Patricia Pavese

Long-Term Shedding of Infectious Epstein-Barr Virus after Infectious Mononucleosis

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA loads in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), plasma, and saliva, as well as infectivity of the virus in saliva, were evaluated in 20 patients for 6 months after the onset of infectious mononucleosis (IM). All patients displayed sustained high EBV DNA loads in the saliva, associated with a persistent infectivity of saliva at day 180. EBV DNA load in PBMCs decreased significantly from day 0 to day 180 (in spite of a viral rebound between day 30 and day 90 in 90% of the patients), and EBV DNA rapidly disappeared from plasma. These data show that patients with IM remain highly infectious during convalescence.

African Tick Bite Fever in Elderly Patients: 8 Cases in French Tourists Returning from South Africa

BACKGROUND African tick-bite fever, a tickborne disease caused by Rickettsia africae, is endemic in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa and in the French West Indies. Most cases reported in the literature occurred in middle-aged, otherwise-healthy persons and corresponded to benign diseases. The course of African tick bite fever in elderly people is less well documented. METHODS The medical records of 8 elderly patients infected with R. africae during a trip to South Africa in 2005 are presented to summarize the epidemiologic, clinical, microbiological, treatment, and disease course characteristics. RESULTS Eight patients, aged 63-75 years, developed African tick bite fever symptoms after a trip to South Africa. R. africae was grown from cutaneous eschar biopsy specimens obtained from 4 patients, confirming African tick bite fever. We observed unusual findings in this elderly population. Rash was frequent (present in 87.5% of patients), vesicular (in 100% of patients with rash), and often associated with an enanthema (in 50% of patients with rash). Severe clinical manifestations occurred: lymphangitis and myocarditis in 1 patient and suspected brain involvement in 2 patients. We observed severe and long-lasting general symptoms, including fever (in 75% of patients), chills (87.5%), asthenia (50%), anorexia (50%), and weight loss (12.5%). With doxycycline therapy, the outcome was favorable in all cases, but complete recovery was slow. CONCLUSION Ecotourism to sub-Saharan Africa is expanding, and people of advanced age, often with underlying chronic diseases, account for an increasing proportion of travelers. African tick bite fever appears to be more symptomatic in this population. Recommendations advising personal prophylactic measures to prevent tick bites in travelers to regions of endemicity may be particularly important for elderly individuals.

Factors and outcomes associated with physicians' adherence to recommendations of infectious disease consultations for inpatients

OBJECTIVES Solicited consultations constitute a substantial workload for infectious disease specialists (IDSs). The impact of physician adherence to recommendations on clinical outcomes following solicited IDS consultations has not been previously studied. The objectives of the study were to identify the factors associated with adherence and to determine whether adherence to recommendations was associated with better clinical outcomes. METHODS A prospective study was conducted on 621 patients, aged > or = 18 years, hospitalized in a university-affiliated hospital in France, who received an IDS consultation between December 2007 and June 2008. The main outcome was early clinical improvement, and the secondary outcomes were length of stay and in-hospital mortality. RESULTS Adherence to the IDSs recommendations was 88.2% (548/621) for antimicrobial treatment and 72.2% (317/439) for diagnostic or monitoring tests. In a multivariable analysis, independent factors of adherence to therapeutic recommendations were a community-acquired infection [adjusted odds ratio (OR), 1.8; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.1-3.0] and discontinuation or non-use of antibiotic treatment (adjusted OR, 9.7; 95% CI, 1.2-80.3). Adherence to recommendations for antibiotic treatment was associated with a higher rate of early clinical improvement (60.7% versus 43.9%, P = 0.01), shorter median length of stay (20 days versus 23 days, P = 0.03) and comparable in-hospital mortality (7.7% versus 5.5%, P = 0.50). CONCLUSIONS Factors associated with non-adherence must be anticipated by IDSs during consultations, because non-adherence leads to worse clinical outcomes. Further studies are needed to identify the interventions that could improve physician adherence to recommendations made during solicited consultations.

