Diagnostic microbiology and infectious disease
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Diagn. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. · Nov 2020
False-positive SARS-CoV-2 serology in 3 children with Kawasaki disease.
Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute febrile and eruptive disease with systemic vasculitis predominantly affecting young East Asian children. Recent reports showed that children with KD-like disease from KD low prevalence regions had positive SARS-CoV-2 serology despite a negative SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in respiratory samples. ⋯ Detection of neutralizing antibodies is recommended to confirm previous SARS-CoV-2 infection in IgG-positive but PCR-negative patients.
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Diagn. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. · Oct 2020
ReviewCOVID-19 - 6 million cases worldwide and an overview of the diagnosis in Brazil: a tragedy to be announced.
On 1 June 2020, 6 million cases of COVID-19 were recorded with a total of 374,927 deaths worldwide. Brazil, at that point, presented a total of 514,992 cases and 29,341 deaths caused by the COVID-19 disease. At that moment, Brazil appeared in the second position regarding number of cases, fourth in number of deaths, second in number of recovered patients (N = 206,555), second in number of follow-up cases (N = 279,096), third in number of active and serious cases (N = 8,318), 39th in number of cases per million inhabitants (N = 2,424), and 125th in number of SARS-CoV-2 real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) exams per million inhabitants (N = 4,378). ⋯ Brazil is in a crucial moment to minimize the impact of the illness on society by reducing the number of new cases and thus, preventing deaths, mainly of the risk group populations. However, as widely announced, in Brazil the diagnosis using RT-PCR is still scarce and part of the material collected from COVID-19 patients was disposed of and many patients were not tested, regardless of the seriousness of the symptoms, due to errors of medical data records, improper conservation of the samples after collection and/or during transport, which compromised the quality of the material to be tested. Moreover, the federal government has supported the end of the quarantine, while the number of deaths has grown in thousands every day and the cases have been expanding to the interior of the country.
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Diagn. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. · Sep 2020
COVID-19: Understanding the science of antibody testing and lessons from the HIV epidemic.
Potential pitfalls in the development, deployment and interpretation of antibody tests for COVID-19 are discussed. Lessons learned from the experience with the introduction of antibody tests for HIV are highlighted. Each test will need to be separately vetted for performance and clinical implementation based upon rigorous clinical trial data. The issues we highlight will also be similarly important for vaccine and therapeutic drug efficacy trials.
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Diagn. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. · Sep 2020
ReviewClinical, molecular, and epidemiological characterization of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), a comprehensive literature review.
Coronaviruses are an extensive family of viruses that can cause disease in both animals and humans. The current classification of coronaviruses recognizes 39 species in 27 subgenera that belong to the family Coronaviridae. From those, at least 7 coronaviruses are known to cause respiratory infections in humans. ⋯ Latest figures from 20 May 2020 show more than 5 million people had been infected with the virus, causing more than 330,000 deaths in over 210 countries worldwide. The large amount of information received daily relating to COVID-19 is so abundant and dynamic that medical staff, health authorities, academics and the media are not able to keep up with this new pandemic. In order to offer a clear insight of the extensive literature available, we have conducted a comprehensive literature review of the SARS CoV-2 Virus and the Coronavirus Diseases 2019 (COVID-19).
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Diagn. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. · May 2020
In Vitro Activity of Cefiderocol, a Novel Siderophore Cephalosporin, against Gram-Negative Bacilli Isolated from Patients in Canadian Intensive Care Units.
The in vitro activity of cefiderocol was evaluated against Gram-negative bacilli isolated from patients in Canadian intensive care units from 2015 to 2017 using the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) broth microdilution method and interpretive criteria. All 800 isolates of Gram-negative bacilli tested were susceptible to cefiderocol (MIC ≤4 μg/ml), including isolates of ESBL-producing (n=40), AmpC-producing (n=6), and carbapenem-nonsusceptible (n=21) Enterobacterales, carbapenem-nonsusceptible (n=54) and multidrug-resistant (n=29) Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (n=66), and Acinetobacter baumannii (n=11).