Journal of medical microbiology
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Human enterovirus 68 (HEV-68) is an enterovirus associated with respiratory illness. In China, no information about HEV-68 is available for children yet. This study aimed to investigate the presence of HEV-68 in mainland China between 2009 and 2012 and to explore the migration events of HEV-68 across the world. ⋯ Migration events analysis showed that the USA and the Netherlands were possible geographical sources of HEV-68, from where three strains migrated to China. In conclusion, HEV-68 may play a predominant role among the enteroviruses associated with ARTI in children. Additional surveillance is needed to clarify the reason why HEV-68 causes such a wide spectrum of disease, from asymptomatic to severe respiratory disease and even death.
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Diarrhoea continues to be one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality among infants and children in developing countries. Diarrhoeagenic Escherichia coli (DEC) is an emerging agent among pathogens that cause diarrhoea. Between March 2011 and January 2012, a total of 600 stool specimens from children younger than 5 years of age (450 with and 150 without diarrhoea) were investigated for enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC), enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) and enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) using PCR. ⋯ Of the children from the diarrhoea group, 10% were colonized with more than one DEC pathotype. The DEC isolates exhibited high-level resistance to erythromycin (100%), azteronam (80.7%), amoxicillin (74.4%) and tetracycline (69.3%), and 86.4% of isolates were multidrug resistant. In conclusion, ETEC continues to be an important agent associated with diarrhoea in children from Tabriz, Iran.
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Current diagnostics for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) include testing for a wide range of pathogens, which is costly and not always informative. We compared clinical and laboratory parameters of patients with CAP caused by different groups of pathogens to evaluate the potential for targeted diagnostics and directed treatment. In a prospective study, conducted between April 2008 and April 2009, adult patients with CAP were tested for the presence of a broad range of possible respiratory pathogens using bacterial cultures, PCR, urinary antigen testing and serology. ⋯ Multivariate analyses further showed that the presence of cough increased the likelihood of detecting a viral pathogen [odds ratio (OR) 5.536, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.130-14.390], the presence of immunodeficiency decreased the likelihood of detecting a bacterial pathogen (OR 0.595, 95 % CI 0.246-1.437) and an increase in pneumonia severity index score increased the likelihood of detecting a pathogen in general. Although several variables were independently associated with the detection of a pathogen group, substantial overlap meant there were no reliable clinical predictors to distinguish aetiologies. Therefore, testing for common respiratory pathogens is still necessary to optimize treatment.