Compliance with guidelines on antibiotic prophylaxis in total hip replacement surgery: Results of A retrospective study of 416 patients in A teaching hospital

OBJECTIVE To assess compliance of anesthesiologist practices in antibiotic prophylaxis during total hip replacement (THR) surgery with the French Society of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care consensus-based guidelines. DESIGN Retrospective review of medical records. Compliance of anesthesiologist practices with the guidelines was assessed according to antibiotic prophylaxis use, antimicrobial agent, dosage of first injection, time from first dose to incision, and total duration of antibiotic prophylaxis. SETTING Orthopedic surgery wards in a 2,200-bed French teaching hospital. PATIENTS A random sample of 416 patients undergoing THR from January 1999 to December 2000. RESULTS Three hundred eighty-six (93%) of the sampled medical records were usable. Antibiotic prophylaxis was used for 366 (95%) of the patients. Total duration of prophylaxis did not exceed 48 hours in 98% (359 of 366) of the patients. Drug selection complied with national guidelines in 259 (71%) of the patients. Dosage and timing of the first injection were appropriate in 98% (290 of 296) and 80% (236 of 296) of the patients, respectively, who received one of the recommended antibiotics. Overall, 53% (203 of 386) of the patients met all five criteria. In multivariate analysis, there was a significant anesthesiologist effect on overall compliance with the guidelines (likelihood ratio chi-square with 9 degrees of freedom, 25.7; P < .01). Undergoing surgery during 2000 was the only patient characteristic associated with an increased rate of appropriate practices (adjusted OR, 1.56; CI95 1.02-2.38). CONCLUSION The overall compliance rate should be improved by disseminating the guidelines and the results of this study following audit and feedback.

Therapeutic impact and diagnostic performance of multiplex PCR in patients with malignancies and suspected sepsis.

OBJECTIVES New molecular methods allow rapid pathogen detection in patients with sepsis, but their impact on treatment decisions remains to be established. We evaluated the therapeutic usefulness of multiplex PCR testing in patients with cancer and sepsis. METHODS 110 patients with cancer and sepsis were included prospectively and underwent LightCycler® SeptiFast (LC-SF) multiplex PCR testing in addition to standard tests. Two independent panels of experts assessed the diagnosis in each patient based on medical record data; only one panel had the LC-SF results. The final diagnosis established by a third panel was the reference standard. RESULTS The final diagnosis was documented sepsis in 50 patients (55 microorganisms), undocumented sepsis in 54, and non-infectious disease in 6. LC-SF detected 17/32 pathogens recovered from blood cultures (BC) and 11/23 pathogens not recovered from BC; 12 microorganisms were detected neither by BC nor by LC-SF. LC-SF produced false-positive results in 10 cases. The LC-SF results would have significantly improved treatment in 11 (10%) patients and prompted immediate antimicrobial therapy not given initially in 3 patients. CONCLUSIONS In cancer patients with suspected sepsis, LC-SF detected 11/55 (20%) true pathogens not recovered from BCs and would have improved the initial management in 11/110 (10%) patients.

Does an educational session with an infectious diseases physician reduce the use of inappropriate antibiotic therapy for inpatients with positive urine culture results? A controlled before-and-after study.

In this controlled before-and-after study involving 19 departments in a university-affiliated hospital, a single 1-hour educational session delivered by an infectious diseases physician reduced the use of inappropriate antibiotic therapy for inpatients with positive urine culture results. Further study is warranted to assess the long-term effect of this intervention.

Conseil téléphonique en infectiologie : bon suivi des recommandations proposées par un référent infectiologue: Analyse de 174 avis

Resume Objectifs Evaluer le respect des recommandations etablies par un infectiologue pour des patients hospitalises et identifier les facteurs influencant l’observance; mesurer la part des infections nosocomiales dans la demande de consultations intra-hospitalieres d’infectiologie. Methodes Les avis d’infectiologie ont ete recenses pendant 4 semaines. Le respect des recommandations concernant les anti-infectieux (posologie, molecule, association) et des prescriptions complementaires (microbiologie, radiologie, isolement) etait verifie 48 heures apres l’avis infectieux. Resultats Cent soixante quatorze avis infectieux ont ete demandes pour 143 patients hospitalises. Des anti-infectieux ont ete prescrits pour 52,4% patients, modifies pour 22,4%, arretes pour 9,1%. 16,1% des patients n’avaient besoin d’aucun traitement. Le respect des recommandations des infectiologues etait respectivement de 84,6 % et 77,4 %, pour les anti-infectieux et les prescriptions complementaires. Les facteurs associes etaient : le deplacement au lit du malade (p = 0,04) et l’arret d’un traitement anti-infectieux versus une modification (p = 0,02). Environ 40 % des patients (n = 57) avaient une infection nosocomiale; le plus souvent lors d’hospitalisation en chirurgie (53,1 % versus 29,1 %, p Conclusion Le deplacement des infectiologues au lit du malade a un impact sur le respect des recommandations qu’ils etablissent. De plus, les referents infectiologues jouent un role primordial dans la gestion du traitement des infections nosocomiales, qui representent plus d’un tiers de l’activite de consultation intra-hospitaliere.

