Figure 4B is the correct photograph of the left eye but, as shown, the image is flipped left to right.
read full comment
Comment on: Gao et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 11:260
Fosfomycin therapy for difficult-to-treat MRSA infection (Amorn Leelarasamee, 03 November 2011)
Dear Sir, I would like to congratulate the authors for reporting this useful and stimulating case and the journal for publishing the case report.1 I and some ID physicians in Thailand have been using fosfomycin for quite long time to treat infections due to MRSA. My comment is that the high impact-factor journal does not mention the use of fosfomycin for MRSA infection even if the infection due to MRSA fails to respond to vancomycin or daptomycin.2,3 So the report of this case provides an useful option to help global physicians in solving the problem of difficult-to-treat MRSA infections. My questions for this case are the method of intravenous administration of fosfomycin 6 gm every 6 hours for 56 days and its adverse reaction. My experience with this high daily dose...
read full comment
Comment on: Chen et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 11:152
Author's Reply (Anne Fiquet, 11 August 2011)
We are grateful to Valter Torri for sharing with us his comments on the conclusive statement of our article and therefore giving us the opportunity to reply.
Before discussing the essence of the comment, we would like to highlight that the results of the study were reported with openness and transparency. This includes for example, making a clear distinction between primary and secondary endpoints and between pre-specified and post-hoc analyses. This is done with the willingness that each reader can fully understand the study results, so did Valter Torri.
The method for controlling type I error rate (Union-Intersection [UI] method) is explained in the protocol which fully complies with the ICH E9 guideline. This is translated in the article by the requirement (repeated...
read full comment
Comment on: Hung et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 11:91
Correction to randomization results (Gregory Lucas, 13 June 2011)
In Figure 1 and in the text (page 4) we incorrectly indicated that 56 subjects were randomly assigned to DAART and 51 to SAT. The correct numbers are 55 and 52 randomly assigned to DAART and SAT, respectively.
read full comment
Comment on: Mullen et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 11:45
figure 2 (Firdaus Hamid, 23 May 2011)
Dear Editor of BMC Infectious Diseases and Reader.
We found some minor mistakes in figure 2: 1. In the box of participants one part is missing 1058 households, should be 1058 households (HH). 2. In the box of randomization it was stated HH, it should be HH RANDOMIZATION.
Comment on: Hamid et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 11:83
Not all Nasal Swabs Are Equivalent: Nasal Anterior Nares Swabs and Nasal Mid-Turbinate Swabs (Marek Smieja, 03 March 2011)
I congratulate Dr. Ohrmalm and colleagues for this study comparing nasal swabs with nasopharyngeal aspirates. I share their enthusiasm for examining pre-analytic aspects of specimen collection to optimize diagnostic yield while maintaining patient comfort and staff biosafety.
As an infectious diseases physician, microbiologist and researcher who has invested considerable time and effort in examining nasal-based diagnostics, I would like to point out potential limitations to the current study:
1. The anatomical site of investigation for the “nasal swab” was the anterior nares, 1.0-1.5 cm into the nose, using a swab designed for sampling this site for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). We have designed a nasal “mid-...
read full comment
Comment on: Öhrmalm et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 10:340
The 25(OH)D assay used may have overestimated levels for smokers (William B. Grant, 13 January 2011)
Interesting results. However, there may be an error in the findings. As noted in the paper: "About 78% of men with TB were smokers, and this prevalence was significantly higher than in controls (61%, P = 0.007)."
A recent paper reported that the serum 25(OH)D assay used, ELICA, found higher values for smokers than nonsmokers: "In the population-based study, the serum levels of 25(OH)D using the ECLIA method were 51.9, 53.2 and 72.0 nmol/l in never, former and current smokers (P<0.01). In the validation study, the serum concentration of 25(OH)D was 10.3 nmol/l higher in smokers than in non-smokers (P<0.01) using the ECLIA (Roche), while non-significantly lower serum levels of 25(OH)D were found in smokers using the other five methods." [Grimnes et al....
read full comment
Comment on: Ho-Pham et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 10:306
CD36 -/- deficiency adavntages (Christine Hamblin, 26 October 2010)
This work clearly indicates a positive outcome for cattle that are CD36 -/-. Does other work show a contra-indication for gene deletion or is this a possible future defence for the national herd against bovine TB?
read full comment
Comment on: Hawkes et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 10:299
ERRATUM (João Pinto, 11 August 2010)
In Methods: the sentence “This strain has a known microsatellite profile for the loci used that differs from the widespread dhfr triple mutant lineage of Asian origin (Roper C pers comm.)” should read “This strain has a known microsatellite profile for the loci used that matches the widespread dhfr triple mutant lineage of Asian origin (Roper C pers comm.)”
