually affects patients with underlying medical conditions leading to immunosuppression. Here, we present the case of an 81 years old man, diagnosed with crusted scabies who came to our attention after multiple misdiagnosis and incorrect and potentially detrimental treatment with steroids. He was admitted to our inpatients ward and treated with oral ivermectin plus local permethrin. The hospitalization was complicated by a secondary bacterial skin infection caused by methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus. Crusted scabies is commonly misdiagnosed in elderly and immunosuppressed people due to its unusual occurrence and atypical clinical presentation. It should be considered in the differential diagnosis of skin lesions associated with pruritus in patients with underling medical conditions leading to immunosuppression. A prompt diagnosis and treatment are warranted due to the potential secondary infections and subsequent related morbidity and mortality.
Mycobacterium xenopi and Non Tuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM) are rare causes of spondylodiscitis (SD). The aim of this study was to highlight the relevance of considering these pathogens in differential diagnosis of slow growing SD, obtaining the correct diagnosis and evaluating the key points of management and therapy approach.

A case of surgically treated Mycobacterium xenopi SD is reported. A systematic review according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines was performed. The research was conducted on MEDLINE, PubMed and Scopus using as search-terms "vertebral", "spinal", "infection", "spondylodiscitis", "discitis", "osteomyelitis", "atypical", "nontuberculous", "mycobacterium".

After the screening of 444 titles and abstracts, 113 papers were considered eligible for the full-text analysis. Seventy-seven studies that met inclusion criteria were finally included in the review. Overall, including our report, 91 patients affected by NTM SD were analyzed in this systematic review Conclusion This review highlights the rarity of spinal infections due to NTM and the difficulty of their management. A tailored approach with prolonged antibiotic therapy, eventually associated with surgery in selected cases were suggested for the treatment of NTM infections.
After the screening of 444 titles and abstracts, 113 papers were considered eligible for the full-text analysis. Seventy-seven studies that met inclusion criteria were finally included in the review. Overall, including our report, 91 patients affected by NTM SD were analyzed in this systematic review Conclusion This review highlights the rarity of spinal infections due to NTM and the difficulty of their management. A tailored approach with prolonged antibiotic therapy, eventually associated with surgery in selected cases were suggested for the treatment of NTM infections.Hepatic involvement is an infrequent manifestation of abdominal tuberculosis and could occur in form of granulomatous hepatitis, nodular involvement or abscess formation. Tubercular liver abscess (TLA) is uncommon, and diagnosing this entity is a challenge. Xpert MTB/RIF (Cepheid, Sunnyvale, CA, USA) assay has been widely used for diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) and lymph nodal tuberculosis. Its utility in some forms of other extrapulmonary TB has also been studied. The role of Xpert MTB/RIF for diagnosis of tubercular liver abscess is not known. Here we present a series of four 4 cases of TLA, where the diagnosis was made on the basis of positive Xpert MTB/RIF assay tested on liver drained pus.Coinfection of SARS-CoV-2 and dengue virus has not been previously reported. We report a confirmed case with favourable outcome, but whether the occurrence of simultaneous infections may alter the usual clinical course of each infection is still unknown.Nigeria is the most populous African nation in the world having a population of over 200 million with little or no data on maternal influenza and its co-morbidities. In most developing countries, there is paucity of data for prioritization of strategies for the prevention and control of influenza with possible co-morbidities common in pregnancy. We therefore investigated recent infection of seasonal influenza virus with co-infection of malaria parasitaemia and typhoid fever in pregnant women in Lagos State, Nigeria. A descriptive hospital-based cross-sectional study was designed according to the Consortium for the Standardization of Influenza Seroepidemiology (CONSISE) guideline in 6 public health institutions between July 2016 and October 2018. Enzyme Immunoassay (Demeditec, Germany) was used to detect IgM specific antibodies to influenza A (H1N1) and (H3N2). P-values were determined with Chi-square using GraphPad Prism, USA. Demographic characteristics of the patients showed median age of 29 (mean 29.3; moddvocacy on preventing exposure to influenza virus, its optimal early diagnosis, vaccination and disease management in pregnancy.Cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the HIV population accounts for a large proportion of morbidity and mortality and, with the increased life expectancy, the burden of CVD is expected to rise. Inflammation, immune dysfunction, side effects of HIV medications, high prevalence of other risk factors are the likely pathogenic mechanisms for accelerated atherosclerosis. