A neonate with lower-limb hypoplasia, cutaneous scars, bilateral chorioretinitis, and multiple brain abnormalities is presented. Intrauterine herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infection was established on the basis of serological testing of the mother and viral cultures of the child's cutaneous lesions, obtained soon after birth. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first case of a patient with in utero-acquired HSV-2 infection presenting with a limb hypoplasia. It illustrates that, in addition to congenital varicella-zoster syndrome, HSV-2 infection should also be considered in patients presenting with limb hypoplasia.
We report a fatal case of disseminated adenovirus infection with fulminant hepatic failure in an 8-month-old child after peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. The virus was identified in blood, urine, respiratory aspirate and stool samples and was typed as adenovirus type 2 through PCR and sequencing of part of the hexon gene, with the use of degenerated consensus primers.
The antibacterial activity of thiamphenicol was compared to that of chloramphenicol against 313 strains of gram-negative bacilli isolated from various clinical specimens. These two antibiotics were equally active against the 106 isolates of Haemophilus (MIC = 0.1–1.56 μg/ml) and against 40 strains of Bacteroides fragilis (almost all strains being inhibited by 12.5 μg/ml of the two drugs). In contrast, when compared with chloramphenicol, 2–16 times as much of thiamphenicol was required to inhibit Enterobacteriaceae, making prediction of the susceptibility of these strains to thiamphenicol on the basis of chloramphenicol testing alone likely to be hazardous. Disc diffusion test using 30-μg discs and 12 mm as cut-off point was a reliable technique to determine susceptibility of bacteria either to chloramphenicol or thiamphenicol. When thiamphenicol discs of greater potency (50 μg) were employed, many strains exhibited wide zones of inhibition although most of them were resistant by the agar dilution method (MIC > 12.5 μg/mL). This practice is not advisable for testing organisms isolated outside of the urinary tract.
To evaluate the risk factors associated with persistence of human papillomaviruses (HPV) types 16, 18, and 33 in the normal cervix, a prospective study was carried out in Belgium of 323 women without cytological evidence of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. Demographic and clinical data were obtained by interview, and HPV DNA was assayed in cervical-swab specimens using the Fast Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction-based screening and confirmatory tests. A multivariable linear regression model was constructed using four well-known risk factors: the use of an oral contraceptive which is either triphasic, or monophasic and containing ethynylestradiol in association with either norethysterone, or levonorgestrel, or lynestrenol, or gestoden, or estrogenic and containing estriol (P = 8 x 10(-5)), a positive history of genital herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection (P = 10(-4)), an age inferior or equal to 30 years (P = 0.012), and cigarette smoking (P = 0.020). Crude and adjusted relative risks were calculated for each HPV persistence predictor. The data and the results of the molecular biology of high-risk genital HPVs are consistent with the hypothesis that the use of an oral contraceptive containing simultaneously and continuously both a potent estrogen and a high activity progestative is necessary to enhance significantly HPV transcription. These observations are also consistent with the hypothesis that the oral contraceptives and HSV genital infection are responsible for HPV persistence in the normal cervix but not for HPV-induced cervical transformation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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