In Discussion: the sentence “This strain has a microsatellite profile that differs from the intercontinental widespread triple mutant haplotype of Southeast Asian origin (Roper C. pers. comm.)” should read “This strain has a microsatellite profile that matches the intercontinental widespread triple mutant haplotype of Southeast Asian origin (Roper C. pers. comm.)”
Concerns regarding conclusion of study on evaluation of non-inferiority of intradermal versus adjuvanted seasonal influenza vaccine. (Valter Torri, 05 August 2010)
In this study on an elderly population, the immunogenicity of an intradermal seasonal influenza vaccine was compared with that of an adjuvanted vaccine. The primary hypothesis to be tested was that the immunogenicity of the intradermal vaccine would be non-inferior to that of the adjuvanted vaccine for each virus strain in terms of antibody titres determined using HI. Non-inferiority was defined as the upper bound of the 95% confidence intervals (CIs) around the post-vaccination ratios (adjuvanted vaccine/intradermal vaccine) of geometric mean titres (GMTs) being <1.5 for all three strains in the per-protocol set. Based on the stated hypothesis, non-inferiority can only be demonstrated if the null-hypothesis is rejected for all three strains. If this study had been designed to...
read full comment
So there's no evidence of benefit, then? (Peter English, 05 August 2010)
The conclusion starts "In conclusion, our results suggest that entry screening could delay local transmission for an additional 1-2 weeks" (and in the abstract "Entry screening may lead to short-term delays in local transmission of a novel strain of influenza virus"). Yet the results section states that the 95% confidence interval includes zero, and the discussion starts "Our results suggest that entry screening did not lead to substantial delays in local H1N1 transmission".
I take home the message: there is no evidence that entry screening delays the transmission of H1N1 in a country. This could be because it doesn't; or it could be because studies designed to look for such evidence have been under-powered to detect it.
read full comment
Comment on: Cowling et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 10:82
Update on the Catalonia outbreak (Filippo Curtale, 03 June 2010)
The Catalonia outbreak lasted from August 2006 to July 2007, with a final count of 381 cases. Data presented in the paper are referred to an EuroSurveillance publication when the outbreak was still ongoing. Final data, after the end of the outbreak, were published by: Dominguez A, Torner N, Barrabeig I et al. Large outbreak of measles in a community with high vaccination coverage: implications for the vaccination schedule. Clin Infect Dis 2008; 47:1143-9 read full comment
Comment on: Curtale et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 10:62
Multiple same references in bibilography (Rajnish Joshi, 12 May 2010)
This article has 44 references. The reference "Pai M, O'Brien R: Tuberculosis diagnostics trials: do they lack methodological rigor? Expert Rev Mol Diagn 2006, 6:509-514." is however numbered thrice as number 21, 36, and 41.
Some minor errours in Methods part (Akihiro Ohkado, 10 May 2010)
We noticed some minor errours of the units described in the last two sentences of the third paragraph under Methods part of this manuscript. The units described in the sentences, "ml", "mM", and "uC" should read as "μl", "μM", and "°C" respectively. The full two sentences, therefore, should read as "In brief, the PCR mixture was prepared in a 20 μl volume with GC PCR buffer I, 0.5 U Ex Taq, 200 μM each of four dNTPs, 0.5 μM each of the primer set and 10 ng template DNA. PCR was carried out for all loci under the following conditions: initial denaturation at 94 °C for 5 minutes, and then 35 cycles of 94 °C for 30 seconds, 63 °C for 30 seconds and 72 °C for 3 minutes, followed by a final extension at 72 °C for 7 minutes [8]." We...
