Journal of Infectious Diseases

Controlled human challenge trials of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidates could accelerate the testing and potential rollout of efficacious vaccines. By replacing conventional Phase 3 testing of vaccine candidates, such trials may subtract many months from the licensure process, making efficacious vaccines available more quickly. Obviously, challenging volunteers with this live virus risks inducing severe disease and possibly even death. However, we argue that such studies, by accelerating vaccine evaluation, could reduce the global burden of coronavirus-related mortality and morbidity...

Ileocolic intussusception is the invagination of ileum into the colon. In a subset of patients, the disease is caused by mesenteric lymphadenopathy in response to (viral) infection. We present a case of an ileocolic intussusception necessitating surgery in a 7-month old immunocompetent infant with concurrent primary wild-type varicella-zoster virus (VZV) infection, who developed chickenpox rash two days post-surgery. Detailed in situ analyses of resected intestine for specific cell type markers and VZV RNA demonstrated VZV-infected lymphocytes and neurons in the gut wall and in ganglion cells of the myenteric plexus...

BACKGROUND: Since December 2019, novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2)-infected pneumonia (COVID-19) occurred in Wuhan, and rapidly spread throughout China. We aimed to clarify the characteristics and clinical significance of peripheral lymphocyte subset alteration in COVID-19. METHODS: The levels of peripheral lymphocyte subsets were measured by flow cytometry in 60 hospitalized COVID-19 patients before and after treatment, and their association with clinical characteristics and treatment efficacy was analyzed...

BACKGROUND: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of hospitalization in infants. Early detection of RSV can optimize clinical management and minimize use of antibiotics. BinaxNOW RSV (BN) is a rapid antigen detection test that is widely used. We aimed to validate the sensitivity of BN in hospitalized and nonhospitalized infants against the gold standard of molecular diagnosis. METHODS: We evaluated the performance of BN in infants with acute respiratory tract infections with different degrees of disease severity...

BACKGROUND: . Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most common cause of bronchiolitis in young infants. However, it is also a significant pathogen in older adults. Validated biomarkers of RSV disease severity would benefit diagnostics, treatment decisions, and prophylactic interventions. This review summarizes knowledge of biomarkers for RSV disease in adults. METHODS: A literature review was performed using Ovid Medline, Embase, Global health, Scopus, and Web of Science for articles published 1946-October 2016...

BACKGROUND: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) in young children aged <5 years. METHODS: We aimed to identify the global inpatient and outpatient cost of management of RSV-ALRI in young children to assist health policy makers in making decisions related to resource allocation for interventions to reduce severe morbidity and mortality from RSV in this age group. We searched 3 electronic databases including Global Health, Medline, and EMBASE for studies reporting cost data on RSV management in children under 60 months from 2000 to 2017...

BACKGROUND: Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) is used as intermittent preventive therapy in pregnancy (IPTp) for malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. The resistance marker dhps A581G has been associated with reduced IPTp-SP efficacy and enhanced morbidity in SP-recipients. METHODS: We measured SP-resistance allele frequencies in Malawian women participating in a trial (www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN69800930) comparing IPTp with SP against intermittent screening by rapid diagnostic tests (ISTp)...

BACKGROUND: Whooping cough is caused by infection of the airways with Bordetella pertussis (Bp). As IFN-γ is essential for protective immunity against Bp we investigated how IFN-γ is induced by Bp or the virulence antigens FHA, Prn or PT, and how IFN-γ contributes to local immune responses in humans. METHODS: PBMCs from healthy donors and/or respiratory epithelial cells were stimulated with soluble antigens or inactivated intact Bp and the presence or absence of blocking antibodies or chemokines...

BACKGROUND: Our objective was to quantify the risk of acquiring malaria among progeny of women with malaria during pregnancy. METHODS: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Library for eligible prospective studies. The primary predictor was malaria during pregnancy defined as placental malaria, parasitemia, clinical malaria, or pregnancy-associated malaria. Primary outcomes were parasitemia or clinically defined malaria of young children. We performed meta-analyses to pool adjusted risk estimates using a random effects model...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: The influenza A(H3N2) vaccine was updated from clade 3C.3a in 2015-16 to a clade 3C.2a strain for both 2016-17 and 2017-18. Circulating 3C.2a viruses showed considerable diversity in the hemagglutinin glycoprotein and the egg-adapted vaccine strain also bore mutations, notably T160K loss-of-glycosylation. METHODS: Vaccine effectiveness (VE) in 2016-17 and 2017-18 was assessed by test-negative-design, explored by A(H3N2) phylogenetic sub-cluster and prior season's vaccination history...

