Infectious diseases now最新文献

Objectives

The objectives were to assess trends over the past 10 years in vaccination coverage rates (VCR) among adolescents in France aged 14–15 years, factors influencing decisions to vaccinate, and mothers’ opinions on adolescent vaccination.

Patients and Methods

The ‘Vaccinoscopie’ internet survey is completed each year by mothers of adolescents, with questions about vaccinations received by their children, and their attitudes and barriers to vaccination. The 2012 to 2021 surveys were analyzed in this study, including data from 1500 adolescents in 2012 and 1000 adolescents each year from 2013 to 2021.

Results

None of the adolescent VCR targets were met, despite significant increases since 2012 for vaccines with the lowest coverage rates and vaccines with high but insufficient coverage i.e., meningococcal C (28.7% to 60.8%), HPV in girls (14.2% to 40.8%), hepatitis B (31.6% to 47.3%) and pertussis (76.3% to 91.0%). Physicians remained the primary source of vaccination information for 90.4% of mothers, and their advice had a real impact on improving VCRs. Adolescents were increasingly involved (40.1%) in decisions about vaccination. Depending on the vaccine, over 80% of mothers currently consider adolescent vaccination as useful or essential. Since 2017, they also feel better informed.

Conclusions

Low and under-target VCRs put adolescents at risk of severe disease, and do not enable herd immunity or reduced transmission to other vulnerable age groups to be accomplished. Healthcare professionals must take every opportunity to check adolescents’ vaccination status and recommend catch-up vaccines where applicable. Vaccination in schools should be considered.

Introduction

Spinal tuberculosis is often associated with poor outcomes; host-directed inflammation involving the spine contributes to this disability.

Methods

A retrospective review of patients with complicated spinal tuberculosis having received tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) antagonists at a referral hospital in South Africa. A literature review was performed to identify all published cases of complicated spinal tuberculosis that received a TNF-α antagonist as part of their treatment.

Results

We describe 23 cases, of which 19 were previously reported in the literature. All patients were treated with either thalidomide (n = 6) or infliximab (n = 16), except for one who received both. All in all, 21 (91%) cases improved neurologically and, at the end of follow-up, 18 could walk.

Conclusion

There is accumulating experience to confer the efficacy and safety of TNF-α antagonists in treating complicated spinal tuberculosis cases. Evidence from randomized controlled trials is urgently required to substantiate these findings.

Objectives

We aimed to quantify the individual risk of antimicrobial resistance among patients with community-acquired Escherichia coli urinary tract infection (UTI) according to their antibiotic exposure over the previous 18 months.

Patients and methods

French patients were prospectively recruited in two centers in 2015–2017. Resistance of isolates to amoxicillin (AMX), amoxicillin-clavulanate (AMC), third-generation cephalosporins (3GC), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX), fluoroquinolones (FQ) and fosfomycin (FOS) was analysed according to previous intra-class and inter-class antibiotic exposure documented in health insurance files.

Results

Previous antibiotic exposure was found in 588 (81.4 %) of the 722 UTI cases analysed (564 patients). Recent exposure (three months before UTI) was associated with stronger intra-class impact on E. coli resistance compared to remote exposure (18 months before UTI) for AMX, AMC, FQ and TMP-SMX, with respective adjusted odds ratios [95 % confidence interval] of 1.63 [1.20–2.21], 1.59 [1.02–2.48], 3.01 [1.90–4.77], and 2.60 [1.75–3.87]. AMX, FQ, and TMP-SMX also showed significant inter-class impact. Resistance to 3GC was not significantly associated with intraclass exposure (adjusted OR: 0.88 [0.41–1.90]). FOS resistance was remarkably low (0.4 %). Duration of the antibiotic-free period required for resistance risk to drop below 10 %, the threshold for empirical use in UTI, was modelled as < 1 month for 3GC, >18 months for AMX and TMP-SMX and uncertain for AMC (5.2 months [2.3 to > 18]) and FQ (17.4 months [7.4 to > 18]).

Conclusions

Resistance of E. coli causing UTI is partially predicted by previous personal antibiotic delivery.

Objectives

This study aims to understand a major result of ComCor, an online epidemiological study conducted to identify the circumstances of COVID-19 infection in France from 2020 to 2022: One third of respondents reported ignoring the circumstances of their infection.

Methods

We conducted a qualitative study through semi-structured interviews, diagnosed in spring or summer 2021. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and thematically analyzed.

Results

Fifty interviews were conducted. Half of the participants in Qualicor were able to identify several at-risk situations, most often involving their entourage (family, friends, colleagues), but were uncertain as to which specific situation was the source of infection. Less than one quarter strongly suspected a specific situation without certainty, a similar proportion were unable to identify any circumstances, and only two people were certain about the origin of the infection. Several factors contributed to this lack of knowledge: a desire to conceal these circumstances (in a few rare cases), limitations of the questionnaire, lack of knowledge about how the virus is transmitted, selective perception of at-risk situations, co-existence of several possible sources of infection, and the difficulty of taking an objective view of certain circumstances of transmission.

