[Comment] Learning about HIV the hard way: HIV among Chinese MSM attending university
Each day of 2016, ten Chinese university students were infected with HIV —eight of whom were men who have sex with men (MSM).1 Unfortunately, in China, many MSM attending university first learn of HIV when they receive their HIV-positive test result. China has nearly 3000 universities and 40 million students. Of the male university students in China, 8·5% are MSM;2 th us, approximately 1·7 million university students are MSM aged 18 to 22 years.3 In this population, an increasing number of new HIV cases are reported. (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - December 21, 2017 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Huachun Zou, Joseph D Tucker, Song Fan, Junjie Xu, Maohe Yu, Zhenzhou Luo, Weiping Cai, Andrew E Grulich Tags: Comment Source Type: research
[Comment] Zika epidemic: a step towards understanding the infectious causes of microcephaly?
Congenital and perinatal neuropathology falls within two main phenotypes: primary microcephaly, a primarily grey matter disease observable at birth that is caused by defects in cell proliferation, axon guidance, or increased apoptosis; and secondary microcephaly, a grey matter or white matter disease of postnatal onset, caused by either a reduction in dendrites and synaptic connections, or defects in myelination, or even both mechanisms acting in concert (appendix).1,2 In this issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Delan Devakumar and colleagues3 have seized on the opportunity of advances in Zika virus-related primary mi...
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - December 21, 2017 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Patrick G érardin, Regina Coeli Ramos, Patricia Jungmann, Joao Ricardo Mendes de Oliveira, Ali Amara, Pierre Gressens Tags: Comment Source Type: research
[Editorial] An enduring reminder of the importance of public health
January, 2018 marks the 500th anniversary of the first attempts to control by regulation an infectious disease in England. Given its historical importance, it will not surprise readers of The Lancet Infectious Diseases that the disease in question was plague. In January, 1518 a royal proclamation was issued by Henry VIII setting out ways in which plague was to be controlled, such as the marking of affected houses. Although an important milestone in English public health, this was not the first time publicly prescribed precautions against plague had been issued. (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - December 21, 2017 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: The Lancet Infectious Diseases Tags: Editorial Source Type: research
[Articles] Discovery, research, and development of new antibiotics: the WHO priority list of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and tuberculosis
Future development strategies should focus on antibiotics that are active against multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and Gram-negative bacteria. The global strategy should include antibiotic-resistant bacteria responsible for community-acquired infections such as Salmonella spp, Campylobacter spp, N gonorrhoeae, and H pylori. (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - December 21, 2017 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Evelina Tacconelli, Elena Carrara, Alessia Savoldi, Stephan Harbarth, Marc Mendelson, Dominique L Monnet, C éline Pulcini, Gunnar Kahlmeter, Jan Kluytmans, Yehuda Carmeli, Marc Ouellette, Kevin Outterson, Jean Patel, Marco Cavaleri, Edward M Cox, Chris R Tags: Articles Source Type: research
[Correspondence] Dengvaxia: age as surrogate for serostatus
Since April, 2016, Dengvaxia —a dengue vaccine produced by Sanofi Pasteur (Lyon, France)—has been licensed for use in 19 countries. Dengvaxia was recommended by the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on immunisation to be used in regions with high endemicity, as defined by a prevalence of dengue antibodies of mo re than 50% in the targeted age group of people aged 9–45 years.1 We have previously discussed the risks behind this vaccine recommendation,2,3 and by analysing an age-structured model4 using the available vaccine trial data1 predicted a significant reduction in dengue virus infection-related hosp...
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - December 21, 2017 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Ma íra Aguiar, Nico Stollenwerk Tags: Correspondence Source Type: research
[Comment] A crucial list of pathogens
In this issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Evelina Tacconelli and colleagues, and the WHO Pathogens Priority List Working Group,1 describe how WHO created a priority list of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to support research into and development of effective drugs. The authors used a multicriteria decision analysis method to prioritise antibiotic-resistant bacteria: 20 bacterial species with 25 patterns of acquired resistance and ten criteria to assess priority were used to generate the list. (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - December 21, 2017 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Glenn Tillotson Tags: Comment Source Type: research
[Articles] Extended-pulsed fidaxomicin versus vancomycin for Clostridium difficile infection in patients 60 years and older (EXTEND): a randomised, controlled, open-label, phase 3b/4 trial
Extended-pulsed fidaxomicin was superior to standard-dose vancomycin for sustained cure of C difficile infection, and, to our knowledge, extended-pulsed fidaxomicin recurrence rates in this study are the lowest observed in a randomised clinical trial of antibiotic treatment for C difficile infection. (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - December 19, 2017 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Benoit Guery, Francesco Menichetti, Veli-Jukka Anttila, Nicholas Adomakoh, Jose Maria Aguado, Karen Bisnauthsing, Areti Georgopali, Simon D Goldenberg, Andreas Karas, Gbenga Kazeem, Chris Longshaw, Jose Alejandro Palacios-Fabrega, Oliver A Cornely, Maria Tags: Articles Source Type: research
[Comment] Is pulsed dosing the answer to treatment of Clostridium difficile infection?