INTRODUCTION: People living with HIV (PLWH) are more likely to smoke and harbor oral human papillomavirus (HPV) infections, putting them at higher risk for head and neck cancer. We sought to investigate the joint effects of HIV and smoking on risk of oral HPV. METHODS: Consecutive PLWH (n=169) and at-risk HIV-negative individuals (n=126) were recruited from two large health centers in United States. Lifetime smoking history was collected using questionnaires. Participants provided oral rinse samples for HPV genotyping by Next-Generation Sequencing...

BACKGROUND: Safe nucleos(t)ide analogue discontinuation in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is an unmet need. We aimed to investigate whether combining HBV RNA and hepatitis B core-related antigen (HBcrAg) could perform satisfactorily in predicting off-treatment outcomes. METHODS: The evaluation cohort included 127 HBeAg-positive patients from a multi-centre prospective trial who stopped telbivudine-based therapy after achieving HBeAg seroconversion and HBV DNA<50 IU/mL for >48 weeks...

Dengue endemicity varies but comparative, multi-country data are extremely limited. An improved understanding is needed to prioritize prevention, including vaccination, which is currently recommended only under specific epidemiological conditions. We used serological study data from 46 geographical sites in 13 countries to estimate dengue force of infection (FOI, the proportion of children seroconverting per year) under assumptions of either age-constant or age-varying FOI, and the age at which 50% and 80% of children had been infected...

Human noroviruses cause an estimated 685 million infections and 200,000 deaths annually worldwide. Although vaccines against GII.4 and GI.1 genotypes are under development, no information is available regarding vaccines or monoclonal antibodies to other noroviral genotypes. Here, we developed two variable-domain llama heavy-chain antibody fragment (VHHs) clones, 7C6 and 1E4, against GII.4 and GII.17 human noroviruses, respectively. Although 7C6 cross-reacted with virus-like particles (VLPs) of GII.17, GII.6, GII...

BACKGROUND: Parechovirus-A3 (PeV-A3) and enteroviruses (EV) are the most common viruses causing sepsis and meningoencephalitis in neonates and young infants. Clinical manifestations of PeV-A3 infection are more severe than those of EV infection, and no pleocytosis with a positive PCR result for PeV-A3 in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are characteristic findings. We hypothesized that innate immune responses to PeV-A3 and EV are distinct in serum and CSF. METHODS: We evaluated 22 cytokines/chemokines in serum and CSF from PeV-A3- or EV-infected patients younger than 4 months in Niigata, Japan, from 2015 through 2018...

Direct-acting antivirals (DAA) targeting hepatitis C virus (HCV) have revolutionized outcomes in HIV co-infection. We examined early events in liver and plasma through A5335S, a substudy of trial A5329 (paritaprevir/ritonavir, ombitasvir, dasabuvir, with ribavirin) that enrolled chronic genotype 1a HCV-infected persons co-infected with suppressed HIV: 5/6 treatment-naïve enrollees completed A5335S. Mean baseline plasma HCV RNA=6.7 log10 IU/mL and changed by -4.1 log10 IU/mL by Day 7. In liver, laser capture microdissection was used to quantify HCV...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: The four antigenically distinct serotypes of dengue virus (DENV) share extensive homology with each other and with the closely related Zika flavivirus (ZIKV). The development of polyclonal memory B cells (MBCs) to the four DENV serotypes and ZIKV during DENV infection is not fully understood. METHODS: Here we analyzed polyclonal MBCs at the single-cell level from peripheral blood mononuclear cells collected ~2 weeks or 6-7 months post-primary or post-secondary DENV infection from a pediatric hospital-based study in Nicaragua using a Multi-Color FluoroSpot assay...

BACKGROUND: Replacing tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) with tenofovir alafenamide (TAF) improves renal tubular markers in HIV-infected individuals, but the impact on estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) remains unclear. METHODS: We included all participants from the Swiss HIV Cohort Study who switched from a TDF to a TAF-containing antiretroviral regimen or continued TDF. We estimated changes in eGFR and urine protein-to-creatinine ratio (UPCR) after 18 months using mixed-effect models...