read full comment
Comment on: Ohkado et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 9:138
Betalactamin induced flare of Drug Reaction with Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptoms (vincent descamps, 08 April 2010)
I read with great interest the report of Gentile et al. We have reported the first case of association of HHV-6 reactivation and DRESS in 1996 (1). They described a typical case of lamotrigin-induced DRESS in a 26-year old woman. I would like to insist on one important feature of DRESS that was recently described. Antibiotics are often given at the beginning of the DRESS because of a false diagnosis of bacterial pharyngitis. A flare of DRESS is often observed after betalactamin intake with an increase or development of cutaneous lesions (2). This flare is concommitant to the mononucleosis syndrome. This feature is reminiscent of the amoxicillin-induced rash in mononucleosis syndrome. We recently published 7 cases of amoxicillin-induced flare in DRESS. DRESS were induced by other drugs. In...
read full comment
Comment on: Gentile et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 10:49
Power limited by small number of transmission events ? (Chris Mansell, 24 March 2010)
Thank you to the authors for describing an elegant mathematical approach to this "difficult to evidence" issue.
Some more explanation of the data augmentation step would be of interest.
Number of patients followed: 8552 Mean length of stay: 3.4 - 5.8 days (my rough point estimate: 4.5 days) Median length of stay: 1 or 2 days Mean number of swabs per patient: 1.2 - 1.5
Estimated colonisation rate on admission: 4.5 - 20.6% Estimated incidence: 5.8 - 18.2% per month (my rough point estimate: 10% / 30d = 0.3% per day)
Note also that culture based MRSA screen methods typically take 2 days to yield presumptive positive results.
Pneumonia and UVB during the 1918-19 pandemic infleunza in the U.S. (William B. Grant, 18 January 2010)
Sir: Additional support for this finding is given in an ecological study of case-fatality rates following infection by pandemic influenza A/H1N1 in 12 U.S. communities in 1918-19. Using data obtained by the U.S. Public Health Service through door-to-door surveys near the end of the 1918-19 pandemic [1], along with indices for solar ultraviolet-B (UVB) doses in summer and winter, it was determined that differences in vitamin D production in summer explained 46% of the variance, while vitamin D production in winter explained 42% of the variance [2]. The mechanisms proposed were shifting of cytokine production away from proinflammatory ones by 1,25-dihyroxyvitamin D and combating pneumonia infection by cathelicidin induced by 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D.
Comment on: White et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 9:196
Vitamin D could reduce case fatality rates during an influenza pandemic (William B. Grant, 05 August 2009)
The recent paper on use of antivirals during an influenza pandemic suggests that priority for antiviral use during influenza pandemics be given to younger people since in the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, mortality rates were much higher among the young than the elderly [1]. This was the case in Denmark [2] as well as the United States [3]. The reason for the disparity with respect to age may be that the elderly have antibodies for such viruses based on exposure to similar viruses earlier in life [4].
Use of antivirals is generally limited to, perhaps, 25% of the population due to cost considerations. However, there is another, inexpensive approach to reducing case-fatality rates during an influenza pandemic, raising serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels of the...
read full comment
Comment on: Merler et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 9:117
Antibody therapy for for the prevention of severe respiratory syncytial virus infection (Bosco Paes, 05 August 2009)
To the Editor: We read with interest the article by Morris SK et al addressing the effect of antibody therapy for the prevention of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection.1 The primary objective was to determine the impact of RSV-IVIG and palivizumab on the risk of RSV related hospitalization and secondly to determine if antibody therapy decreases the risk of RSV infection, intensive care admission, mechanical ventilation and mortality in high risk populations. Meta-analyses are typically conducted to enhance the precision of treatment effects, provide information for the timely introduction of effective treatments and to help guide rational treatment decisions by practicing physicians.
