Infectious Disease

Reporting viral load and CD4 counts is a critical first step in calculating community viral load. In August 2011, CDC released Guidance on Community Viral Load: Measures, Definitions, and Methods for Calculation to describe the concept of community viral load and provide definitions of and methods for calculating community viral load and related measures. The Guidance proposes common language for viral load (VL) measurements, which include four measures of viral load for an HIV-infected population.

Today is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NBHAAD). The theme for this observance day, “I Am My Brother/Sister’s Keeper: Fight HIV/AIDS!” holds much significance as we reflect on opportunities to bring an end to the spread of HIV in the United States.

(MedPage Today) -- Appropriate use criteria for percutaneous coronary intervention should not be used to make policy decisions because of their inherent systematic and methodological problems, cardiologists suggested.

Previous studies have found that human behavior during a recession is remarkably different than that during a bullish economy. For example, people tend to spend more time focused on working and less time engaging in leisure and recreation activities, resulting in fewer motor vehicle and other accidents...

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Coloradans who smoke are not thinking about quitting or getting ready to quit, and a quarter are uncomfortable approaching their doctors for help, report University of Colorado Cancer Center researchers in a recent article published in Nicotine & Tobacco Research...

War, the aftermath of war, and political violence are harmful to children's and teens' mental health and well-being. But few studies have looked at how this happens...

This report describes the optimization and evaluation of a simple single-step lysis protocol to measure luciferase bioluminescence from genetically modified Plasmodium falciparum. This protocol utilizes a modified commercial buffer to improve speed of assay and consistency in the bioluminescence signal measured by reducing the manipulation steps required to release the cytoplasmic fraction. The utility of this improved assay protocol is demonstrated in typical assays that explore absolute and temporal gene expression activity.

Background: Genome and transcriptome studies of Plasmodium nucleic acids obtained from parasitized whole blood are greatly improved by depletion of human DNA or enrichment of parasite DNA prior to next-generation sequencing and microarray hybridization. The most effective method currently used is a two-step procedure to deplete leukocytes: centrifugation using density gradient media followed by filtration through expensive, commercially available columns. This method is not easily implemented in field studies that collect hundreds of samples and simultaneously process samples for multiple laboratory analyses. Inexpensive syringes, hand-packed with CF11 cellulose powder, were recently shown to improve ex vivo cultivation of Plasmodium vivax obtained from parasitized whole blood. This study was undertaken to determine whether CF11 columns could be adapted to isolate Plasmodium falciparum DNA from parasitized whole blood and achieve current quantity and purity requirements for Illumina sequencing. Methods: The CF11 procedure was compared with the current two-step standard of leukocyte depletion using parasitized red blood cells cultured in vitro and parasitized blood obtained ex vivo from Cambodian patients with malaria. Procedural variations in centrifugation and column size were tested, along with a range of blood volumes and parasite densities. Results: CF11 filtration reliably produces 500 nanograms of DNA with less than 50% human DNA contamination, which is comparable to that obtained by the two-step method and falls within the current quality control requirements for Illumina sequencing. In addition, a centrifuge-free version of the CF11 filtration method to isolate P. falciparum DNA at remote and minimally equipped field sites in malaria-endemic areas was validated. Conclusions: CF11 filtration is a cost-effective, scalable, one-step approach to remove human DNA from P. falciparum-infected whole blood samples.

(MedPage Today) -- SILVER SPRING, Md. -- By a vote of 12-0, an FDA advisory panel said a capsaicin skin patch did not relieve neuropathic pain from HIV.

WASHINGTON (MedPage Today) -- A new drug for hepatitis C can reduce the effectiveness of some HIV medications if they are taken together and vice versa, the FDA is warning.

SAN FRANCISCO (MedPage Today) -- A common clinical method for gauging the risk that the Staphylococcus aureus causing a child's osteomyelitis will be methicillin-resistant is unreliable, a researcher said here.