Conclusion

Our study shows the benefits of a mixed approach designed to better understand the perception of Covid 19 contamination circumstances in the French population. It also highlights the need to strengthen or improve communication on modes of virus transmission, especially airborne transmission, and the importance of maintaining certain preventive behaviors after vaccination.

Objectives

We aimed to assess the frequency, management, and burden of enterococcal-related vascular graft infection.

Patients and methods

From 2008 to 2021, data regarding all episodes of vascular graft infections initially managed or secondarily referred to our referral center were prospectively collected. We described the history and management of the infection, depending on the type of prosthesis used.

Results

The frequency of enterococcal-related vascular graft infections was 29/249 (12 %). Most of them were early infections (22/29, 76 %). Infections were polymicrobial (26/29, 90 %), mostly associated with Enterobacterales. Among patients with positive blood cultures, 7/8 (88 %) involved enterococci. Patients with enterococcal-related vascular graft infections were mainly (22/29, 76 %) treated with an association of antibiotics. Mortality and relapse occurred in 28 % and 7 % respectively of the cases.

Conclusions

Enterococcal-related vascular graft infections occurred in patients with comorbidities, during the early period following surgery and were more frequent in cases of intra-cavitary prosthesis. Their potential virulence needs to be considered, especially in polymicrobial infections.

Chikungunya disease typically presents with the fever-arthralgia-rash symptom triad. However, an increase in the number of atypical clinical manifestations, particularly neurological disorders, has occurred. The current evidence regarding the pooled prevalence of Chikungunya virus (CHIKV)-associated neurological cases (CANCs) suspected of having an arboviral aetiology is not well-understood. Therefore, this meta-analysis included 19 studies (n = 7319 patients) and aimed to determine the pooled rate of exposure to CANC. The pooled positivity rate of CANC was 12 % (95 % CI: 6–19), and Brazil was overrepresented (11/19). These estimations varied between 3 and 14 % based on the diagnostic method (real-time PCR vs. ELISA-IgM) and biological samples (cerebrospinal fluid or blood specimens) used for detection of CHIKV. Regarding the frequency of CHIKV in neurological clinical subgroups, the rates were higher among patients with myelitis (27 %), acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (27 %), Guillain–Barré syndrome (15 %), encephalitis (12 %), and meningoencephalitis (7 %). Our analysis highlights the significant burden of CANC. However, the data must be interpreted with caution due to the heterogeneity of the results, which may be related to the location of the studies covering endemic periods and/or outbreaks of CHIKV. Current surveillance resources should also focus on better characterizing the epidemiology of CHIKV infection in neurological disorders. Additionally, future studies should investigate the interactions between CHIKV and neurological diseases with the aim of gaining deeper insight into the mechanisms underlying the cause-and-effect relationship between these two phenomena.

Introduction

In 2023 in France, 15 valent- pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV15) have been recommended as alternatives to PCV13 for children < 2 years. PCV20 has been recommended for at-risk adults but not yet for infants, while PCV21 targets older adults. We endeavored to estimate the potential benefit of new pneumococcal vaccines in preventing invasive pneumococcal infections by comparing serotype extension to PCV13.

Patients and methods

The National Reference Centre for Pneumococci distributed S. pneumoniae IPD serotypes from children and adults.

Results

In 2022, for children under 24 months, PCV15 and PCV20 ensured 10 % and 36 % more coverage against IPD than PCV13. For adults, PCV15, PCV20, and PCV21 covered up to 3 %, 26 %, and 50 % more IPD cases than PCV13.

Conclusion

The new generation of pneumococcal vaccines could reduce the burden of invasive pneumococcal infections through serotype extension. Additional studies are needed in parallel to optimize their utilization and improve vaccine coverage in France.

Inflammatory response to aggressive infection is responsible not only for symptoms, especially pain, but also for severity, when the inflammatory cascade is violent, and provokes a deleterious cytokine storm.

Due to their anti-inflammatory properties, corticosteroids are widely used in ambulatory medical practice. While their beneficial effects on some symptoms, particularly pain, are undeniable, so are the risks associated with their other properties (immunosuppression, neurostimulation, hypermetabolism), even during short-term administration at low doses.

Following robust risk–benefit assessment, the role of corticosteroids in the treatment of a number of serious pathologies (septic shock, severe acute community-acquired pneumonia, and some forms of bacterial meningitis such as hypoxia-related pneumocystosis, etc.) is presently well-defined. The objective of this review is not to consider the role of corticosteroids in cases of severe infectious disease necessitating hospital-based management, or in contexts where there exists a clear consensus in favor of their utilization.

This work represents an attempt to apprise the current state of knowledge on the interest of corticosteroids in the management of infections in adults in primary care.

Corticosteroid treatment can be beneficial with regard to some of the infectious diseases treated in primary care. That said, when the benefit actually appears, it remains modest, and the level of evidence supporting the utilization of corticosteroids is low or moderate. In no situation is an indication for corticosteroid therapy official or even, at the very least, indisputable.

With regard to the pathologies under consideration, corticosteroid prescription must imperatively be based on impeccable characterization of the clinical situation, diagnosis of severity, knowledge of the disease field, and risk–benefit assessment for a given patient.