The high frequency of NTM among HIV-infected patients raises concerns about accurate species identification before the determination of appropriate treatment. The potential for TB transmission exists among HIV-infected patients. Intensified screening and effective treatment of TB-HIV co-infected patients is urgently needed.

Mixed infections of Nicotiana benthamiana plants byCucumber mosaic virus (CMV) and Tobacco necrosis virus (TNV) exhibit a synergistic interaction and result in symptom enhancement. Accumulation of CMV(+) RNA as well as capsid protein (CP) in mixed infection was considerably higher than that of singly-infected plants. There was also a slight increase in TNV(+) RNA and CP levels in doubly infected plants. Synergistic infection by CMV-and TNV-induced higher increase in the levels of malonyldialdehyde, hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) and more decline in the activities of catalase than singly infected ones. Both peroxidase and superoxide dismutase activities increased rapidly for the first 10 days post inoculation (dpi) in doubly-infected plants and then declined, whereas the enzyme activities continued to increase after 10 dpi in singly infected plants and had higher enzyme activities in the late stages than that of co-infected plants. These results suggest that synergistic infection by CMV and TNV produced severes oxidative stress in N. benthamiana plants and the synergy between the two viruses was mutual.

Abstract. We estimated the incidence of watery diarrhea in the community before and after introduction of the pentavalent rotavirus vaccine in Leó n, Nicaragua. A random sample of households was selected before and after rotavirus vaccine introduction. All children 5 years of age in selected households were eligible for inclusion. Children were followed every 2 weeks for watery diarrhea episodes. The incidence rate was estimated as numbers of episodes per 100 child-years of exposure time. A mixed effects Poisson regression model was fit to compare incidence rates in the prevaccine and vaccine periods. The pre-vaccine cohort (N = 726) experienced 36 episodes per 100 child-years, and the vaccine cohort (N = 826) experienced 25 episodes per 100 child-years. The adjusted incidence rate ratio was 0.60 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.40, 0.91) during the vaccine period versus the pre-vaccine period, indicating a lower incidence of watery diarrhea in the community during the vaccine period.

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