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic yield of a cardiovascular multimodality diagnostic work-up in a contemporary cohort of HIV-infected patients. From November 2017 to October 2019, HIV infected patients were screened in a cardiovascular diagnostic work-up program including clinical history, physical examination, arterial blood pressure measurement, 12-lead ECG, and Transthoracic Echocardiogram (TTE). Advanced non-invasive cardiovascular imaging tests, like Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography (CCTA), stress-echocardiography, Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (CMR), were performed in patients with suspicion of chronic coronary syndrome (CCS) or non-ische prevention treatment started in the remaining HIV patients.Oral candidiasis is a common fungal infection, affecting the oral mucosa. The aim of this study was to investigate the epidemiology and antifungal susceptibility of Candida species isolated from the oral cavity of patients affected by oral candidiasis. Oral swabs were taken from 34 patients and were inoculated on to Sabouraud Dextrose Agar (SDA). The yeasts were preliminarily evaluated according to the growth (human serum) germ tube, chlamydospore formation, reproduction at 45 degrees C and colony characteristics on SDA medium. The commercial method Phoenix (Becton Dickinson, USA) was used for identification. Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) reference M27-A3 microdilution method was applied for fluconazole (FLC), voriconazole (VRC), amphotericin B (AMB), ketoconazole (KTC), nystatin (NYT) antifungal susceptibility testing. A total of 34 Candida species were isolated and these species were identified as follows 14 (41.2%) Candida albicans, 8 (23.5%) Candida glabrata, 8 (23.5%) Candida parapsilosis, 4 (11.8 %) Candida tropicalis. The geometric mean (GM) of the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) for FLC, NYT, VRC, AMB, and KTC was 13.09 μg/mL, 4.77 μg/mL, 0.23 μg/mL, 0.20 μg/mL, 0.08 μg/mL, respectively. The most commonly isolated species was C. albicans. KTZ showed the lowest MIC value. NYT MIC values for non-albicans species were higher than for C. albicans ones.Data on the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and risk factors among incarcerated people are few and data about STIs awareness among inmates are even lacking. This study aimed to assess prevalence of STIs, risky behaviours and STIs level of knowledge in male inmates of the Casa Circondariale-Genova Marassi, the main penitentiary in Genoa, Italy. Between January and June 2019, 662 inmate medical records were retrospectively examined to obtain clinical and laboratory data about STIs. To investigate the inmate level of knowledge of STIs and their risky behaviours, 111consenting participants answered, anonymously, a written questionnaire. One hundred and twenty-two patients had at least one infectious disease when entered the prison HIV (1.8%), HBV (2.7%), HCV (12.5%) and syphilis (1.3%). When asked to select from a list of diseases which ones they thought to be sexually transmitted, only 12% of the inmates answered correctly; most of them ignored which body fluids are at risk for HIV transmission, which STIs can induce tumors and if any vaccination exists to prevent STIs. Substance abuse was common among inmates that frequently exchanged needles for injecting drugs. To reduce the STIs incidence, it is necessary to target high-risk populations everyone entering a prison should be offered a systematic screening of all STIs, including those currently neglected. Since STIs knowledge among inmates is poor and risky behaviours are diffuse, informative interventions in prison may provide an opportunity to educate such a high-risk population.Tick-borne pathogens are etiological agents of some zoonotic diseases, causing important consequences in animal and human health. These are emerging around the world, especially in tropical countries including Colombia. Domestic dogs play an essential role in the epidemiology of several zoonotic tick-borne pathogens. We performed the detection of bacteria from Anaplasmataceae family and parasites from the Piroplasmida order, in 85 domestic dogs from Soledad municipality, Atlantico, Colombia. Peripheral blood smears, detection by duplex PCR assay (ss rRNA 16S, from bacteria and the ITS-1, of ribosomal DNA from parasites), and DNA sequencing by Sanger method were done. Taxonomic identification was made by phylogenetics analysis of the DNA sequences. The gene sequences analysis showed that 12.9% of the dogs were infected with Anaplasma spp. Infection was higher in young dogs (OR=4.72, 95%CI 1.267-17.584). Besides that, 3.5% of them showed inclusions (morulae) compatible with bacteria from the order Rickettsiales.
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