The epidemiology of candidaemia varies between hospitals and geographic regions. Although there are many studies from Asia, a large-scale cross-sectional study across Asia has not been performed. We conducted a 12-month, laboratory-based surveillance of candidaemia at 25 hospitals from China, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. The incidence and species distribution of candidaemia were determined. There were 1601 episodes of candidaemia among 1.2 million discharges. The overall incidence was 1.22 episodes per 1000 discharges and varied among the hospitals (range 0.16-4.53 per 1000 discharges) and countries (range 0.25-2.93 per 1000 discharges). The number of Candida blood isolates and the total number of fungal isolates were highly correlated among the six countries (R² = 0.87) and 25 hospitals (R² = 0.77). There was a moderate correlation between incidence of candidaemia and the intensive care unit (ICU)/total bed ratio (R² = 0.47), although ICUs contributed to only 23% of candidaemia cases. Of 1910 blood isolates evaluated, Candida albicans was most frequently isolated (41.3%), followed by Candida tropicalis (25.4%), Candida glabrata (13.9%) and Candida parapsilosis (12.1%). The proportion of C. tropicalis among blood isolates was higher in haemato-oncology wards than others wards (33.7% versus 24.5%, p 0.0058) and was more likely to be isolated from tropical countries than other Asian countries (46.2% versus 18.9%, p 0.04). In conclusion, the ICU settings contribute, at least in part, to the incidence variation among hospitals. The species distribution is different from Western countries. Both geographic and healthcare factors contribute to the variation of species distribution.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common virus that causes respiratory infection, especially severe respiratory infection in infants and young children, the elderly people over 65 years old, and people with weak immunity. Currently, RSV infection has no effective vaccine and antiviral treatment. The number of deaths due to RSV infection increases every year. Moreover, RSV A infection occurs in a large number and has severe clinical symptoms and complications than RSV B infection. Therefore, the development of a simple, rapid, and inexpensive detection method with high amplification efficiency, high sensitivity, and specificity is very important for the diagnosis of RSV A or RSV B infection, which can help in the early clinical medication and prevent the progress of the disease. Therefore, we developed an integrated trinity test with an RPA-CRISPR/Cas12a-fluorescence (termed IT-RAISE) assay system to detect RSV A or RSV B. The characteristic of the IT-RAISE system is that after target recognition, the reporter single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) is cleaved by Cas12a that is activated by different crRNAs to detect the generated fluorescent signal. This method is simple and helps in adding all reagents rapidly. It is a high-sensitive method that can detect 1.38 × 101 copies/μl of the target sequences, and it can distinguish RSV A or RSV B infection within 37 min. In addition, clinical specimens were detected for IT-RAISE system. It was found that the sensitivity and specificity of RSV A were 73.08 and 90%, respectively, and those of RSV B were 42.86 and 93.33%, respectively. The cost of ONE specimen for IT-RAISE system was approximately $ 2.6 (excluding rapid RNA extraction and reverse transcription costs). IT-RAISE system has good clinical application prospects for detecting RSV A or RSV B infection; it is a simple, rapid, and inexpensive method with high amplification efficiency, high sensitivity, and high specificity. The IT-RAISE system might also detect other viral or bacterial infections.

Objective To investigate the incidence and clinical characteristics of hospitalized children with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection, and to provide evidence for the importance of preventive strategies and improvements in supportive care of RSV infection. Methods This retrospective study included children under 14 years who received throat swab test and were diagnosed with RSV infection from January 2019 to December 2020. Throat swabs and intravenous blood were the main sources of samples, which were obtained within 24 hours of hospitalization. Direct immunofluorescence assay was used to diagnose RSV infection. Results Among the 448 hospitalized children with RSV infection, males (71.9%) showed the highest proportion, the highest incidence was found in children<6 months old (45.3%), and 76.6% of them had pneumonia. Pharyngeal redness, cough, expectoration, and mental fatigue were the most common symptoms in hospitalized children of all ages. More than 60% of hospitalized children had increased lymphocyte count, aspartate aminotransferase, creatine kinase-MB form, lactate dehydrogenase, and α-HBDH levels. The rates of myocardial damage, respiratory failure, stay in the intensive care unit (ICU), use of mechanical ventilation, and absorption of oxygen were higher in children<6 months old. Except for children who were 37–60 months old, the percentage of length of hospital stay≥7 days in the other age groups was greater than 62.0%. Except for children who were 0–28 days old and>61 months old, the other age groups showed a re-hospitalization situation due to re-infection with RSV. In hospitalized children diagnosed with RSV infection from throat swabs, we also performed the RSV IgM test and found that 59.2% of them were positive, 8.0% of them were weakly positive, and 32.8% of them were negative. Conclusion This study analyzes the incidence and clinical characteristics of hospitalized children with RSV infection, which provides evidence for the importance of preventive strategies and improvements in supportive care of RSV infection.