(MedPage Today) -- A government website that publishes data on hospital outcomes such as mortality and readmission rates will now include information on central line infections, officials said.

A new study published this week shows there has been a big drop in levels of trans-fatty acids in the US bloodstream. From 2000 to 2009 it fell by 58%. This is the first time researchers from the US Centers from Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been able to measure trans-fats in human blood. They write about their findings in a letter to the Editor of JAMA...

In 2008, rates of teen pregnancies in the US reached their lowest level in nearly 40 years...

Counties and parishes with a greater concentration of small, locally-owned businesses have healthier populations - with lower rates of mortality, obesity and diabetes - than do those that rely on large companies with "absentee" owners, according to a national study by sociologists at LSU and Baylor University...

How can insurers justify spending hundreds of thousands of dollars per patient per year on "orphan drugs" - extremely expensive medications for rare conditions that are mostly chronic and life-threatening - when this money could provide greater overall health benefit if spread out among many other patients? Those spending decisions reflect the "rule of rescue," the value that o...

Shark attacks in the U.S. declined in 2011, but worldwide fatalities reached a two-decade high, according to the University of Florida's International Shark Attack File report. While the U.S. and Florida saw a five-year downturn in the number of reported unprovoked attacks, the 12 fatalities - which all occurred outside the U.S...

Gunshot injuries are typically categorized as low- or high-energy based on the weapon's missile velocity and mass. Typically, low energy injuries are treated with simple wound care, with or without antibiotics, regardless of the presence of a fracture. In contrast, high energy injuries are treated more aggressively...

Despite a national mandate to implement electronic health records and computer order entry systems (CPOE) by 2014, only approximately 30 percent of hospitals nationwide have done so and around 40 percent of hospitals in the state of Massachusetts have made this transition...

Background: In Gabon, vector transmission has been poorly studied. Since the implementation of the Roll Back malaria recommendations, clinical studies have shown a decline in the burden of malaria in Libreville, the capital city of Gabon. To better understand the transmission dynamic in Libreville, an entomological survey was conducted in five districts of the city. Methods: Mosquitoes were sampled by human landing collection during 1 year in five districts of Libreville: Alibandeng, Beausejour, Camp des Boys and Sotega. Mosquitoes were identified morphologically and by molecular methods. The Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite indices were measured by ELISA, and the entomological inoculation rates (EIR) were calculated for all areas. Molecular assessments of pyrethroid knock down resistance (kdr) and of insensitive acetylcholinesterase resistance were conducted. Results: A total of 57,531 mosquitoes were caught during 341 person-nights (161 person-nights indoor and 180 person-nights outdoor) among which, 4,223 were Anopheles gambiae s.l. The average Human Biting Rate fell from 15.5 bites per person during the rainy season to 4.7 during the dry season. The An. gambiae complex population was composed of An. gambiae s.s molecular form S (99.5%), Anopheles melas (0.3%) and An. gambiae s.s. form M (0.2%). Thirty-three out of 4,223 An. gambiae s.l. were found to be infected by P. falciparum (CSP index = 0.78%). The annual EIR was estimated at 33.9 infected bites per person per year ranging from 13 in Alibandeng to 88 in Sotega. No insensitive AChE mutation was identified but both kdr-w and kdr-e mutations were present in An. gambiae molecular form S with a higher frequency of the kdr-w allele (76%) than the kdr-e allele (23.5%). Conclusion: Malaria transmission in Libreville occurred mainly during the rainy season but also during the dry season in the five districts. Transmission level is high and seems to be very heterogeneous in the town. Interestingly, the highest EIR was recorded in the most central and urbanized quarter and the lowest in a peripheral area. The decrease of transmission usually seen from peri-urban areas to urban centers is probably more dependent of the socio-economic level of a quarter than of its location in the city. Urban malaria control programmes need to consider the socio economic level of an area rather than the location in the city in order to determine the areas most favourable to malaria transmission.