Infectious diseases (London, England)
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Data on the filtration efficacies of various masks against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are limited. We thus evaluate the effectiveness of the surgical mask, the N95 respirator mask, and its equivalent (KF94 mask) in filtering SARS-CoV-2. ⋯ Surgical masks were less effective in filtering viral particles from coughing patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. N95 masks and its equivalents efficiently blocked SARS-CoV-2 particles from coughing patients.
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Guidelines recommend oral vancomycin as first-line therapy for Clostridioides difficile infection. Guideline recommendations vary regarding dosing of vancomycin. Our aim was to summarize the current evidence on the efficacy and adverse effects of high dose oral and vancomycin retention enema (>500 mg/day) for the treatment of C. difficile infection. ⋯ The dosing schedules for oral vancomycin and vancomycin enemas are not clearly defined due to widely varying results in clinical studies. Large, comparative multicenter trials are urgently needed to define the role of high dose vancomycin in C. difficile infection.
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Background: From January 2020, Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) has rapidly spread all over the world. An early assessment of illness severity is important for the stratification of patients. We analysed the predictive value of National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2) for intensive care unit admission (ICU) in patients with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome- Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. ⋯ Higher specificity, positive likelihood ratio and positive predictive value were found using a threshold of 7 than a threshold of 5. Conclusions: NEWS2 at hospital admission was a good predictor for ICU admission. Patients with severe COVID-19 were correctly and rapidly stratified.