Latest Articles
- ReviewPoint-of-Care HIV Viral Load Testing: an Essential Tool for a Sustainable Global HIV/AIDS Response
The global public health community has set ambitious treatment targets to end the HIV/AIDS pandemic. With the notable absence of a cure, the goal of HIV treatment is to achieve sustained suppression of an HIV viral load, which allows for immunological recovery and reduces the risk of onward HIV transmission.
- ReviewExtended Dosing Regimens for Fungal Prophylaxis
Invasive fungal diseases carry high morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing chemotherapy for hematological malignancies or allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. In order to prevent these life-threatening infections, antifungal chemoprophylaxis plays an important role in daily clinical practice.
- ReviewHypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae
Hypervirulent K. pneumoniae (hvKp) is an evolving pathotype that is more virulent than classical K. pneumoniae (cKp). hvKp usually infects individuals from the community, who are often healthy.
- ReviewMicroorganisms in the Placenta: Links to Early-Life Inflammation and Neurodevelopment in Children
Prenatal exposure to various stressors can influence both early and later life childhood health. Microbial infection of the intrauterine environment, specifically within the placenta, has been associated with deleterious birth outcomes, such as preterm birth, as well as adverse neurological outcomes later in life.
- ReviewFactors That Influence the Immune Response to Vaccination
There is substantial variation between individuals in the immune response to vaccination. In this review, we provide an overview of the plethora of studies that have investigated factors that influence humoral and cellular vaccine responses in humans.
- ReviewCandida parapsilosis: from Genes to the Bedside
Patients with suppressed immunity are at the highest risk for hospital-acquired infections. Among these, invasive candidiasis is the most prevalent systemic fungal nosocomial infection.
- ReviewEchinococcosis: Advances in the 21st Century
Echinococcosis is a zoonosis caused by cestodes of the genus Echinococcus (family Taeniidae). This serious and near-cosmopolitan disease continues to be a significant public health issue, with western China being the area of highest endemicity for both the cystic (CE) and alveolar (AE) forms of echinococcosis.
- ReviewMethicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Prosthetic Valve Endocarditis: Pathophysiology, Epidemiology, Clinical Presentation, Diagnosis, and Management
Staphylococcus aureus prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE) remains among the most morbid bacterial infections, with mortality estimates ranging from 40% to 80%. The proportion of PVE cases due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has grown in recent decades, to account for more than...
- ReviewNDM Metallo-β-Lactamases and Their Bacterial Producers in Health Care Settings
New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase (NDM) is a metallo-β-lactamase able to hydrolyze almost all β-lactams. Twenty-four NDM variants have been identified in >60 species of 11 bacterial families, and several variants have enhanced carbapenemase activity.
- ReviewEscherichia coli Pathobionts Associated with Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Gut bacteria play a key role in initiating and maintaining the inflammatory process in the gut tissues of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients, by supplying antigens or other stimulatory factors that trigger immune cell activation. Changes in the composition of the intestinal microbiota in IBD patients compared to that in healthy controls and a reduced diversity of intestinal microbial species are linked to the pathogenesis of IBD...