SUMMARY A 14-year-old boy with severe combined immunodeficiency presented three times to a medical facility over a period of 4 months with fever and headache that progressed to hydrocephalus and status epilepticus necessitating a medically induced coma. Diagnostic workup including brain biopsy was unrevealing. Unbiased next-generation sequencing of the cerebrospinal fluid identified 475 of 3,063,784 sequence reads (0.016%) corresponding to leptospira infection. Clinical assays for leptospirosis were negative. Targeted antimicrobial agents were administered, and the patient was discharged home 32 days later with a status close to his premorbid condition. Polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) and serologic testing at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) subsequently confirmed evidence of Leptospira santarosai infection.

Objective: To describe bottled water use and beliefs and attitudes about water among parents of children from different racial/ethnic groups.

Understanding the underlying mechanisms that cause and exacerbate allergic asthmatic disease is of great clinical interest. Clinical studies have revealed that allergies and viral respiratory illnesses are strongly linked to the inception and exacerbation of asthma, and suggest the possibility that there are interactive inflammatory mechanisms. Recent work has revealed a number of mechanisms of virus and allergen cross-talk that may play a role in the pathophysiology of allergic asthma, including (1) deficiency in virus-induced interferon responses, (2) defective epithelial barrier function, (3) increased release of epithelium-derived cytokines (e.g., thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), interleukin (IL)-25, IL-33), (4) dysregulation of lymphocytes (e.g., innate lymphoid cells (ILCs), regulatory T cells (Tregs)) and (5) altered activation of purinergic receptors. One or more of these processes may provide targets for new therapeutics to treat allergic asthma and prevent disease exacerbation.

No abstract

BACKGROUND: Gum Arabic (Acacia Senegal) is a water-soluble dietary fiber considered to be safe by the United States Food and Drug Administration since the 1970s.Recent studies showed the therapeutic action of Gum Arabic.METHODS: It was Quasi-experimental study design. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of regular Gum Arabic ingestion as dietary supplement on accumulative blood glucose (HbA1c) and body mass index (BMI) among type II diabetes in Jabir Abu Aliz Diabetic Center in Khartoum. 49 type II diabetes were provided with Gum Arabic at the beginning of the trial and educated to add 60 g/day (divided into two portions 30 gm) to their meals for three months. Food consumption, BMI, and HbA1C were assessed for all the patients before and after the consumption of Gum Arabic for three months. Data was processed using SPSS version (20) and paired t- test was used to determine the effect of Gum Arabic on studied parameters.RESULTS: It showed that regular intake of 60 g/day of Gum Arabic for three months showed slight reduction in BMI for diabetes (no significant difference), and slight change in HbA1c (no significant difference). This may be due to the fact that majority of the respondents (60%) increased their carbohydrates intake in their daily meals because of winter, also respondents did not abide fully () to consumption of Gum Arabic, where only (32%) of the patients were fully committed to the consumption of Gum Arabic.