In 2020 a new pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is affecting the lives of millions of patients and healthcare workers worldwide. The clinical picture of this infection is in a dynamic process of discovery, and more symptoms emerge as the clinicians observe and diagnose manifestations that affect multiple organs. Anosmia (loss of smell), and ageusia (loss of taste) become more frequently cited as independent symptoms or in association with the most common manifestations of the disease, such as fever, cough and dyspnea. A thorough screening program will prevent most nosocomial and community-acquired infections by promoting efficient triage and specific measures such as isolation of the patients. Therefore, it is important to include frequent symptoms in the anamnesis and questionnaires to select those patients who might benefit from testing, isolation, and treatment. This study summarizes the existing data regarding the association of anosmia and ageusia with the SARS-CoV-2 infection. It also aims to describe manifestations of these, particularly in the clinical picture of all symptomatic patients. Health Organisation (WHO) (1). SARS-CoV-2 belongs to the coronaviridae family alongside with SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, and it has a single-stranded RNA genome (2). The coronavirus invasion of the target cells is mediated by a transmembrane spike glycoprotein (S). It has two subunits: S1, for binding to the host cell receptors, and S2, for the fusion process with the host cell membrane. These subunits will remain in a prefusion conformation after specific protease cleavage, with the distal S1 subunit comprising the receptor-binding domains (RBD), specifically involved in recognition of human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) (3,4). The S protein will be further cleaved by host proteases and activated for the membrane fusion. Due to the peripheral location of S proteins, they are the main target for neutralizing antibodies and for new developing therapies (3,5). The ACE2 is a functional receptor for the SARS-CoV-2 and has a ubiquitous distribution into the human body, but its expression is higher in the nasal mucosa, lung parenchyma, and gastrointestinal tract (6). Some studies suggest a possible link between smoking and enhanced expression of ACE2 receptors (7), thus, smoking could be a risk factor that increases the susceptibility of the patient to contact the new coronavirus. SARS-Cov-2 is a highly transmissible virus with an incubation period of approximately 14 days, with a median time of 4-5 days from exposure to symptoms onset (8-10). It has been stipulated that the viral transmission is through the droplets, direct contact, contact with an infected individual, fecal, oral, and body fluid routes (11-13). The most typical symptoms experienced by the patients were fever (83-99%), cough (59-82%), fatigue (44-70%), anorexia (40-84%), shortness of breath (31-40%), sputum production (28-33%) and myalgias (11-35%) (14-16). Less common symptoms reported include headache, confusion, rhinorrhea, sore throat, hem...

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is the most common congenital infection worldwide, and remains a significant cause of the neurological deficiency and sensory deafness in developed countries. Maternal primary infection, reactivation or reinfection during pregnancy may lead to fetal infection and congenital CMV syndrome. The purpose of this study was to analyze the CMV seroprevalence according to demographic features of pregnant women in western Romania as well as the evolution of CMV immunity in two time intervals. IgG anti-CMV antibodies were tested in sera of 8,951 pregnant women during two successive intervals: 2008-2010 (n=1466) and 2015-2018 (n=7485). The CMV seroprevalence in women of reproductive age decreased from 94.6 to 91.80% in the last decade. The seroprevalence was higher in women from rural areas compared with those from urban areas. These results show that the western region of Romania has a low-risk profile for primary CMV infection during pregnancy due to a large number of seropositive women. However, this risk has increased in the last ten years, from 5.4 to 8.2%, which may show the need to implement a national screening program.

Neonatal early-onset sepsis (EOS) is defined as an invasive infection that occurs in the first 72 h of life. The incidence of EOS varies from 0.5–2% live births in developed countries, up to 9.8% live births in low resource settings, generating a high mortality rate, especially in extremely low birth weight neonates. Clinical signs are nonspecific, leading to a late diagnosis and high mortality. Currently, there are several markers used for sepsis evaluation, such as hematological indices, acute phase reactants, cytokines, which by themselves do not show acceptable sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of EOS in neonates. Newer and more selective markers have surfaced recently, such as presepsin and endocan, but they are currently only in the experimental research stages. This comprehensive review article is based on the role of biomarkers currently in use or in the research phase from a basic, translational, and clinical viewpoint that helps us to improve the quality of neonatal early-onset sepsis diagnosis and management.

Competence in color flow mapping assessment of the fetal heart at gestational ages of 11 weeks to 13 weeks 6 days is achieved only after extensive supervised training.

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