Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has rapidly spread throughout Latin America, a region swept by multiple previous and ongoing epidemics. There are significant concerns that the arrival of COVID-19 is currently overlapping with other viruses,

Significance There is growing evidence that preexisting autoantibodies neutralizing type I interferons (IFNs) are strong determinants of life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia. It is important to estimate their quantitative impact on COVID-19 mortality upon SARS-CoV-2 infection, by age and sex, as both the prevalence of these autoantibodies and the risk of COVID-19 death increase with age and are higher in men. Using an unvaccinated sample of 1,261 deceased patients and 34,159 individuals from the general population, we found that autoantibodies against type I IFNs strongly increased the SARS-CoV-2 infection fatality rate at all ages, in both men and women. Autoantibodies against type I IFNs are strong and common predictors of life-threatening COVID-19. Testing for these autoantibodies should be considered in the general population.

Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre-including this research content-immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.

Molluscum Contagiosum (MC) is a skin infection caused by a double-stranded DNA virus of the family Poxviridae that replicates in the human epidermis, affecting mainly children and young sexually active adults and causing flesh colored papular lesions with central umbilication with an average size of 3-5mm, although atypical lesions that reach great size (Giant Molluscum Contagiosum), 10-15mm, can be seen in almost any immunodeficiency condition. We report the case of a 35 year old male patient with C3 HIV disease with an abdominal pathology associated to skin lesions predominantly in the forehead and scalp that reached sizes over 5mm, diagnosed as Giant Molluscum Contagiosum by skin biopsies.

Background: Severe pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) due to COVID-19 is a challenge for nowadays medical practice. Although there is no clarity in the principal mechanism of lung damage and ARDS development, it has been suggested that one of the main reasons of this pathology is the hyperactivation of the immune system, better known as cytokine storm syndrome. Tocilizumab has been proposed to treat COVID-19 severe cases associated to ARDS. Results & methodology: Here we present two successful cases of tocilizumab administration in two COVID-19 patients with prior administration of antiviral therapy (hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, lopinavir and ritonavir) with adequate response and resolution of ARDS, septic shock and severe pneumonia within the first 72 h. Discussion & conclusion: This case supports the usage of tocilizumab as an effective therapy in COVID-19 associated cytokine storm syndrome. Further studies should be done in order to assess its effectiveness and security.

Pasteurella canis hemorragic sepsis and empyemaWe report the case of a 56-year-old female patient, with a three-day history of hematemesis, melena, abdominal wall hematoma and epistaxis associated with thrombocytopenia and anemia. Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura was diagnosed and she was treated with dexamethasone for four days. The patient developed acute respiratory failure with signs of systemic inflammatory response. Blood and pleural fluid cultures grew Pasteurella canis. This is the first case, to our knowledge, of P. canis empyema associated with hemorrhagic septicemia without epidemiological background and the third case of septicemia caused by P. canis reported in the literature.Key words: Pasteurella, empyema, sepsis.Palabras clave: Pasteurella canis, empiema, septicemia hemorrágica. IntroducciónE l género Pasteurella está conformado por bacterias aerobias-microaerofílicas o anaerobias facultativas que se describen morfológicamente como cocobacilos gramnegativos pleomórficos. En la tinción de Gram se pueden observar como formas cocoides, bacilos cortos o filamentosos con una típica tinción bipolar 1-3 . Habitan en la cavidad oral y tracto gastrointestinal de diversos animales y en el ser humano pueden ser parte de la microbiota del tracto respiratorio superior. Los factores de virulencia están dados por la adherencia al epitelio del tracto respiratorio superior mediada por fimbrias, producción de leucotoxinas que alteran la respuesta celular en el tejido pulmonar, una cápsula de polisacáridos antifagocítica resistente al complemento 4 y la unión a la transferrina garantizando la suplencia de hierro necesaria para el crecimiento bacteriano 1 . El cuadro clínico más común es la infección de piel y tejidos blandos posterior a una mordedura animal, seguido por infecciones del tracto respiratorio, que afecta en la mayoría de los casos a personas con una enfermedad pulmonar subyacente como la enfermedad pulmonar obstructiva crónica (EPOC) y bronquiectasias, o en ancianos e individuos inmunocomprometidos. Se han descrito infecciones secundarias a diseminación hematógena (osteomielitis y artritis séptica) en pacientes con enfermedades de base como artritis reumatoide y en quienes reciben tratamientos con corticoesteroides 2,5,6 . Se han reportado casos infrecuentes de septicemia, endocarditis y meningitis, con mayor frecuencia en personas mayores de 50 años de edad 7 .A continuación, comunicamos el primer caso de una septicemia hemorrágica asociada a un empiema pleural por Pasteurella canis.

No abstract

No abstract