Mucormycosis (MCR) has been increasingly described in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) but the epidemiological factors, presentation, diagnostic certainty, and outcome of such patients are not well described. We review the published COVID-19-associated mucormycosis (CAMCR) cases (total 41) to identify risk factors, clinical features, and outcomes. CAMCR was typically seen in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) (94%) especially the ones with poorly controlled DM (67%) and severe or critical COVID-19 (95%). Its presentation was typical of MCR seen in diabetic patients (mostly rhino-orbital and rhino-orbital-cerebral presentation). In sharp contrast to reported COVID-associated aspergillosis (CAPA) cases, nearly all CAMCR infections were proven (93%). Treating physicians should have a high suspicion for CAMCR in patients with uncontrolled diabetes mellitus and severe COVID-19 presenting with rhino-orbital or rhino-cerebral syndromes. CAMR is the convergence of two storms, one of DM and the other of COVID-19.
Objective To describe the epidemiology, risk factors and outcomes of community-acquired Escherichia coli pneumonia in comparison to other gram-negative and pneumococcal pneumonias. Methods E.coli is an under recognized cause of bacterial community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). We conducted a large retrospective cohort study of adult patients admitted with pneumonia to 173 US hospitals included in Premier Research database from July 2010–June 2015. Patients were included if they had principal diagnosis code for pneumonia, or a principal diagnosis of respiratory failure or sepsis with secondary diagnosis of pneumonia and had a positive blood or respiratory culture obtained on hospital day 1. The primary outcome was in-hospital case fatality. Secondary outcomes included intensive care unit (ICU) admission, invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) and use of vasopressors. Results Of 8,680 patients with pneumonia and positive blood or respiratory cultures, 1,029 (7.7%) had E.coli CAP. Patients with E.coli pneumonia were older and more likely to have a principal diagnosis of sepsis. Patients with E.coli pneumonia had significantly higher case fatality than patients with pneumococcal pneumonia (adjusted odds ratio, 1.55 [95% CI, 1.23–1.97]) but not significantly different than other gram-negative pneumonias (adjusted odds ratio, 1.06 [95% CI, 0.85–1.32]). Approximately 36% of the isolates were resistant to fluoroquinolones; 9.3% were resistant to ceftriaxone. Conclusions E.coli is an important cause of severe CAP; with higher mortality than pneumococcal pneumonia but similar to other gram-negative pneumonias. The rate of fluoroquinolone resistance was high and empiric fluoroquinolones should be used with caution in these patients.
A virtual consensus conference proposal on advanced diagnostics for transplant infectious diseases was submitted by the AST Transplant Diagnostics Community of Practice (TxDxCOP) for consideration and subsequently approved for funding. The consensus conference was fully virtual; participants received no funds from private enterprises. AST provided organizational and technical support for pre-conference and conference proceedings. A steering committee comprising members of TxDxCOP and the Infectious Diseases Community of Practice developed conference definitions, aims, scope, and format. Advanced or novel assays were defined as assays with the capacity for one or more of the following: To detect (1) pathogens, (2) genotypic or phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility, or (3) pathogen-specific host responses, with an enhanced range of target detection, sensitivity, specificity, speed and/or simplicity of use, relative to conventional methods. Assay categories that met the above definition and for which some data on clinical performance/utility was available were included in this consensus conference.
The exact cause of the disproportionate increase in COVID-19-associated mucormycosis (CAM) cases in India remains unknown. Most researchers consider the major cause of India’s CAM epidemic to be the conjunction of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated corticosteroid treatment with the enormous number of Indians with diabetes mellitus (DM). However, excess CAM cases were not seen to the same extent in the Western world, where diabetes is prevalent and corticosteroids are also used extensively for COVID-19 treatment.
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