Unfortunately, the results derived specifically from the pooled analyses of the...
read full comment
Comment on: Morris et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 9:106
Serology sensitivity in hydatid cysts. (Bernardo Frider, 11 February 2009)
Authors described that " 1323 patients suspected of having echinococcosis were screened serologically by indirect haemagglutination assay (IHA). For confirmation and differentiation of Echinococcus spp. infection, the sera of IHA-positive patients were then retested by western blot (WB)." <br>In results they said " Out of 127 IHA-positive sera, 34 sera were confirmed by WB and considered specific for CE. Of 34 sera of CE-positive patients sera, 32 corresponded to the characteristic imaging findings of a liver cysts and 2 to those of lung cysts For confirmation and differentiation of Echinococcus spp. infection, the sera of IHA-positive patients were then retested by western blot (WB)." It was interesting to know what was the final diagnosis of the 1323 cases of cysts detected by US...
read full comment
Comment on: Logar et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 8:63
New release of DR_SEQAN (Luis Menendez-Arias, 30 July 2008)
This is to announce that version 1.3 of DR_SEQAN has been released in June 2008, and is available at:http://www2.cbm.uam.es:8080/lmenendez/DR_SEQAN.zipHowever, older versions can be downloaded from the same site. Instructions are given in files provided with actual version of the software.
read full comment
Comment on: Garriga et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 6:44
CI included 1 (Claudia Ramirez, 16 April 2008)
I was looking this study and I have found that the CI95% included 1, so I am not sure if this can affect the outcome of this study. Please let me know if I am right, otherwise excuse me.
read full comment
Comment on: Baud et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 8:45
Question about concentration units used in the article (Allan Stowell, 14 April 2008)
I read with interest your article and it is very pertinent to a case that I am working on at the moment - involving alleged alcohol intoxication following use of an alchol-containing hand rub. My question relates to an apparent discrepancy between the units used for reporting the results (mg/L), and the units described in the Methods Section (detection limits and determination limits)which are in mg/mL.Could you provide the detection and determination limits in units of mg/L please?
read full comment
Comment on: Kramer et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 7:117
Table 4 correction (Peter Bacchetti, 18 February 2008)
In Table 4, the leftmost spanning column heading "Age of Infection" should read "Age of". The other two are correct as "Age of Infection".
read full comment
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Latest comments
Correction (Peter Russo, 12 January 2012)
Figure 4B is the correct photograph of the left eye but, as shown, the image is flipped left to right. read full comment
Comment on: Gao et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 11:260
Fosfomycin therapy for difficult-to-treat MRSA infection (Amorn Leelarasamee, 03 November 2011)
Dear Sir,
I would like to congratulate the authors for reporting this useful and stimulating case and the journal for publishing the case report.1 I and some ID physicians in Thailand have been using fosfomycin for quite long time to treat infections due to MRSA.
My comment is that the high impact-factor journal does not mention the use of fosfomycin for MRSA infection even if the infection due to MRSA fails to respond to vancomycin or daptomycin.2,3 So the report of this case provides an useful option to help global physicians in solving the problem of difficult-to-treat MRSA infections.
My questions for this case are the method of intravenous administration of fosfomycin 6 gm every 6 hours for 56 days and its adverse reaction. My experience with this high daily dose... read full comment
Comment on: Chen et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 11:152
Author's Reply (Anne Fiquet, 11 August 2011)
We are grateful to Valter Torri for sharing with us his comments on the conclusive statement of our article and therefore giving us the opportunity to reply.
Before discussing the essence of the comment, we would like to highlight that the results of the study were reported with openness and transparency. This includes for example, making a clear distinction between primary and secondary endpoints and between pre-specified and post-hoc analyses. This is done with the willingness that each reader can fully understand the study results, so did Valter Torri.
The method for controlling type I error rate (Union-Intersection [UI] method) is explained in the protocol which fully complies with the ICH E9 guideline. This is translated in the article by the requirement (repeated... read full comment
Comment on: Van Damme et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 10:134
minor errors in Table 1 (Tsung Chain Chang, 13 June 2011)
1. Table 1, at the line Chaetomium cochlioides, Total no. of strains
should be 3, not 7.
2. Table 1, at the bottom line Total strains, Total no. of strains
should be 73, not 77.
read full comment
Comment on: Hung et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 11:91
Correction to randomization results (Gregory Lucas, 13 June 2011)
In Figure 1 and in the text (page 4) we incorrectly indicated that 56 subjects were randomly assigned to DAART and 51 to SAT. The correct numbers are 55 and 52 randomly assigned to DAART and SAT, respectively. read full comment
Comment on: Mullen et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 11:45
figure 2 (Firdaus Hamid, 23 May 2011)
Dear Editor of BMC Infectious Diseases and Reader.
