Despite the numerous bacteria detection and elimination techniques available nowadays, sensitive diagnosis and treatment of sepsis (caused by the presence of bacteria in the bloodstream), especially at the early stage, remain big challenges. Here we report a nanosystem for early sepsis diagnosis and complete extracorporeal blood disinfection, based on iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles functionalized with chlorin e6 molecules and bacterial species-identifiable aptamers (FeO-Ce6-Apt). We demonstrate that the FeO-Ce6-Apt nanosystem can achieve simultaneous blood bacterial species identification and enrichment in a single step, and the enriched bacteria can be easily detected with the assistance of fluorescence microscopic determination. Based on this FeO-Ce6-Apt nanosystem, successful diagnosis of sepsis caused by a single (Staphylococcus aureus) or multiple species (Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli) of bacteria in mice has been realized. Compared to the gold standard blood culture method, this FeO-Ce6-Apt nanosystem-based strategy has a comparable detection sensitivity (around 10 colony-forming units) but a significantly shortened diagnosis turnaround time (within 1.5 h), revealing its great potential for early sepsis diagnosis in clinical settings. Moreover, benefitting from the strong photodynamic effect of the FeO-Ce6-Apt nanosystem, complete extracorporeal blood disinfection has been achieved. Remarkably, we also demonstrate that the disinfected blood can be reused for mice transfusion application without inducing adverse reactions, indicating the fruitful potential of the FeO-Ce6-Apt nanosystem for sepsis treatment. Apart from the sepsis-associated applications, we believe that the FeO-Ce6-Apt nanosystem could find wide applications in the fields of health and environmental sciences that require bacteria monitoring and sterilization.

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PurposeIncorporating mass pediatric vision screening programs as part of a national agenda can be challenging. This review assessed the implementation strategy of the existing pediatric vision screening program.MethodsA search was performed on PubMed, EBSCO host MEDLINE Complete, and Scopus databases encompassing the past ten years for mass pediatric screening practice patterns that met the selection criteria regarding their objectives and implementation. Results were analyzed from 18 countries across five continents.ResultsEight countries (44%) offered screening for distance visual acuity only, where the majority of the countries (88%) used either Snellen or Tumbling E chart. High-income countries initiated screening earlier and applied a more comprehensive approach, targeting conditions other than reduced vision only, compared with middle-income countries. Chart-based testing was most commonly performed, with only three countries incorporating an instrument-based approach. Lack of eyecare and healthcare practitioners frequently necessitated the involvement of non-eyecare personnel (94%) as a vision screener including parent, trained staff, and nurse.ConclusionsImplementation of a vision screening program was diverse within countries preceded by limited resources issues. Lack of professional eyecare practitioners implied the need to engage a lay screener. The limitation of existing tests to detect a broader range of visual problems at affordable cost advocated the urgent need for the development of an inexpensive and comprehensive screening tool.

A novel bacteria-activated photodynamic nanosystem (SiO2/PAH–Ce6) has been reported for selective fluorescence sensing and photodynamic elimination of pathogenic bacteria.

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Background:Visual acuity is an essential estimate to assess ability of the visual system and is used as an indicator of ocular health status.Aim:The aim of this study is to investigate the consistency of acuity estimates from three different clinical visual acuity charts under two levels of ambient room illumination.Materials and Methods:This study involved thirty Malay university students aged between 19 and 23 years old (7 males, 23 females), with their spherical refractive error ranging between plano and –7.75D, astigmatism ranging from plano to –1.75D, anisometropia less than 1.00D and with no history of ocular injury or pathology. Right eye visual acuity (recorded in logMAR unit) was measured with Snellen letter chart (Snellen), wall mounted letter chart (WM) and projected letter chart (PC) under two ambient room illuminations, room light on and room light off.Results:Visual acuity estimates showed no statistically significant difference when measured with the room light on and with the room light off (F1,372 = 0.26, P = 0.61). Post-hoc analysis with Tukey showed that visual acuity estimates were significantly different between the Snellen and PC (P = 0.009) and between Snellen and WM (P = 0.002).Conclusions:Different levels of ambient room illumination had no significant effect on visual acuity estimates. However, the discrepancies in estimates of visual acuity noted in this study were purely due to the type of letter chart used.