Public involvement in science has allowed researchers to collect large-scale and real-time data and also engage citizens, so researchers are adopting citizen science (CS) in many areas. One promising ...appeal is student participation in CS school programs. In this literature review, we aimed to investigate which school CS programs exist in the areas of (applied) life sciences and if any projects target infectious disease surveillance. This review’s objectives are to determine success factors in terms of data quality and student engagement. After a comprehensive search in biomedical and social databases, we found 23 projects. None of the projects found focused on infectious disease surveillance, and the majority centered around species biodiversity. While a few projects had issues with data quality, simplifying the protocol or allowing students to resubmit data made the data collected more usable. Overall, students at different educational levels and disciplines were able to collect usable data that was comparable to expert data and had positive learning experiences. In this review, we have identified limitations and gaps in reported CS school projects and provided recommendations for establishing future programs. This review shows the value of using CS in collaboration with traditional research techniques to advance future science and increasingly engage communities.
Highlights • The 17 D Yellow Fever vaccination yields an effective immune response in immune-compromised patients. • In measuring post vaccination seroprotection, the sensitivity of the Plaque ...Reduction Neutralization Test (PRNT) is superior to the Indirect Fluorescence Assay (IFA). • A negative post-vaccination IFA does not rule out seroprotection against Yellow Fever. • The patient sample is far too small to draw any conclusions on the issue safety, regarding Yellow Fever vaccination in immune-compromised patients.
Abstract Background Procalcitonin (PCT) is a new biomarker with a higher accuracy in the diagnosis of bacterial infections. Utilization of PCT may reduce the number of unnecessary antibiotics ...prescribed to patients and consequently may decrease the rise in antibiotic resistance. The aim of this systematic review is to determine if a PCT-guided algorithm can safely reduce the number of antibiotics prescribed to all patients with a suspected of infection in the emergency department (ED). Methods MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, COCHRANE central, PubMed publisher, and Google scholar were searched. Two reviewers performed the screening independently. The QUADAS 2 tool was used to assess quality. Results In total, 1621 articles were screened. Nine articles were included in the analysis. In the 6 studies on adult patients, only patients with respiratory tract infections were investigated. In these studies, a cutoff value of 0.25 μ g/L was used, and PCT-guided therapy reduced the number of prescribed antibiotics significantly. Three studies were on pediatric patients, 2 on fever without source and 1 on respiratory complaints. Procalcitonin-guided therapy did not reduce antibiotic prescription in children. Procalcitonin-guided therapy did not result in an increase in adverse events in any of the studies. Discussion Procalcitonin-guided therapy in the ED is only studied in subpopulations, where it was effective and safe in adult patients with respiratory tract infections and not effective but safe nonetheless in specific pediatric populations. Nonadherence is a significant problem in prospective PCT-guided therapy studies. There is not enough evidence to use PCT-guided therapy in a general ED population.
Introduction
Myxovirus resistance protein 1 (MxA) is a biomarker that is elevated in patients with viral infections. The goal of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of MxA in diagnosing ...COVID‐19 infections in the emergency department (ED) patients.
Methods
This was a single‐center prospective observational cohort study including patients with a suspected COVID‐19 infection. The primary outcome of this study was a confirmed COVID‐19 infection by RT‐PCR test. MxA was assessed using an enzyme immunoassay on whole blood and receiver operating chart and area under the curve (AUC) analysis was conducted. Sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value, and positive predictive value of MxA on diagnosing COVID‐19 at the optimal cut‐off of MxA was determined.
Results
In 2021, 100 patients were included. Of these patients, 77 patients had COVID‐19 infection and 23 were non‐COVID‐19. Median MxA level was significantly higher (p < .001) in COVID‐19 patients compared to non‐COVID‐19 patients, respectively 1933 and 0.1 ng/ml. The AUC of MxA on a confirmed COVID‐19 infection was 0.941 (95% CI: 0.867–1.000). The optimal cut‐off point of MxA was 252 ng/ml. At this cut‐off point, the sensitivity of MxA on a confirmed COVID‐19 infection was 94% (95% CI: 85%–98%) and the specificity was 91% (95% CI: 72%–99%).
Conclusion
MxA accurately distinguishes COVID‐19 infections from bacterial infections and noninfectious diagnoses in the ED in patients with a suspected COVID‐19 infection. If the results can be validated, MxA could improve the diagnostic workup and patient flow in the ED.
Elevated myxovirus resistance protein‐1 (MxA) levels accurately distinguish COVID‐19 infections from bacterial infections and noninfectious diagnoses in patients with suspected COVID‐19 infection in the emergency department. MxA measurements may be of added value in the diagnostic workup and patient flow in the emergency department.
Being the largest archipelago country in the world, with a tropical climate and a unique flora and fauna, Indonesia habitats one of the most diverse biome in the world. These characteristics make ...Indonesia a popular travel destination, with tourism numbers increasing yearly. These characteristics also facilitate the transmission of zoonosis and provide ideal living and breading circumstances for arthropods, known vectors for viral diseases. A review of the past 10 years of literature, reports of the Ministry of Health, Republic of Indonesia and ProMED-mail shows a significant increase in dengue infection incidence. Furthermore, chikungunya, Japanese encephalitis and rabies are proven to be endemic in Indonesia. The combination of cohort studies, governmental data and ProMED-mail reveals an integrated overview for those working in travel medicine and public health, focusing on both endemic and emerging acute virus infections. This review summarizes the epidemiology of acute virus infections in Indonesia, including outbreak reports, as well as public health response measurements and their potential or efficacy. Knowledge about human behaviour, animal reservoirs, climate factors, environment and their role in emerging virus infection are discussed. We aim to support public health authorities and health care policy makers in a One Health approach.
