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Febrile illness – diagnosing and caring for preventable and treatable infectious causes of fever

About the collection

This collection is no longer accepting submissions.

Fever is one of the most common symptoms leading to healthcare seeking and hospital admission in lower- and middle-income (LMIC) regions of the globe, including health care settings in sub-Saharan Africa, southern and southeastern Asia, and Central and South America. Many febrile illnesses present with non-specific symptoms and signs, and diagnostic options are often very limited, so that empiric treatment predominates. The current recommendations often result in treatable diseases being left untreated or treated with inappropriate antimicrobials on the one hand, and overtreatment of self-limiting conditions with antimicrobials on the other, with important implications for both patient outcomes and the development of antimicrobial resistance.

Improved diagnosis and treatment of febrile illness matter both for the care of individual patients and for public health goals. There are data gaps in both prevalence and incidence of clinically important infections in febrile patients in much of Africa, Asia, and Central and South America. In addition, antimicrobial use and drivers of treatment decisions are only partially understood. There is a need for information on which to base estimates of burden of disease and to guide therapeutic decisions, development and implementation of diagnostic tools and strategies, design of control measures, and resource allocation. The Febrile Illness Evaluation in a Broad Range of Endemicities study (FIEBRE, https://doi.org/10.17037/PUBS.04652739 ) is one example of current research on this topic.

BMC Infectious Diseases invites manuscripts for this collection, which aims to bring together original research articles and systematic reviews characterizing the clinical diagnostic aspects of febrile illness in LMIC settings. The collection is not open to Case reports.

Articles submitted to this collection will be published immediately following completion of peer-review and editorial acceptance. Articles submitted after 30 June 2023 will not be eligible for inclusion in the collection.

Meet the Guest Editors

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Adrian Gonzalez Lopez: Editor - BMC Infectious Diseases, Germany

Adrian joined the BioMed Central family as the Editor of BMC Infectious Diseases in March 2021. Before entering the editorial world, Adrian spent twelve years in basic and clinical research studying lung pathologies commonly present in critically ill patients. From 2016 he worked as Principal Investigator at Charité University Hospital in Berlin, developing his research in Ventilator Induced Lung/Brain Injury. The years spent as a researcher have made Adrian appreciate the value of open access and the importance of working for a science based on quality and ethical standards.

  1. Leptospirosis is an underdiagnosed infectious disease with non-specific clinical presentation that requires laboratory confirmation for diagnosis. The serologic reference standard remains the microscopic agglu...

    Authors: Marta Valente, Justina Bramugy, Suzanne H. Keddie, Heidi Hopkins, Quique Bassat, Oliver Baerenbold, John Bradley, Jane Falconer, Ruth H. Keogh, Paul N. Newton, Mathieu Picardeau and John A. Crump
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2024 24:168
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, currently the most prevalent strain, has rapidly spread in Jingzhou, China, due to changes in the country’s epidemic prevention policy, resulting in an unprecedented increase...

    Authors: Wei Xia, Tao Jiang, Yafeng Tan, Chengbin Li, Song Wu and Bing Mei
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2023 23:835
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. Acute respiratory infection is still one of the leading causes of child morbidity and mortality worldwide. Developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa including Ethiopia continue to share an overbur...

    Authors: Gebru Gebremeskel Gebrerufael and Bsrat Tesfay Hagos
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2023 23:743
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant has decreased virulence and pathogenicity, yet the number of Omicron infections worldwide is unprecedentedly high, with rather high mortality and severe disease rate. Chronic kid...

    Authors: Yue Guo, Yifei Guo, Huajian Ying, Weien Yu, Shiqi Chen, Yao Zhang, Shenyan Zhang, Yanxue Lin, Feng Sun, Yongmei Zhang, Jie Yu, Ke Ma, Lunxiu Qin, Feng Long, Haoxiang Zhu, Richeng Mao…
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2023 23:698
    Content type: Research Published on:

  5. Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) caused by Orthohantavirus (OHV) and scrub typhus (ST) caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi (OT) are two infectious diseases prevalent in southwest China. Rodents are the n...

    Authors: Hao Huang, Yichen Kong, Hongmin Yin, Zi Yang, Tilian Ren and Yunzhi Zhang
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2023 23:631
    Content type: Case Report Published on:

  6. There is no doubt about the cardiovascular complications of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Several genetic studies have demonstrated an association between genetic variants in a region on chromosome 9p21...

    Authors: Eman A. Badr, Nesreen G. Elhelbawy, Alaa Osama Nagy, Amany A. Sultan and Shereen S. Elnaidany
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2023 23:568
    Content type: Research Published on:

  7. Fever is a common reason to seek healthcare in Southeast Asia, and the decline of malaria has complexified how is perceived, and what actions are taken towards it. We investigated the concept of fever and the ...

