Background: This study was designed to assess the motivations of senior medical clinicians to teach medical students. This understanding could improve the recruitment and retention of important clinical teachers.

Asplenic or hyposplenic patients are at risk of fulminant sepsis. This entity has a mortality of up to 50%. The spectrum of causative organisms is evolving as are recommended preventive strategies, which include education, prophylactic and standby antibiotics, preventive immunizations, optimal antimalarial advice when visiting endemic countries and early management of animal bites. However, there is evidence that adherence to these strategies is poor. Consensus-updated guidelines have been developed to help Australian and New Zealand clinicians and patients in the prevention of sepsis in asplenic and hyposplenic patients.

Stools of 68 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected adults with diarrhea and 60 without diarrhea were examined for enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAggEc) by HeLa cell adherence assay. EAggEc were present in stools of 30 patients with and 18 without diarrhea (P = .05). CD4 cell counts of patients with EAggEc and diarrhea were significantly lower than those of patients with EAggEc without diarrhea (P = .02). There was no difference in the mean duration of diarrheal symptoms or in the number of stools per day between patients with EAggEc and those without. None of the EAggEc strains were positive by polymerase chain reaction for adherence fimbria, but 11 strains were positive for EAggEc heat-stable toxin EAST/1. Of the EAggEc strains, 51% were resistant to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and 65% were resistant to ampicillin. EAggEc may be a pathogen in HIV-infected patients with diarrhea; HIV-infected patients with EAggEc appear to be more symptomatic when HIV disease is more advanced.

Pseudomonas pseudomallei, which causes melioidosis, is most commonly associated with pulmonary infection. We describe seven patients who developed a neurological syndrome as the predominant manifestation of melioidosis: this syndrome was characterized by peripheral motor weakness (mimicking Guillain-Barré syndrome), brain-stem encephalitis, aseptic meningitis, and respiratory failure. Neurological melioidosis occurred in the absence of demonstrable foci of infection in the central nervous system (CNS) in five of six patients whose cerebrospinal fluid was available for culture. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging of the brain and spinal cord of these patients were not suggestive of pyogenic infection, although the latter procedure detected brain-stem encephalitis. Autopsy findings in one case confirmed brain-stem encephalitis without evidence of direct bacterial infection. The clinical presentation of neurological melioidosis includes features of an exotoxin-induced neurological syndrome, with profound neurological disease occurring in the absence of apparent direct infection of the CNS. This syndrome appears to be a newly recognized clinical presentation of melioidosis.

Our objectives were to determine HIV-infected patients' awareness and recognition of diarrheal symptoms; and to assess the impact of diarrhea on quality of life. The design was a cross-sectional study utilizing a structured telephone interview. The setting was the HIV/AIDS outpatient clinic of a tertiary referral hospital. HIV-infected patients who attended the clinic in 1994 were interviewed. The main outcome measure was the quality-of-life score (QLS). Fifty percent of patients acknowledged having diarrhea in the previous month. All four categories of diarrhea (self-reported or elicited, within the preceding week or month) were significantly associated with decreased QLS. Patients with diarrhea who did not recognize their symptoms as diarrhea also had significantly lower QLS than patients without diarrhea. Diarrhea in all categories was independently predictive of decreased QLS by multivariable analysis. Chronic diarrhea (symptoms for more than one month) was significantly associated with decreased QLS in patients with high as well as low CD4 cell counts. Lack of recognition of diarrhea may result in significant underreporting of diarrhea by patients to physicians. Diarrhea is highly prevalent in the HIV-infected population and is strongly associated with diminished quality of life.

Background Thousands of medical students undertake international medical electives each year. These students face potentially substantial health and safety risks as well as educational and ethical challenges and therefore should undertake their electives within well-structured and coordinated programs. Methods We conducted a qualitative systematic review based on a pre-determined protocol. Relevant publications and guidelines relating to international medical electives were identified through a review of the literature using on-line search engines, principally PubMed. We then conducted a systematic qualitative synthesis to extract relevant publications. Finally, the literature was organized according to themes, with the aim of developing a structured set of Recommendations for Implementation for program coordinators. Results A wide range of important issues were identified which were categorized into seven themes upon which recommendations were made principally for the benefit of program coordinators: Responsibilities; General policies; Travel advisories; Occupational risk assessment; Funding & finances, Pre-departure training programs; and Post-return debriefing and screening. Conclusions Recommendations for program coordinators on the health and safety of medical students while on international medical electives have been sourced from existing guidelines and relevant publications. There was considerable consensus from the literature and as such these synthesised recommendations could form the basis for internationally accepted standards for elective placement program coordinators. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s40794-019-0081-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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