Kawasaki disease in adults: Observations in France and literature review.

OBJECTIVE Kawasaki disease (KD) is a vasculitis that mostly occurs in young children and rarely in adults. We analyzed the characteristics of adult-onset KD (AKD) in France. METHODS We collected retrospective and prospective data for patients with a diagnosis of KD occurring after the age of 18 years. Cases were obtained via various French medical networks and identified from the international literature. RESULTS We included 43 patients of AKD at 26 institution from 1992 to 2015, with mean (SD) age 30 (11) years (range 18-68) and sex ratio (M/F) 1.2; 34 patients met the American Heart Association criteria and 9 were incomplete AKD. The median time to diagnosis was 13 days (interquartile range 8-21). The main symptoms were fever (100%), exanthema (98%), changes in the extremities (91%), conjunctivitis (77%), oral cavity changes (89%), cervical adenitis (55%) and cardiac abnormalities (45%). Overall, 35% of patients showed large-vessel vasculitis: coronary vasculitis (26%) and coronary aneurysm (19%). Treatment was mostly intravenous immunoglobulins (79%) and aspirin (81%). Four patients showed myocardial infarction due to coronary vasculitis, but none were treated with IVIg because of late diagnosis. After a median follow-up of 5 months (range 1-117), persistent aneurysm was noted in 9% of cases. Damage was significantly lower with early treatment than late or no treatment (p=0.01). CONCLUSION Given the high frequency of cardiac involvement and complications in this series of AKD, diagnosis and treatment should not be delayed, and early IVIg treatment seems to improve the outcome.

A neonatal specialist with recurrent methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) carriage implicated in the transmission of MRSA to newborns.

This study reports an investigation of outbreaks of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection and colonization involving 17 newborns in the neonatal unit of a teaching hospital. A neonatal specialist colonized with MRSA that eventually became mupirocin-resistant was implicated as a recurrent source of transmission of MRSA to newborns.

Prospective assessment of fluoroquinolone use in a teaching hospital.

The aim of this study was to review the use of fluoroquinolone (FQ) drugs in a teaching hospital and to bring to light the factors associated with FQ misuse. A prospective observational study of FQ prescriptions was conducted in a 2,200-bed teaching hospital. Every hospitalized patient receiving a FQ drug during the 3-week survey period was included. A questionnaire was filled out using medical records and face-to-face interviews with FQ prescribers. An infectious diseases specialist reviewed the questionnaires and analyzed FQ therapy according to local guidelines for FQ prescription. Among the group of 174 patients included, FQ therapy was inappropriate in 88 cases (50.6%; 95% CI 43–58) for the following reasons: inappropriate clinical setting, 43; non-first-line recommendation, 24; inappropriate choice of FQ agent, 9; and inappropriate combination of FQs, 12. FQ prescriptions did not comply with prescription rules in 45 cases (25.9%; 95% CI 20–33). Appropriateness and compliance overlapped for 17 of these 45 patients who received an inappropriate FQ course that did not comply with prescription rules. Finally, FQ therapy was misused for 116 of the 174 patients (66.6%; 95% CI 59–74). Characteristics linked with FQ misuse were hospitalization in surgical wards (p = 0.03), intravenous therapy (p < 0.01), and presumptive therapy (p = 0.05). The FQ misuse rate progressively decreased during the survey period (p = 0.04). FQ misuse was a common phenomenon in the teaching hospital studied. The significant improvement in FQ prescribing practices observed during the study period demonstrates that frequent review of antibiotic use with prescribers is warranted.