Search results for "Disease transmission"

Gastric α-synuclein immunoreactive inclusions in Meissner's and Auerbach's plexuses in cases staged for Parkinson's disease-related brain pathology

2005

The progressive degenerative process associated with sporadic Parkinson's disease (sPD) is characterized by formation of alpha-synuclein-containing inclusion bodies in a few types of projection neurons in both the enteric and central nervous systems (ENS and CNS). In the brain, the process apparently begins in the brainstem (dorsal motor nucleus of the vagal nerve) and advances through susceptible regions of the basal mid-and forebrain until it reaches the cerebral cortex. Anatomically, all of the vulnerable brain regions are closely interconnected. Whether the pathological process begins in the brain or elsewhere in the nervous system, however, is still unknown. We therefore used immunocyt…

Epidemiological profile of 806 Italian children with hepatitis C virus infection over a 15-year period

2007

BACKGROUND & AIMS: The natural course of chronic hepatitis C (CHC) in children is not well understood. The aim of this study was to assess the long-term course of CHC in a large sample of otherwise healthy children. METHODS: From 1990 to 2005, 504 consecutive antihepatitis C virus (HCV)-positive children were enrolled at 12 centers of a national observatory and were followed up retrospectively/prospectively. RESULTS: Putative exposure was perinatal in 283 (56.2%) cases, parenteral in 158 (31.3%), and unknown in 63 (12.5%). At baseline, 477 (94.6%) cases were HCV RNA seropositive, 118 (24.7%) of which were treated with standard interferon alpha. Ten years after putative exposure, the out…

Strategies and actions of multi-purpose health communication on vaccine preventable infectious diseases in order to increase vaccination coverage in …

2017

The ESCULAPIO Project aims at increasing awareness on vaccine preventable infectious diseases (VPID) and vaccinations in different target populations and to spread the culture of prevention. Information/training interventions on VPID have been developed and health promotion activities for the general population, students and their parents, teachers and health care workers (HCWs) were set up. In Tuscany, educational courses on VPID in high schools were organized and students were stimulated to prepare informative materials on VPID for lower grade school pupils. In Liguria, an educational card game (named 'Vaccine at the Fair') was presented to children of primary schools. Stands in shopping …

School in Italy: a safe place for children and adolescents

2021

AbstractBackgroundDuring the first SARS-CoV-2 pandemic phase, the sudden closure of schools was one of the main measures to minimize the spread of the virus. In the second phase, several safety procedures were implemented to avoid school closure.To evaluate if the school is a safe place, students and staff of two school complexes of Rome were monitored to evaluate the efficacy of prevention measures inside the school buildings.MethodsOral secretions specimens were collected from 1262 subjects for a total of 3431 samples, collected over a 3 months period.Detection of Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 was performed by real-time PCR. Target genes were represented by E gene, RdRP/S gene and N gene.Results…

Prevalence of acquired resistance mutations in a large cohort of perinatally infected HIV-1 patients

2019

Congenital \textittoxoplasma infection: monthly prenatal screening decreases transmission rate and improves clinical outcome at age 3 years

2013

Background. Toxoplasma infection during pregnancy exposes the fetus to risks of congenital infection and sequelae that depend heavily on gestational age (GA) at time of infection. Accurate risk estimates by GA are necessary to counsel parents and improve clinical decisions. Methods. We analyzed data from pregnant women diagnosed with acute Toxoplasma infection in Lyon (France) from 1987 to 2008 and assessed how the risks of congenital toxoplasmosis and of clinical signs at age 3 years vary depending on GA at the time of maternal infection. Results. Among 2048 mother-infant pairs, 93.2% of mothers received prenatal treatment and 513 (24.7%) fetuses were infected. Because of a significant red…

Containment of a Large SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak Among Healthcare Workers in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

2020

Objective Healthcare workers (HCWs) are particularly exposed SARS-CoV-2 because they are critical in preventing viral transmission and treating COVID-19 patients. Within HCWs, personnel of intensive care units (ICUs) are at the forefront of treating patients with a severe course of COVID-19 infection and therefore represent an extremely vulnerable group. Thus, our objective is to contribute to establish means of infection control protecting HCWs in the frontline of the current pandemic. Design An outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 was detected and contained in a pediatric ICU (PICU). The first positive case was identified with a point-of-care diagnostic system on site. Real-time PCR-based testing syste…

Potential association of specific Candida parapsilosis genotypes, bloodstream infections and colonization of health workers' hands.

2014

AbstractFungal nosocomial infections continue to be a serious problem among hospitalized patients, decreasing quality of life and adding millions of euros to healthcare costs. The aim of this study was to describe the pattern of fungi associated with the hands of healthcare workers and to genotype Candida parapsilosis isolates in order to understand whether their high clinical prevalence stems from endemic nosocomial genotypes or from the real emergence of epidemiologically-unrelated strains. Approximately 39% (50/129) of healthcare workers were positive for yeasts and among 77 different fungal isolates recovered, C. parapsilosis was the most frequent (44/77; 57%). Twenty-seven diverse geno…

Helicobacter pylori: clonal population structure and restricted transmission within families revealed by molecular typing.

2000

ABSTRACT Helicobacter pylori infects up to 50% of the human population worldwide. The infection occurs predominantly in childhood and persists for decades or a lifetime. H. pylori is believed to be transmitted from person to person. However, tremendous genetic diversity has been reported for these bacteria. In order to gain insight into the epidemiological basis of this phenomenon, we performed molecular typing of H. pylori isolates from different families. Fifty-nine H. pylori isolates from 27 members of nine families were characterized by using restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of five PCR-amplified genes, by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) of chromosomal DNA, and …

Transmission bottlenecks and the evolution of fitness in rapidly evolving RNA viruses

2003

We explored the evolutionary importance of two factors in the adaptation of RNA viruses to their cellular hosts, size of viral inoculum used to initiate a new infection, and mode of transmission (horizontal versus vertical). Transmission bottlenecks should occur in natural populations of viruses and their profound effects on viral adaptation have been previously documented. However, the role of transmission mode has not received the same attention. Here we used a factorial experimental design to test the combined effects of inoculum (bottleneck) size and mode of transmission in evolution of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) in tissue culture, and compared our results to the predictions of a …