    Authors: Napat Khirikoekkong, Supa-at Asarath, Mayreerat Munruchaitrakun, Naw Blay, Naomi Waithira, Phaik Yeong Cheah, François Nosten, Yoel Lubell, Jordi Landier and Thomas Althaus
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2023 23:501
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  9. There has been little research on the long-term clinical outcomes of patients discharged due to undiagnosed fevers of unknown origin (FUO). The purpose of this study was to determine how fever of unknown origi...

    Authors: Lin Jiang, Han Wu, Sen Zhao, Yu Zhang and Ning Song
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2023 23:452
    Content type: Research Published on:

  10. Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (Salmonella Typhi) is the cause of typhoid fever. Salmonella Typhi may be transmitted through shedding in the stool, which can continue after recovery from acute illness. Sheddin...

    Authors: Peter I. Johnston, Patrick Bogue, Angeziwa Chunga Chirambo, Maurice Mbewe, Reenesh Prakash, Vanessa Kandoole-Kabwere, Rebecca Lester, Thomas Darton, Stephen Baker, Melita A. Gordon and James E. Meiring
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2023 23:416
    Content type: Research Published on:

  11. Historically, malaria has been the predominant cause of acute febrile illness (AFI) in sub-Saharan Africa. However, during the last two decades, malaria incidence has declined due to concerted public health co...

    Authors: Brian K. Kigozi, Grishma A. Kharod, Henry Bukenya, Sean V. Shadomy, Dana L. Haberling, Robyn A. Stoddard, Renee L. Galloway, Phionah Tushabe, Annet Nankya, Thomas Nsibambi, Edward Katongole Mbidde, Julius J. Lutwama, Jamie L. Perniciaro, William L. Nicholson, William A. Bower, Josephine Bwogi…
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2023 23:411
    Content type: Research Published on:

  12. Klebsiella pneumoniae can infect a variety of sites, with the risk of infection being higher in the immunocompromised state such as diabetes mellitus. A distinct invasive syndrome has been detected mostly in Sout...

    Authors: Yu Chang, Jiann-Hwa Chen, Wei-Lung Chen and Jui-Yuan Chung
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2023 23:397
    Content type: Case Report Published on:

  13. Evidence on the relative importance of various factors associated with febrile illness in children and their heterogeneity across countries can inform the prevention, identification, and management of communic...

    Authors: Paddy Ssentongo, Vernon M. Chinchilli, Khush Shah, Thaddeus Harbaugh and Djibril M. Ba
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2023 23:391
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  14. The incidence of cryptococcosis amongst HIV-negative persons is increasing. Whilst the excellent performance of the CrAg testing in people living with HIV is well described, the diagnostic performance of the C...

    Authors: Catriona Macrae, Jayne Ellis, Suzanne H. Keddie, Jane Falconer, John Bradley, Ruth Keogh, Oliver Baerenbold, Heidi Hopkins and Joseph N. Jarvis
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2023 23:209
    Content type: Research Published on:

  15. Febrile illnesses are among the most important reasons for medical consultation in sub-Saharan Africa and are frequently treated with antimicrobials due to the unavailability of appropriate diagnostic tools. T...

    Authors: Massa dit Achille Bonko, Ibrahima Karama, Francois Kiemde, Palpouguini Lompo, Zakaria Garba, Sibidou Yougbaré, Petra F. Mens, Halidou Tinto, Marc Christian Tahita and Henk. D. F. H. Schallig
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:952
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  16. In order to verify the existence of an anthrax outbreak, determine its scope, grasp the epidemiological characteristics and find out the cause of the outbreak and recommend preventive and control measures.

    Authors: Xiaolin Yu, Ming Fang, Shuang Wang, Zhong Li, Lixiao Cheng, Zhaoshan Liu, Dandan Zhang, Dandan Dong and Zengqiang Kou
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:875
    Content type: Research Published on:

  17. Plasmodium vivax apical membrane antigen-1 (pvama-1) is an important vaccine candidate against Malaria. The genetic composition assessment of pvama-1 from wide-range geography is vital to plan the antigen based ...

    Authors: Ibrar Ullah, Sahib Gul Afridi, Muhammad Israr, Hizbullah Khan, Sulaiman Shams, Komal Zaib, Huong Giang Le, Jung-Mi Kang, Byoung-Kuk Na and Asifullah Khan
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:807
    Content type: Research Published on:

  18. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and influenza viruses are important global causes of morbidity and mortality. We evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of the Luminex NxTAG respiratory pathogen panels (RPPs)™ (in...

    Authors: Sophie Jullien, Felicity Fitzgerald, Suzanne Keddie, Oliver Baerenbold, Quique Bassat, John Bradley, Jane Falconer, Colin Fink, Ruth Keogh, Heidi Hopkins and Marie Voice
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:785
    Content type: Research Published on: