AIM To investigate the frequency of HLA-B27 in patients with presumed Bartonella henselae associated uveitis and to describe the clinical characteristics of HLA-B27 positive patients with uveitis and presumed ocular bartonellosis (POB). METHODS The diagnosis of POB was considered in 19 patients with unexplained uveitis (except for the HLA-B27 association) and high positive IgG (titre >/=1:900...

Illegal dumping of contaminated medical waste occurs commonly in South Africa. There is little information on the management and outcome of the children exposed to and injured by medical waste. On 15 September 1999, 54 children where involved in a mass exposure incident. 44 presented the same evening and 10 following day. Used needles and syringes were discarded on their soccer field. Children ...

BACKGROUND Anal lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) infections, caused by Chlamydia trachomatis biovar L (Ct+/LGV+), are endemic among men who have sex with men (MSM). Anal non-LGV biovar Ct infections (Ct+/LGV-) can be eradicated with 1 week doxycycline, whereas Ct+/LGV+ infections require 3-week doxycycline. To differentiate Ct+/LGV+ from Ct+/LGV- infections, biovar-specific Nucleic Acid Amplifica...

BACKGROUND Serologic screening of gastric cancer (GC) by serum pepsinogens (sPG) levels and Helicobacter pylori (Hp) sero-status, though highly informative, has provided heterogeneous results. Here, we have evaluated the modifying effects of demographic factors on the risk impact of Hp sero-status/sPG levels in gastric cancer, with particular emphasis on age. METHODS A cross-sectional study w...

BACKGROUND Strongyloidiasis is commonly a clinically unapparent, chronic infection, but immuno suppressed subjects can develop fatal disease. We carried out a review of literature on hyperinfection syndrome (HS) and disseminated strongyloidiasis (DS), in order to describe the most challenging aspects of severe strongyloidiasis. METHODS We conducted a structured search using PubMed to collect ...

BACKGROUND Algorithms to diagnose gambiense human African trypanosomiasis (HAT, sleeping sickness) are often complex due to the unsatisfactory sensitivity and/or specificity of available tests, and typically include a screening (serological), confirmation (parasitological) and staging component. There is insufficient evidence on the relative accuracy of these algorithms. This paper presents est...

BACKGROUND In a context of scarce health resources and varied medical practices, the aim of this study was to compare cost-effectiveness of different screening strategies for hepatitis C virus among blood recipients. METHODS A cost-effectiveness model was used to test nine screening strategies in three survival categories. Three Markov models were used for three methods of follow-up. The marg...

AIMS Injection drug users are at high risk for chronic hepatitis C virus infection (CHC). Opioid maintenance treatment (OMT) offers a unique opportunity to screen for CHC. This study proposed the hypothesis that a general practitioner (GP) with special interest in addiction medicine can achieve CHC screening rates comparable to specialized centres and aimed to investigate determinants for a suc...

Results Of 500 subjects initiating ART (by 54 physicians with mean 14 years HIV experience), 95% were male (mean age 40 years, CD4 count 287 cells/μL, HIV RNA 89,000 copies/mL). ART initiation was mean 3.1 years after diagnosis, via clinical trial in 20.4% and as hospital in-patient in 7.7%. For “When to start”, adherence to Dec 1 2009 guidelines was 91%, 82% for Nov 3 2008 guidelines, and 88% ...

OBJECTIVES. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the use of serologic testing as a screening test for inflammatory bowel disease compared with erythrocyte sedimentation rate and hemoglobin in a referred patient population with suspected inflammatory bowel disease. PATIENTS AND METHODS.A retrospective study was performed, reviewing medical charts of patients who had inflammatory bowel diseas...