We found some minor mistakes in figure 2:
1. In the box of participants one part is missing 1058 households, should be 1058 households (HH).
2. In the box of randomization it was stated HH, it should be HH RANDOMIZATION.
Thank you,
Best regards,
Firdaus Hamid read full comment
Comment on: Hamid et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 11:83
Not all Nasal Swabs Are Equivalent: Nasal Anterior Nares Swabs and Nasal Mid-Turbinate Swabs (Marek Smieja, 03 March 2011)
I congratulate Dr. Ohrmalm and colleagues for this study comparing nasal swabs with nasopharyngeal aspirates. I share their enthusiasm for examining pre-analytic aspects of specimen collection to optimize diagnostic yield while maintaining patient comfort and staff biosafety.
As an infectious diseases physician, microbiologist and researcher who has invested considerable time and effort in examining nasal-based diagnostics, I would like to point out potential limitations to the current study:
1. The anatomical site of investigation for the “nasal swab” was the anterior nares, 1.0-1.5 cm into the nose, using a swab designed for sampling this site for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). We have designed a nasal “mid-... read full comment
Comment on: Öhrmalm et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 10:340
The 25(OH)D assay used may have overestimated levels for smokers (William B. Grant, 13 January 2011)
Interesting results. However, there may be an error in the findings. As noted in the paper:
"About 78% of men with TB were smokers, and this prevalence was significantly higher than in controls
(61%, P = 0.007)."
A recent paper reported that the serum 25(OH)D assay used, ELICA, found higher values for smokers than nonsmokers:
"In the population-based study, the serum levels of 25(OH)D using the ECLIA method were 51.9, 53.2 and 72.0 nmol/l in never, former and current smokers (P<0.01). In the validation study, the serum concentration of 25(OH)D was 10.3 nmol/l higher in smokers than in non-smokers (P<0.01) using the ECLIA (Roche), while non-significantly lower serum levels of 25(OH)D were found in smokers using the other five methods." [Grimnes et al.... read full comment
Comment on: Ho-Pham et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 10:306
CD36 -/- deficiency adavntages (Christine Hamblin, 26 October 2010)
This work clearly indicates a positive outcome for cattle that are CD36 -/-. Does other work show a contra-indication for gene deletion or is this a possible future defence for the national herd against bovine TB? read full comment
Comment on: Hawkes et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 10:299
ERRATUM (João Pinto, 11 August 2010)
In Methods: the sentence “This strain has a known microsatellite profile for the loci used that differs from the widespread dhfr triple mutant lineage of Asian origin (Roper C pers comm.)” should read “This strain has a known microsatellite profile for the loci used that matches the widespread dhfr triple mutant lineage of Asian origin (Roper C pers comm.)”
In Discussion: the sentence “This strain has a microsatellite profile that differs from the intercontinental widespread triple mutant haplotype of Southeast Asian origin (Roper C. pers. comm.)” should read “This strain has a microsatellite profile that matches the intercontinental widespread triple mutant haplotype of Southeast Asian origin (Roper C. pers. comm.)”
In... read full comment
Comment on: Salgueiro et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 10:163
Concerns regarding conclusion of study on evaluation of non-inferiority of intradermal versus adjuvanted seasonal influenza vaccine. (Valter Torri, 05 August 2010)
In this study on an elderly population, the immunogenicity of an intradermal seasonal influenza vaccine was compared with that of an adjuvanted vaccine. The primary hypothesis to be tested was that the immunogenicity of the intradermal vaccine would be non-inferior to that of the adjuvanted vaccine for each virus strain in terms of antibody titres determined using HI. Non-inferiority was defined as the upper bound of the 95% confidence intervals (CIs) around the post-vaccination ratios (adjuvanted vaccine/intradermal vaccine) of geometric mean titres (GMTs) being <1.5 for all three strains in the per-protocol set. Based on the stated hypothesis, non-inferiority can only be demonstrated if the null-hypothesis is rejected for all three strains. If this study had been designed to... read full comment
Comment on: Van Damme et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 10:134
So there's no evidence of benefit, then? (Peter English, 05 August 2010)
The conclusion starts "In conclusion, our results suggest that entry screening could delay local transmission for an additional 1-2 weeks" (and in the abstract "Entry screening may lead to short-term delays in local transmission of a novel strain of influenza virus"). Yet the results section states that the 95% confidence interval includes zero, and the discussion starts "Our results suggest that entry screening did not lead to substantial delays in local H1N1 transmission".