Antibiotic treatment of Clostridium difficile infection has been plagued by high rates of recurrent diarrhoea attributed to C difficile and requiring retreatment, often repeatedly. In The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Benoit Guery and colleagues1 describe a novel dosing regimen for fidaxomicin in which the standard 200 mg, 20-dose, 10-day regimen is extended (the EXTEND study) by giving 200 mg twice daily for the first 5 days, followed by 200 mg every-other-day for an additional 20 days. The comparator regimen was standard-dose vancomycin (125 mg four times daily for 10 days), which is the same comparator dose that was used ...
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - December 19, 2017 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Dale N Gerding Tags: Comment Source Type: research
[Articles] Ceftazidime-avibactam versus meropenem in nosocomial pneumonia, including ventilator-associated pneumonia (REPROVE): a randomised, double-blind, phase 3 non-inferiority trial
Ceftazidime-avibactam was non-inferior to meropenem in the treatment of nosocomial pneumonia. These results support a role for ceftazidime-avibactam as a potential alternative to carbapenems in patients with nosocomial pneumonia (including ventilator-associated pneumonia) caused by Gram-negative pathogens. (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - December 15, 2017 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Antoni Torres, Nanshan Zhong, Jan Pachl, Jean-Fran çois Timsit, Marin Kollef, Zhangjing Chen, Jie Song, Dianna Taylor, Peter J Laud, Gregory G Stone, Joseph W Chow Tags: Articles Source Type: research
[Comment] Ceftazidime-avibactam versus meropenem for the treatment of nosocomial pneumonia
Nosocomial pneumonia remains one of the most common, costly, and deadly hospital-acquired infections worldwide.1 Ventilator-associated pneumonia accounts for about half of all hospital-acquired pneumonias and is the second most common nosocomial infection in patients in the intensive-care unit.1,2 Despite extensive work to prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia, an audit by the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services showed no meaningful decrease in the frequency of the infection in US hospitals during the past decade. (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - December 15, 2017 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Andre C Kalil, Michael Klompas Tags: Comment Source Type: research
[Corrections] Corrections
HIV-1 drug resistance before initiation or re-initiation of first-line antiretroviral therapy in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-regression analysis. Lancet Infect Dis 2017; published online Nov 31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(17)30702-8 —In this Article, the text in parentheses in the first sentence of the third paragraph of the Data analysis section has been amended to read “calendar year at the midpoint of the study year”; the y-axis of figure 2 has been corrected to read “Prevalence of NRTI resistance (%)”; and the leg end of figure 3 has been updated to include a...
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - December 15, 2017 Category: Infectious Diseases Tags: Corrections Source Type: research
[Articles] Association between microcephaly, Zika virus infection, and other risk factors in Brazil: final report of a case-control study
The association between microcephaly and congenital Zika virus infection was confirmed. We provide evidence of the absence of an effect of other potential factors, such as exposure to pyriproxyfen or vaccines (tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis, measles and rubella, or measles, mumps, and rubella) during pregnancy, confirming the findings of an ecological study of pyriproxyfen in Pernambuco and previous studies on the safety of Tdap vaccine administration during pregnancy. (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - December 11, 2017 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Thalia Velho Barreto de Ara újo, Ricardo Arraes de Alencar Ximenes, Demócrito de Barros Miranda-Filho, Wayner Vieira Souza, Ulisses Ramos Montarroyos, Ana Paula Lopes de Melo, Sandra Valongueiro, Maria de Fátima Pessoa Militão de Albuquerque, Cynthia Tags: Articles Source Type: research
[Comment] Zika virus and microcephaly: where do we go from here?
In November 2015, the Brazilian Ministry of Health declared a public health emergency because of an unexpected and dramatic increase of reported microcephaly among newborn infants in northeast Brazil.1 An intense international public health response rapidly identified a causal link between Zika virus infection and birth defects.2 Although initial patients were diagnosed by the presence of microcephaly, it soon became apparent that Zika virus caused a congenital syndrome with a spectrum of phenotypes that extended beyond microcephaly. (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - December 11, 2017 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Federico Costa, Albert I Ko Tags: Comment Source Type: research
[Articles] Post-exposure prophylaxis with doxycycline to prevent sexually transmitted infections in men who have sex with men: an open-label randomised substudy of the ANRS IPERGAY trial
Doxycycline PEP reduced the occurrence of a first episode of bacterial STI in high-risk men who have sex with men. (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - December 8, 2017 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Jean-Michel Molina, Isabelle Charreau, Christian Chidiac, Gilles Pialoux, Eric Cua, Constance Delaugerre, Catherine Capitant, Daniela Rojas-Castro, Julien Fonsart, B éatrice Bercot, Cécile Bébéar, Laurent Cotte, Olivier Robineau, François Raffi, Pier Tags: Articles Source Type: research
[Comment] Doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis: let the debate begin
Should physicians prescribe doxycycline to prevent syphilis? In their study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Jean-Michel Molina and colleagues1 report on the findings of the first large, open-label randomised control trial to help answer this question.2 Their findings show that, among men who have sex with men (MSM) who were using pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV and who had a median of ten partners every 2 months, taking doxycycline within 24 h after sex reduced the incidence of chlamydia by 70% when compared with no prophylaxis (hazard ratio [HR] 0 ·30, 95% CI 0·13–0·70; p=0·006); similar results...
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - December 8, 2017 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Christopher K Fairley, Eric P F Chow Tags: Comment Source Type: research
