Journal of clinical virology : the official publication of the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology
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Herpes zoster (HZ; shingles)--a reactivation of the latent varicella zoster virus (VZV)--can cause significant morbidity. Its major complication is pain, particularly post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN). ⋯ New molecules in development that show improved activity against VZV are also covered, and new drug targets are outlined. The role of translational neuroscience in moving towards a goal of finding disease-modifying treatments will be examined.
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Herpes zoster (HZ) is a common condition that affects all age groups and both immunocompetent and immunocompromised individuals. However, it mainly impacts elderly and immunocompromised people and is associated with important and sometimes permanent detriment to quality of life and activities of daily living. ⋯ Despite increasing knowledge of the pathology causing PHN, the management modalities for acute HZ pain and PHN remain inadequate. Public, and probably physician, understanding of HZ and its complications is poor, potentially leading to low utilisation of HZ vaccination and delayed presentation for treatment.
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Oseltamivir is considered the drug of choice for patients with pandemic influenza for whom drug treatment is recommended because adamantanes seem to be ineffective against pandemic A/H1N1 influenza virus and zanamivir is contraindicated in people with underlying respiratory conditions and difficult to administer in younger children. ⋯ The emergence of oseltamivir-resistant strains is related to the administration of the drug, supporting the restriction of oseltamivir use to carefully defined high-risk groups. Infection due to pandemic virus with the H275Y mutation can be associated with a severe clinical course, supporting the systematic monitoring of antiviral susceptibility in pandemic influenza-positive high-risk patients whose influenza is not resolved by oseltamivir treatment. Zanamivir inhalation can be successfully used in patients with cystic fibrosis without causing adverse respiratory events, highlighting that the risks and benefits of this drug must be considered on a patient by patient basis.
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The occurrence of herpes zoster can deteriorate the quality of life considerably, resulting in high disease burden. While Korea is assumed to have high disease burden of herpes zoster, there has been no researches analyzing this. ⋯ There is a heavy socioeconomic burden due to herpes zoster in Korea and indicate that appropriate policies need to be established to reduce this burden. Additional researches are also necessary to assess the safety, efficacy and cost-effectiveness of a herpes zoster vaccine in the Korean population.
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Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a zoonotic viral disease that is asymptomatic in infected livestock, but a serious threat to humans. Human infections begin with nonspecific febrile symptoms, but progress to a serious hemorrhagic syndrome with a case fatality rate of 2-50%. ⋯ The disease is one of the most widely distributed viral hemorrhagic fevers occurring in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and some parts of Europe. In this study, we have focused on the CCHF situation in Iran and neighboring countries and provide evidence of over 5000 confirmed cases of CCHF in a single period/season.