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We analyzed the antibody responses of 564 hospital workers in Athens, Greece, after vaccination with two doses of the BNT162b2 (Comirnaty®; BioNTech and Pfizer) mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. A greater antibody increase was observed in women, younger age groups, previously infected individuals and personnel working in COVID-19 clinics. Notably, individuals with a prior COVID-19 infection mounted a significantly higher antibody titer following the first dose than the rest of the population; the same was true for those working in COVID-19 clinics, even without history of previous infection.

One month after the onset of immunosuppressive treatment with corticosteroids and mycophenolate mofetil for a newly diagnosed pemphigus vulgaris, a 50-year-old female patient developed a new eruption clinically and histomorphologically consistent with eruptive pseudoangiomatosis (EP). Its self-limited course further confirmed this diagnosis. Although initially described as a paediatric eruption, meanwhile more adult cases of EP (30 out of a total of 53 cases identified by a Medline search) are reported in the literature. The review of adult cases of EP disclosed some common clinical and epidemiological characteristics: adult EP cases tend to cluster in the Mediterranean region of Europe, develop during the summer months, sometimes in the form of limited micro-epidemics, affect immunocompromised individuals and have lesions confined to the exposed skin sites. These characteristics, together with the exanthematic nature of the disease in children, point to some vector-transmitted infectious agent as the cause of this probably underdiagnosed disease.

Twenty eight human cases of orf were studied from clinical and epidemiological points of view. Most of the patients were shepherds who were inoculated from infected animals during all seasons of the year. Typical lesions of different stages of orf were located on the hands, and were accompanied by local symptoms such as pain, pruritus, lymphangitis and adenitis, or less frequently by systemic symptoms such as fever or malaise. Two cases developed erythema multiforme, one developed erysipelas and another a papulovesicular eruption. Tzanck test may contribute to the diagnosis. The course of the disease can not be influenced by antibiotics, and only measures of local hygiene are recommended, except in complicated cases.

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