1,721,122 research outputs found
Registro Italiano delle Profilassi Postesposizione con Antiretrovirali: Antiretroviral post-exposure prophylaxis
No full textPrevalence of Human Immunodeficiency virus, Hepatitis B Virus and Hepatitis C Virus among dialysis patients
No full textPrevalenza di infezione da HIV, HBV e HCV nei dializzati: una base per la stima del rischio di infezione negli operatori sanitari
No full textHigh-level tolerance to triclosan may play a role in <it>Pseudomonas aeruginosa </it>antibiotic resistance in immunocompromised hosts: evidence from outbreak investigation
Full text linkAbstract Background and methods Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a major infectious threat to immunocompromised patients. We recently reported a fatal epidemic of multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa in an onchoematology unit, linked to massive contamination of a triclosan-based disinfectant. The aim of this study is to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of triclosan and chlorhexidine digluconate against the epidemic strain of P. aeruginosa, to confirm the hypothesis that the soap dispenser acted as a continuous source of the infection during the outbreak, and to explore the potential role of triclosan in increasing the level of resistance to selected antibiotics. Susceptibility tests and time-kill assays for disinfectans were performed using two commercial formulations containing triclosan and chlorhexidine digluconate, respectively. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed by the broth microdilution method. Findings The P. aeruginosa epidemic strain exhibited an extremely high level of triclosan resistance (apparent MIC = 2,125 mg/L), while it was markedly susceptible to chlorhexidine digluconate (apparent MIC = 12.5 mg/L). Upon gradual adaptation to triclosan, the epidemic strain survived for a long period (> 120 h) in the presence of 3,400 mg/L (equivalent to 1.6 × MIC) of triclosan, concomitantly increasing the resistance to six antibiotics that are typical substrates of drug efflux pumps of the resistance nodulation division family. This effect was reversed by efflux pump inhibitors. Conclusions The epidemic P. aeruginosa strain was resistant to triclosan and its previous exposure to triclosan increases antibiotic resistance, likely through active efflux mechanisms. Since P. aeruginosa can become tolerant to elevated triclosan concentrations, the use of triclosan-based disinfectants should be avoided in those healthcare settings hosting patients at high risk for P. aeruginosa infection.</p
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Pandemic influenza: rapid sanitary-hygienic measures for initial containment of diffusion
No full textAntisepsi mirata e disinfezione ambientale per la prevenzione della "Clostridium difficile associated diarrhea"
No full textIn the last years, Clostridium difficile acquired great interest for public health because of constant increase of
Clostridium difficile associated diarrhea (CDAD), especially in nosocomial fi eld and as a consequences of its
pathogenicity and virulence.
Oro-faecal transmission and great environmental persistence of Clostridium difficile indicate hand hygiene of
health care workers and environmental disinfection practices as key interventions for prevention and control of
nosocomial CDAD.
The current indications relative to the hand hygiene suggest the use of soap and water for hand washing and, to
achieve a better compliance of health care workers to this treatment, the alternative use of sodium dichloroisocyanurate
or alcohol-based solution or gel waterless.
Regard to environmental disinfection, to avoid high concentrations of sodium hypochlorite (in the magnitude of
5.000-6.000 ppm), necessary to reduce microbic load of dirty environment, the most appropriate treatment should
consist of 2 phases: preliminary cleaning with water and detergents or polyphenol, followed by treatment with solution
containing 1.000 ppm available chlorine, obtained from sodium hypochlorite or sodium dichloroisocyanurat
Drug-induced aminitransferase alterations during antiretroviral HIV post exposure prophylaxis
No full textIn 655 individuals receiving HIV postexposure prophylaxis (PEP), drug-induced aminotransferase alterations were frequent and severe in the nevirapine-including regimen, rare and mild-to-moderate in other combinations, and always reversible. Grade 3-4 incidence in protease inhibitor or nevirapine PEP was 0.5 and 25.0 per 100 person-months, respectively. Apart from nevirapine, continuing PEP appears to be safe even in the case of aminotransferase alterations. The usefulness of routine monitoring of liver function during PEP could be re-considered
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