I take home the message: there is no evidence that entry screening delays the transmission of H1N1 in a country. This could be because it doesn't; or it could be because studies designed to look for such evidence have been under-powered to detect it. read full comment
Comment on: Cowling et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 10:82
Update on the Catalonia outbreak (Filippo Curtale, 03 June 2010)
The Catalonia outbreak lasted from August 2006 to July 2007, with a final count of 381 cases.
Data presented in the paper are referred to an EuroSurveillance publication when the outbreak was still ongoing. Final data, after the end of the outbreak, were published by: Dominguez A, Torner N, Barrabeig I et al. Large outbreak of measles in a community with high vaccination coverage: implications for the vaccination schedule. Clin Infect Dis 2008; 47:1143-9
read full comment
Comment on: Curtale et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 10:62
Multiple same references in bibilography (Rajnish Joshi, 12 May 2010)
This article has 44 references.
The reference "Pai M, O'Brien R: Tuberculosis diagnostics trials: do they lack
methodological rigor? Expert Rev Mol Diagn 2006, 6:509-514." is however numbered thrice as number 21, 36, and 41.
Probably calling for more editorial attention !! read full comment
Comment on: Cattamanchi et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 9:53
Some minor errours in Methods part (Akihiro Ohkado, 10 May 2010)
We noticed some minor errours of the units described in the last two sentences of the third paragraph under Methods part of this manuscript. The units described in the sentences, "ml", "mM", and "uC" should read as "μl", "μM", and "°C" respectively. The full two sentences, therefore, should read as "In brief, the PCR mixture was prepared in a 20 μl volume with GC PCR buffer I, 0.5 U Ex Taq, 200 μM each of four dNTPs, 0.5 μM each of the primer set and 10 ng template DNA. PCR was carried out for all loci under the following conditions: initial denaturation at 94 °C for 5 minutes, and then 35 cycles of 94 °C for 30 seconds, 63 °C for 30 seconds and 72 °C for 3 minutes, followed by a final extension at 72 °C for 7 minutes [8]."
We... read full comment
Comment on: Ohkado et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 9:138
Betalactamin induced flare of Drug Reaction with Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptoms (vincent descamps, 08 April 2010)
I read with great interest the report of Gentile et al. We have reported the first case of association of HHV-6 reactivation and DRESS in 1996 (1). They described a typical case of lamotrigin-induced DRESS in a 26-year old woman. I would like to insist on one important feature of DRESS that was recently described. Antibiotics are often given at the beginning of the DRESS because of a false diagnosis of bacterial pharyngitis. A flare of DRESS is often observed after betalactamin intake with an increase or development of cutaneous lesions (2). This flare is concommitant to the mononucleosis syndrome. This feature is reminiscent of the amoxicillin-induced rash in mononucleosis syndrome. We recently published 7 cases of amoxicillin-induced flare in DRESS. DRESS were induced by other drugs. In... read full comment
Comment on: Gentile et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 10:49
Power limited by small number of transmission events ? (Chris Mansell, 24 March 2010)
Thank you to the authors for describing an elegant mathematical approach to this "difficult to evidence" issue.
Some more explanation of the data augmentation step would be of interest.
Number of patients followed: 8552
Mean length of stay: 3.4 - 5.8 days
(my rough point estimate: 4.5 days)
Median length of stay: 1 or 2 days
Mean number of swabs per patient: 1.2 - 1.5
Estimated colonisation rate on admission: 4.5 - 20.6%
Estimated incidence: 5.8 - 18.2% per month
(my rough point estimate: 10% / 30d = 0.3% per day)
Note also that culture based MRSA screen methods typically take 2 days to yield presumptive positive results.
