Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review aims to highlight the multifaceted nature of brucellosis, emphasizing the latest advancements in its diagnosis and management. Given the global prevalence and potential complications of brucellosis, understanding recent advancements in diagnostic techniques and treatment strategies is crucial for clinicians. RECENT FINDINGS: Recent literature reveals significant progress in diagnostic methods, including the application of fluorescence polarization immunoassay and time-resolved fluorescence resonance energy transfer technologies as well as the invention of artificial Brucella antigens, which offer enhanced sensitivity and specificity...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Neurocysticercosis (NCC) is still a significant contributor to neurological disease in vast regions of the world, and increasingly diagnosed in nonendemic countries because of travel and immigration from endemic settings. There is a need for clinicians in endemic and nonendemic regions to understand the complexities of its diagnosis and management. RECENT FINDINGS: Recent information on the performance and use of available imaging and immunodiagnostic tools as well as antiparasitic and anti-inflammatory therapeutic regimes were assessed...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To correlate the resistance mechanisms and the susceptibility to new antibiotics in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. RECENT FINDINGS: Definition of antibiotic resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa is still debated. Carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CRPA) and difficult-to-treat resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (DTR-PA) are used but which of them better correlate with the risk of mortality remains debated. Mechanisms underlying resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa are complex and may be combined, resulting in unpredictable phenotype and cross-resistance...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The American Academy of Pediatrics recently published guidance for the evaluation and management of febrile infants. However, guidance on testing and empiric treatment for neonatal herpes simplex virus (HSV) remains less standardized and subject to clinical practice variation. RECENT FINDINGS: Recent reports reveal that high numbers of infants presenting for sepsis evaluations need to be treated empirically with acyclovir to capture one case of neonatal HSV...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: La Crosse virus encephalitis (LACV-E) is among the most common neuroinvasive arthropod-borne viral infections of childhood in North America. Children are uniquely predisposed to symptomatic disease, whereas symptomatic adult infections remain uncommon. Infection results frequently in neurologic symptomatology including headaches, seizures, and altered mentation, often necessitating hospitalization and significant diagnostic evaluation. The purpose of this review is to provide a contemporary assessment of clinical, laboratory, and neurobehavioral outcomes of children with LACV-E...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Viruses are the most common etiological agents of diarrhea in children. Despite rotavirus vaccine introduction, rotavirus remains as the leading cause of death globally, followed by norovirus, which represents a diagnostic challenge. Here, we describe new advances in the diagnosis and management of viral diarrheas. RECENT FINDINGS: Although immunoassays are widely used for their fast turnaround time and low cost, molecular techniques have become the most reliable diagnostic method due to their high sensitivity and capacity to analyze multiple pathogens in gastrointestinal panels...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Despite advances in our radiological, histological and microbiological armamentarium, distinguishing between Crohn's disease (CD) and intestinal tuberculosis (ITB), especially in a TB endemic country, continues to be a challenging exercise in a significant number of patients. This review aims to summarize current available evidence on novel diagnostic techniques which have a potential to fill the gap in our knowledge of differentiating between ITB and CD. RECENT FINDINGS: Both ITB and CD are associated with altered host immune responses, and detection of these altered innate and adaptive immune cells has potential to distinguish ITB from CD...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: With the marked rise in dengue globally, developing well tolerated and effective vaccines and therapeutics is becoming more important. Here we discuss the recent developments in the understanding of immune mechanisms that lead to severe dengue and the learnings from the past, that can help us to find therapeutic targets, prognostic markers, and vaccines to prevent development of severe disease. RECENT FINDINGS: The extent and duration of viraemia often appears to be associated with clinical disease severity but with some variability...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Malaria threatens pregnant women and their babies, particularly in Africa. RECENT FINDINGS: This century, the number of women at risk of malaria in pregnancy has decreased globally, apart from in Africa, where it has increased. Low and sub microscopic infections are increasingly documented but remain hard to diagnose with current point-of-care tests, and their contribution to morbidity and transmission are unclear. Artemether-lumefantrine has been endorsed for treatment in first trimester, but many women attend antenatal clinics later in pregnancy, and reaching high-risk young, first-time mothers is particularly difficult...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The number of cases of visceral leishmaniasis associated with transplant-associated immunosuppression has increased in recent years. Reviewing and updating the latest developments in its diagnostic management, treatment, and follow-up is necessary and relevant. RECENT FINDINGS: Visceral leishmaniasis cases associated with non-HIV immunosuppression are a growing cause of the parasitic infections, and the transplant patients are included in this context...