Summary Objective To evaluate the long pentraxin PTX3 in patients with severe leptospirosis and to compare the results with the widely used short pentraxin C-reactive protein and the pro-inflammatory ...cytokines IL-6 and IL-8. Methods This observational cohort study was carried out in Semarang, Indonesia, where leptospirosis is endemic and mortality is high. Consecutive patients with severe leptospirosis were sampled on admission and during follow-up. Results A total number of 52 patients entered the study, the mortality was 27%. Severe leptospirosis patient yielded elevated plasma PTX3 levels. PTX3 correlated with IL-8 and to a lesser extent with CRP and IL-6 levels. High levels of PTX3, IL-6 and IL-8 were associated with mortality (OR 5.6, 95%CI: 1.2–26; OR 3.2, 95%CI: 1.2–8.1; OR 6.5, 95%CI: 1.5–28). Moreover, PTX3 levels were associated with disease severity (OR 9.5; 95%CI: 2.9–45). This association was unique, since none of the other markers showed this relation. C-reactive protein was not able to differentiate the severe from the severest cases. Conclusions The long pentraxin PTX3 is elevated in patients with severe leptospirosis and is associated with fatal disease and disease severity. PTX3 may be used as a marker to monitor disease severity in severe leptospirosis or predict outcome.
Leptospirosis is caused by pathogenic spirochetes of the genus Leptospira. The bacteria enter the human body via abraded skin or mucous membranes and may disseminate throughout. In general the ...clinical picture is mild but some patients develop rapidly progressive, severe disease with a high case fatality rate. Not much is known about the innate immune response to leptospires during haematogenous dissemination. Previous work showed that a human THP-1 cell line recognized heat-killed leptospires and leptospiral LPS through TLR2 instead of TLR4. The LPS of virulent leptospires displayed a lower potency to trigger TNF production by THP-1 cells compared to LPS of non-virulent leptospires.
We investigated the host response and killing of virulent and non-virulent Leptospira of different serovars by human THP-1 cells, human PBMC's and human whole blood. Virulence of each leptospiral strain was tested in a well accepted standard guinea pig model. Virulent leptospires displayed complement resistance in human serum and whole blood while in-vitro attenuated non-virulent leptospires were rapidly killed in a complement dependent manner. In vitro stimulation of THP-1 and PBMC's with heat-killed and living leptospires showed differential serovar and cell type dependence of cytokine induction. However, at low, physiological, leptospiral dose, living virulent complement resistant strains were consistently more potent in whole blood stimulations than the corresponding non-virulent complement sensitive strains. At higher dose living virulent and non-virulent leptospires were equipotent in whole blood. Inhibition of different TLRs indicated that both TLR2 and TLR4 as well as TLR5 play a role in the whole blood cytokine response to living leptospires.
Thus, in a minimally altered system as human whole blood, highly virulent Leptospira are potent inducers of the cytokine response.
The classification of dengue virus-infected patients continues to be a challenge to researchers and clinicians in the field. The accuracy of the 1997 World Health Organization (WHO) dengue case ...definition has been debated for a decade, because the definition was very stringent, for instance, several researchers showed that apparently severe cases were misclassified as not severe. Therefore the WHO issued revised guidelines in 2009. Here, we retrospectively compared the performance of the WHO case definition of 2009 with the WHO case definition of 1997 in a detailed documented pediatric cohort from Indonesia. Intensive treatment intervention was used as an indicator of severity of disease. In line with our expectations, the 2009 WHO case classification proved to be significantly more specific, albeit less sensitive than the WHO case classification of 1997. We conclude that the revised classification is promising both from research and clinical perspectives, but validation of the classification criteria still needs to be addressed.
Severe dengue virus (DENV) disease is associated with extensive immune activation, characterized by a cytokine storm. Previously, elevated lipopolysaccharide (LPS) levels in dengue were found to ...correlate with clinical disease severity. In the present cross-sectional study we identified markers of microbial translocation and immune activation, which are associated with severe manifestations of DENV infection.
Serum samples from DENV-infected patients were collected during the outbreak in 2010 in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. Levels of LPS, lipopolysaccharide binding protein (LBP), soluble CD14 (sCD14) and IgM and IgG endotoxin core antibodies were determined by ELISA. Thirty cytokines were quantified using a multiplex luminex system. Patients were classified according to the 2009 WHO classification and the occurrence of plasma leakage/shock and hemorrhage. Moreover, a (non-supervised) cluster analysis based on the expression of the quantified cytokines was applied to identify groups of patients with similar cytokine profiles. Markers of microbial translocation were linked to groups with similar clinical disease severity and clusters with similar cytokine profiles.
Cluster analysis indicated that LPS levels were significantly increased in patients with a profound pro-inflammatory cytokine profile. LBP and sCD14 showed significantly increased levels in patients with severe disease in the clinical classification and in patients with severe inflammation in the cluster analysis. With both the clinical classification and the cluster analysis, levels of IL-6, IL-8, sIL-2R, MCP-1, RANTES, HGF, G-CSF and EGF were associated with severe disease.
The present study provides evidence that both microbial translocation and extensive immune activation occur during severe DENV infection and may play an important role in the pathogenesis.
Highlights • Endothelial cells are important in the development of plasma leakage during dengue. • Markers produced by endothelial cells in relation to plasma leakage were investigated. • Levels of ...angiopoietin-2 were increased in dengue patients with plasma leakage. • Levels of sVEGFR-2 were decreased in dengue patients with plasma leakage. • Angiopoietin-2 and sVEGFR-2 can serve as surrogate markers for plasma leakage.
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