Open Forum Infectious Diseases

Cryptococcosis and tuberculosis are life-threatening opportunistic infections that occur in apparently immunocompetent or severely immunocompromised individuals worldwide. As both infections are strongly linked to HIV infection, they may share certain clinical manifestations, and the interaction of their treatments should be considered. However, despite their similarity, concurrent tuberculosis and cryptococcal infections have rarely been reported in West Africa. Herein, we present 3 cases of neuromeningeal cryptococcosis and lung tuberculosis coinfection collected prospectively over a year at the Department of Infectious Diseases of the Point G Teaching Hospital in Bamako...

BACKGROUND: We evaluated dengue presentation by age, the performance of the 2015 Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) case criteria in identifying dengue cases, and variables to improve specificity. METHODS: Patients with fever ≤7 days (N = 10 408) were recruited from 2 emergency departments from May 2012 through December 2015. Serum samples were tested for dengue, chikungunya, and nasopharyngeal swabs for respiratory viruses. Smoothing splines assessed differences in the frequencies of signs/symptoms by age...

The Penn Medicine COVID-19 Therapeutics Committee-an interspecialty, clinician-pharmacist, and specialist-front line primary care collaboration-has served as a forum for rapid evidence review and the production of dynamic practice recommendations during the 3-year coronavirus disease 2019 public health emergency. We describe the process by which the committee went about its work and how it navigated specific challenging scenarios. Our target audiences are clinicians, hospital leaders, public health officials, and researchers invested in preparedness for inevitable future threats...

BACKGROUND: We describe antibacterial use in light of microbiology data and treatment guidelines for common febrile syndromes in Moshi, Tanzania. METHODS: We compared data from 2 hospital-based prospective cohort studies, cohort 1 (2011-2014) and cohort 2 (2016-2019), that enrolled febrile children and adults. A study team member administered a standardized questionnaire, performed a physical examination, and collected blood cultures. Participants with bloodstream infection (BSI) were categorized as receiving effective or ineffective therapy based upon antimicrobial susceptibility interpretations...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: Bronchiectasis is a chronic inflammatory respiratory disease mainly caused by pathogenic infections. However, standard methods of pathogen detection show prolonged cycle durations and unsatisfactory sensitivity and detection rates. Macrogenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) emerges as a promising technique for swift, effective, and unbiased pathogen detection and subsequent data interpretation. METHODS: Here, a retrospective analysis of 93 patients with suspected bronchiectasis was performed to assess the clinical applicability of mNGS...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: The PROTECT study is a longitudinal cohort study initiated in July 2021 with weekly testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in 4 states: Arizona, Florida, exas, and Utah. This study aims to examine vaccine-elicited antibody response against postvaccination SARS-CoV-2 infections. METHODS: Children aged 5-11 years had serum collected 14-59 days after their second dose of monovalent Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease 2019 messenger RNA vaccine...

BACKGROUND: Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) may lead to the discontinuation of antituberculosis (anti-TB) treatment (ATT). Some studies have suggested that metabolic disorders increase the risk of DILI during ATT. This study aimed to identify risk factors for DILI, particularly metabolic disorders, during ATT. METHODS: A multicenter prospective observational cohort study to evaluate adverse events during ATT was conducted in Korea from 2019 to 2021. Drug-susceptible patients with TB who had been treated with standard ATT for 6 months were included...

We describe a unique case of a 43-year-old-female with a Bordetella bronchiseptica infection caused by zoonotic transmission following vaccination of her dog. With this report, we want to raise awareness of potential zoonotic transmission of live attenuated vaccines from animals to patients with impaired immunity.

BACKGROUND: Kaposi sarcoma, caused by the pathogen Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), is the most common neoplasm for patients with AIDS. Susceptibility to KSHV has been associated with several different genetic risk variants. The purpose of this study was to test whether variants of killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) and their human leukocyte antigen (HLA-I) ligands influence the risk of KSHV infection. METHODS: A case-control study was performed in Xinjiang, a KSHV-endemic region of China...

BACKGROUND: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is a common opportunistic infection after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (alloHCT). We explored whether a change in CMV cell-mediated immunity during the first month after transplant predicts the risk of development of CMV infection and all-cause mortality. METHODS: This follow-up analysis is based on data from the REACT study, a multicenter prospective observational study of recipients of alloHCT who were CMV-seropositive...

BACKGROUND: Cryptococcal meningitis is an uncommon but serious infection with high mortality and morbidity. Classically described in immunocompromised patients, including those with solid organ transplants or HIV/AIDS, cryptococcosis has also been reported in young and otherwise healthy patients, albeit rarely. METHODS: We retrospectively searched for all cases of cryptococcal meningitis in young (≤50 years) and previously healthy patients with no known immunocompromising conditions from January 2015 to January 2022 at Indiana University Health (IU Health)...

BACKGROUND: The influence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA level and presence of infectious virus on symptom occurrence is poorly understood, particularly among nonhospitalized individuals. METHODS: The study included 85 nonhospitalized, symptomatic adults, who were enrolled from September 2020 to November 2021. Data from a longitudinal cohort studied over 28 days was used to analyze the association of individual symptoms with SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA load, or the presence or level of infectious (culturable) virus...

BACKGROUND: Inflammation is linked to elevated cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in people with HIV (PWH) on antiretroviral therapy (ART). Fat attenuation index (FAI) is a measure of peri-coronary inflammation that independently predicts CVD risk in HIV-uninfected persons. Whether FAI is associated with soluble inflammatory markers is unknown. METHODS: Plasma levels of inflammatory markers were measured in 58 PWH and 16 controls without current symptoms or prior known CVD who underwent coronary computed tomography angiography and had FAI measurements...

BACKGROUND: Prior randomized clinical trials have reported benefit of fluvoxamine ≥200 mg/d vs placebo for patients infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). METHODS: This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, fully remote multisite clinical trial evaluated whether fluvoxamine prevents clinical deterioration in higher-risk outpatients with acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Between December 2020 and May 2021, nonhospitalized US and Canadian participants with confirmed symptomatic infection received fluvoxamine (50 mg on day 1, 100 mg twice daily thereafter) or placebo for 15 days...

BACKGROUND: Antibiotics are the greatest risk factor for Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI). Risk for CDI varies across antibiotic types and classes. Optimal prescribing and stewardship recommendations require comparisons of risk across antibiotics. However, many prior studies rely on aggregated antibiotic categories or are underpowered to detect significant differences across antibiotic types. Using a large database of real-world data, we evaluate community-associated CDI risk across individual antibiotic types...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1093/ofid/ofad335.].

BACKGROUND: Data on renal safety of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) treatment among individuals with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) are inconsistent. The current study aimed to assess the effect of long-term TDF treatment on renal outcomes in adult patients with CHB. METHODS: From a CHB cohort in Ethiopia, we included 233 patients treated with TDF and 126 untreated controls. Levels of creatinine and creatinine clearance over time were described in patients with and without TDF treatment...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1093/ofid/ofad346.].