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Timely postexposure prophylaxis is important after an occupational exposure. Here we review select organisms, exposure opportunities in the healthcare setting, and postexposure prophylaxis regimens. RECENT FINDINGS: Needlestick injuries pose a risk of exposure to bloodborne pathogens, such as HIV, Hepatitis B, and Hepatitis C. Risk mitigation strategies should be reexamined in light of newer vaccines and therapeutics. Increased vaccine hesitancy and vaccine denialisms may foster the re-emergence of some infections that have become extremely uncommon because of effective vaccines...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Arbovirus infections are a challenge for immunocompromised hosts who travel to or live in endemic regions or who receive organs or tissues from donors who travel or live in such areas. This review addresses Dengue (DENV), Chikungunya (CHIKV), and Zika (ZIKV) infections in hematological patients, hematopoietic cell or solid organ transplant recipients, and people with HIV (PWH). RECENT FINDINGS: Transmission is mainly due through Aedes mosquito bite...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Summarize the latest research of both stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy and present the implications with respect to persons with HIV (PWH), hematologic malignancies, and HIV-1 cure. RECENT FINDINGS: Allogeneic (alloSCT) and autologous (autoSCT) stem cell transplantation have been shown to be well tolerated and effective regardless of HIV-1 status. AlloSCT leads to a decrease in the HIV-1 latently infected reservoir orders of magnitude below that achieved with antiretroviral therapy (ART) alone...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To review the rationale for and the potential clinical benefits of an early approach to viral acute respiratory infections with NSAIDs to switch off the inflammatory cascade before the inflammatory process becomes complicated. RECENT FINDINGS: It has been shown that in COVID-19 as in other viral respiratory infections proinflammatory cytokines are produced, which are responsible of respiratory and systemic symptoms. There have been concerns that NSAIDs could increase susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection or aggravate COVID-19...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review aims to discuss the current state of human infections with Avian Influenza A (H5) and (H9) viruses, to support awareness of the global epidemiology among clinicians and public health professionals interested in emerging respiratory infections. RECENT FINDINGS: Among increasing numbers of detections in avian species of Avian Influenza A(H5N1) clade 2.3.4.4b globally, reported human cases of severe infection have been rare.Enhanced surveillance of persons exposed to avian species infected with Influenza A(H5N1) clade 2...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To highlight recent advances in our understanding of Trypanosoma cruzi infection in immunocompromised individuals, a condition that is increasingly recognized as populations shift and use of immunosuppressive medications becomes more commonplace. RECENT FINDINGS: Chagas disease screening programs should include people at risk for both Chagas disease and immunocompromise, e.g. people who have resided for ≥6 months in endemic Latin America who have an immunocompromising condition such as HIV or who are planned to start an immunosuppressive medication regimen...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Discuss the recent evidence on cytomegalovirus (CMV) serology in allogeneic hematopoeic cell transplant (HCT) recipients. RECENT FINDINGS: Whereas the role CMV-specific cellular mediated immunity has recently emerged as an important factor of CMV DNAemia posttransplant, the value of CMV serology has remained unchanged through decades, associated with donor selection and posttransplant prophylactic and monitoring strategies. In this review, we describe and discuss the emerging reports on the association between the magnitude of pretransplant CMV immunoglobulin G (IgG) titer and the posttransplant incidence of CMV DNAemia, as CMV IgG titer could become an additional tool in CMV risk assessment in the future...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Infection prevention and control practices remain the bedrock of healthcare associated infection prevention and outbreak and epidemic control efforts. However, issues in supply chain management can hinder these efforts, as exemplified by various public health emergencies. This review explores the key role of supply chains in infection prevention and explores specific challenges. RECENT FINDINGS: In all of the critical components of infection prevention and control - hand hygiene, personal protective equipment, sterile supplies, environmental disinfection, and waste management - disruptions in supply chains have led to limited availability and dissemination...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review covers recent research regarding the challenges posed by climate change within the areas of antimicrobial stewardship and infection prevention, and ways to build resiliency in these fields. RECENT FINDINGS: Infectious disease patterns are changing as microbes adapt to climate change and changing environmental factors. Capacity for testing and treating infectious diseases is challenged by newly emerging diseases, which exacerbate challenges to antimicrobial stewardship and infection prevention...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review examines the current state and future prospects of machine learning (ML) in infection prevention and control (IPC) and antimicrobial stewardship (ASP), highlighting its potential to transform healthcare practices by enhancing the precision, efficiency, and effectiveness of interventions against infections and antimicrobial resistance. RECENT FINDINGS: ML has shown promise in improving surveillance and detection of infections, predicting infection risk, and optimizing antimicrobial use through the development of predictive analytics, natural language processing, and personalized medicine approaches...