Therefore:... read full comment
Comment on: Kypraios et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 10:29
Pneumonia and UVB during the 1918-19 pandemic infleunza in the U.S. (William B. Grant, 18 January 2010)
Sir:
Additional support for this finding is given in an ecological study of case-fatality rates following infection by pandemic influenza A/H1N1 in 12 U.S. communities in 1918-19. Using data obtained by the U.S. Public Health Service through door-to-door surveys near the end of the 1918-19 pandemic [1], along with indices for solar ultraviolet-B (UVB) doses in summer and winter, it was determined that differences in vitamin D production in summer explained 46% of the variance, while vitamin D production in winter explained 42% of the variance [2]. The mechanisms proposed were shifting of cytokine production away from proinflammatory ones by 1,25-dihyroxyvitamin D and combating pneumonia infection by cathelicidin induced by 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D.
References
1.... read full comment
Comment on: White et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 9:196
Vitamin D could reduce case fatality rates during an influenza pandemic (William B. Grant, 05 August 2009)
The recent paper on use of antivirals during an influenza pandemic suggests that priority for antiviral use during influenza pandemics be given to younger people since in the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, mortality rates were much higher among the young than the elderly [1]. This was the case in Denmark [2] as well as the United States [3]. The reason for the disparity with respect to age may be that the elderly have antibodies for such viruses based on exposure to similar viruses earlier in life [4].
Use of antivirals is generally limited to, perhaps, 25% of the population due to cost considerations. However, there is another, inexpensive approach to reducing case-fatality rates during an influenza pandemic, raising serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels of the... read full comment
Comment on: Merler et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 9:117
Antibody therapy for for the prevention of severe respiratory syncytial virus infection (Bosco Paes, 05 August 2009)
To the Editor:
We read with interest the article by Morris SK et al addressing the effect of antibody therapy for the prevention of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection.1 The primary objective was to determine the impact of RSV-IVIG and palivizumab on the risk of RSV related hospitalization and secondly to determine if antibody therapy decreases the risk of RSV infection, intensive care admission, mechanical ventilation and mortality in high risk populations. Meta-analyses are typically conducted to enhance the precision of treatment effects, provide information for the timely introduction of effective treatments and to help guide rational treatment decisions by practicing physicians.
Unfortunately, the results derived specifically from the pooled analyses of the... read full comment
Comment on: Morris et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 9:106
Serology sensitivity in hydatid cysts. (Bernardo Frider, 11 February 2009)
Authors described that " 1323 patients suspected of having echinococcosis were screened serologically by indirect haemagglutination assay (IHA). For confirmation and differentiation of Echinococcus spp. infection, the sera of IHA-positive patients were then retested by western blot (WB)." <br>In results they said " Out of 127 IHA-positive sera, 34 sera were confirmed by WB and considered specific for CE. Of 34 sera of CE-positive patients sera, 32 corresponded to the characteristic imaging findings of a liver cysts and 2 to those of lung cysts For confirmation and differentiation of Echinococcus spp. infection, the sera of IHA-positive patients were then retested by western blot (WB)." It was interesting to know what was the final diagnosis of the 1323 cases of cysts detected by US... read full comment
Comment on: Logar et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 8:63
New release of DR_SEQAN (Luis Menendez-Arias, 30 July 2008)
This is to announce that version 1.3 of DR_SEQAN has been released in June 2008, and is available at:http://www2.cbm.uam.es:8080/lmenendez/DR_SEQAN.zipHowever, older versions can be downloaded from the same site. Instructions are given in files provided with actual version of the software. read full comment
Comment on: Garriga et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 6:44
CI included 1 (Claudia Ramirez, 16 April 2008)
I was looking this study and I have found that the CI95% included 1, so I am not sure if this can affect the outcome of this study. Please let me know if I am right, otherwise excuse me. read full comment
Comment on: Baud et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 8:45
Question about concentration units used in the article (Allan Stowell, 14 April 2008)
I read with interest your article and it is very pertinent to a case that I am working on at the moment - involving alleged alcohol intoxication following use of an alchol-containing hand rub. My question relates to an apparent discrepancy between the units used for reporting the results (mg/L), and the units described in the Methods Section (detection limits and determination limits)which are in mg/mL.Could you provide the detection and determination limits in units of mg/L please? read full comment
Comment on: Kramer et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 7:117
Table 4 correction (Peter Bacchetti, 18 February 2008)
In Table 4, the leftmost spanning column heading "Age of Infection" should read "Age of". The other two are correct as "Age of Infection". read full comment
Comment on: Bacchetti et al. BMC Infectious Diseases, 7:145