To explore the endogenous interferon levels in patients of Argentine hemorrhagic fever (AHF) with different clinical evolution of the disease, 29 fatal and 33 surviving cases of AHF were analyzed. As previously reported, the titers of endogenous alpha-IFN in patients with AHF are very high, generally between 2,000 and 64,000 IU/ml. Thus far, these are the highest levels of circulating interferon detected in any human viral disease. In this study it was found that during the second week of evolution the titers of interferon were significantly higher in fatal cases than in survivors. Therefore, very high levels of interferon have a prognostic value in AHF.
The induction of endogenous interferon (IFN) was studied in 28 cases of Argentine hemorrhagic fever (AHF), a severe systemic disease caused by Junin virus. Serum samples were taken daily during the acute period, both before and after administration of immune plasma. This form of treatment has been found to reduce mortality when given early in the course of AHF. High titers of circulating IFN were present in the serum samples taken before treatment. IFN titers drastically dropped after transfusion of immune plasma. The antiviral activity was stable at pH 2 and was completely neutralized only by antibodies against IFN-alpha. Thus, we concluded that circulating endogenous IFN in patients with AHF can be considered as typical IFN-alpha. Fever, chills, and backache were associated with the higher levels of IFN. An inverse correlation between days of evolution of the disease and IFN activity was also observed.
Methods: Children aged ''3 months to <5 years with new episodes of AOM (onset of symptoms <3 days) were included. Middle ear fluid (MEF) samples were collected by tympanocentesis or by sampling of spontaneous otorrhea (<20% of all cases). Recovered bacteria were identified and serotyped.Results: 99 children with new episodes of AOM were enrolled between January 2008 and January 2009. 100 MEF samples from tympanocentesis (n = 84) and otorrhea (n = 16) were collected (1 subject had 1 sample collected in each ear). The median participant age was 29 months (range: 5 -55months), and 54.5% of subjects were male. Bacteria were cultured from 63% samples with at least one pathogen under study. H. influenzae was isolated in 31 (31%), 30 S. pneumoniae (30%), 2 S. pyogenes (2%) and 3 S. aureus (3%). 14 (46.7%) S. pneumoniae isolates were serotypes found in the two licensed pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (14, 19F & 23F), 7 (23%) were vaccine-related types 6A (n = 5) and 19A (n = 2) and 7 were non-vaccine types. 27/31 (87%) of H. influenzae isolates were non-typeable. No M. catarrhalis was isolated.Conclusion: Non-typeable H. influenzae and S. pneumoniae were the leading bacterial causes of AOM in Cali, Colombia. A vaccine with efficacy against both pathogens would be most useful to prevent AOM.
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