Current opinion in infectious diseases
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To describe the impact of highly active antiretroviral therapy on the burden of pneumococcal disease and advances in our understanding of the impact of HIV on this disease. ⋯ The pneumococcus remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality among HIV-infected children and adults, both in developed and in developing countries.
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HIV postexposure prophylaxis is often recommended following potential sexual exposure to HIV. Recent data address the effectiveness of postexposure prophylaxis and prevention counseling, cost-effectiveness, antiretroviral options, challenges with nonoccupational postexposure prophylaxis among adolescents and children and following sexual assault in high HIV prevalence areas, and a successful program in Amsterdam. ⋯ Numerous national and international guidelines recommend postexposure prophylaxis following potential sexual exposure to HIV. Maximizing adherence and minimizing subsequent HIV exposures will be critical to enhancing the effectiveness of this HIV prevention intervention.
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In the past few years, procalcitonin has been proposed as a sensitive and specific inflammatory marker in various fields of medicine, especially in infectivology, where it has been used to discriminate between bacterial infections, viral infections and inflammation processes. Recently, different studies have emerged in the literature on the use of this marker to identify renal involvement in febrile urinary tract infections. ⋯ Renal involvement has always been the main diagnostic objective in children with febrile urinary tract infections. If more studies confirm the correlation between procalcitonin, renal involvement during urinary infections and scar formation, we will finally have a noninvasive tool that can identify children at risk of complications and in need of a close follow-up as early as their first episode of febrile urinary tract infection.