[Clinical Picture] Hookworm in the eye
A 62-year-old man presented to the Southwest Eye Hospital (Chongqing, China) with a 4-month history of decreasing central vision in his right eye. His visual acuity was reduced to counting fingers in the right eye and was 6/6 in the left. There was no remarkable sign in the anterior segment of the right eye, but fundoscopy revealed a white, slim worm wiggling under the macular retina (figure). The patient recalled that his right eye had been injured by a branch 3 years previously, with no vision decrease and no treatment at that time. (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - April 19, 2018 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Zui Tao, Ying Wang, Shasha Yu, Zheng Qin Yin, Yong Liu, Shiying Li Tags: Clinical Picture Source Type: research

[Obituary] David Cooper
Prof David Cooper was a pioneer in the care of patients with HIV and research into treatment. He died in Sydney on March 18, 2018. (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - April 19, 2018 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Talha Burki Tags: Obituary Source Type: research

[Newsdesk] Research brief
Findings from a study done in 12 cynomolgus macaques suggest that common immune responses to Ebola virus could serve as an early marker for infection. The monkeys, which were infected intranasally with Ebola virus, presented with varying times to disease onset, but about 4 days before fever began in each one, researchers noticed a distinctive upregulation of interferon-stimulating genes. Comparison with data from the 2014 –16 Ebola outbreak in Guinea showed activation of the same genes, in the same order, in human beings. (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - April 19, 2018 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Dara Mohammadi Tags: Newsdesk Source Type: research

[Newsdesk] Infectious disease surveillance update
On March 7, 2018, four cases in human beings of encephalitis associated with Borna disease virus 1 infection were reported in Germany, including three deaths. Of the four patients, three had received organs from the same donor who had no clinical signs of the illness, two of these recipients died from their illness. An additional case of encephalitis caused by Borna disease virus 1 was identified in southern Germany, this patient also died from their illness. No epidemiological link was identified between this case and the organ transplant recipients. (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - April 19, 2018 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Ruth Zwizwai Tags: Newsdesk Source Type: research

[Newsdesk] Neglected tropical diseases: securing sustainability
Drug donations for mass drug administration have had great success. But there are drawbacks and experts are questioning the sustainability of such programmes. Clare Sansom reports. (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - April 19, 2018 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Clare Sansom Tags: Newsdesk Source Type: research

[Newsdesk] North Korea and the Global Fund
The Global Fund's decision to withdraw from North Korea is jeopardising tuberculosis control in the country. Talha Burki reports. (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - April 19, 2018 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Talha Burki Tags: Newsdesk Source Type: research

[Correspondence] Constantly high incidence of scarlet fever in Germany
Theresa Lamagni and colleagues1 reported the resurgence of scarlet fever in England: although only up to 50 cases of scarlet fever per 100  000 children (age (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - April 19, 2018 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Stefan O Brockmann, Linda Eichner, Martin Eichner Tags: Correspondence Source Type: research

[Correspondence] Adverse pregnancy outcomes due to Chlamydia trachomatis
Joanne Reekie and colleagues1 did a population-based cohort study on the association between a positive test for chlamydia and spontaneous preterm birth, having a baby who is small for gestational age, or stillbirth. On the basis of the findings from their study, the authors concluded that a genital chlamydia infection —presumably treated either before or during pregnancy, regardless of the trimester during which testing occurred—does not substantially increase a woman's risk of having one of these three adverse pregnancy outcomes. (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - April 19, 2018 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Xiang-Sheng Chen Tags: Correspondence Source Type: research

[Correspondence] Influenza: the role of the Middle East and north Africa?
100 years have passed since the first well documented influenza pandemic of the 20th century. Today, the majority of the influenza virus burden is known to be caused by two main types of influenza virus —type A and type B. Human influenza A viruses generally stem from birds and swine, whereas influenza B viruses do not have a known animal reservoir, and simply circulate among human beings. Although pandemics occur unexpectedly, these outbreaks are theorised to emerge after a lengthy reassortment process, and not from the direct introduction of an avian virus into human beings. (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - April 19, 2018 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Hossein Bannazadeh Baghi, Mohammad Hossein Soroush Tags: Correspondence Source Type: research

[Correspondence] Low procalcitonin, community acquired pneumonia, and antibiotic therapy – Authors' reply
We share, in principal, the concern of Ishan Kamat and colleagues that the diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia is challenging, and that procalcitonin should not be used as a substitute for good clinical practice. Decisions regarding the potential benefit of starting antibiotic treatment in patients presenting with lower respiratory tract illnesses should be based on all available clinical and diagnostic parameters, including a thorough clinical assessment. (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - April 19, 2018 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Philipp Schuetz, Angela Branche, Beat Mueller Tags: Correspondence Source Type: research

[Correspondence] Low procalcitonin, community acquired pneumonia, and antibiotic therapy
Our concerns about the meta-analysis of procalcitonin-guided therapy in patients with acute respiratory infections by Philipp Schuetz and colleagues1 go well beyond those expressed in an accompanying Comment.2 We fear that physicians will infer that antibiotic treatment can be given to or withheld from patients with community-acquired pneumonia on the basis of plasma procalcitonin concentrations. (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - April 19, 2018 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Ishan S Kamat, Vignesh Ramachandran, Harish Eswaran, Michael S Abers, Daniel M Musher Tags: Correspondence Source Type: research

[Correspondence] Colistin versus colistin plus meropenem for severe infections Authors' reply
We appreciate Daniele Giacobbe's Correspondence regarding the importance of colistin minimum inhibitory concentrations. A study showed that both gradient-based and semi-automated devices can overestimate susceptibility to colistin.1 In our trial,2 we recruited patients who were infected with colistin-susceptible (carbapenem non-susceptible) Gram-negative bacteria on the basis of several tests —including the Etest (BioMérieux, Marcy-l'Étoile, France), Vitek-2 (BioMérieux), and BD Phoenix (BD Diagnostics, Sparks, NV, USA) for colistin susceptibilities—done in the clinical laboratories of participating centres. (Source...
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - April 19, 2018 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Mical Paul, Yehuda Carmeli, George L Daikos, Emanuele Durante-Mangoni, Ursula Theuretzbacher, Johan W Mouton, Leonard Leibovici Tags: Correspondence Source Type: research

[Correspondence] Colistin versus colistin plus meropenem for severe infections
In their randomised controlled superiority trial, Mical Paul and colleagues1 found that the addition of meropenem to colistin did not improve clinical failure in patients with severe Acinetobacter baumannii infections. The study brings important high-level evidence to the discussion on the use of combination therapies against multidrug-resistant Gram negatives.2 (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - April 19, 2018 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Daniele Roberto Giacobbe Tags: Correspondence Source Type: research

[Correspondence] Colistin versus colistin plus meropenem for severe infections
Mical Paul and colleagues1 should be commended for conducting the investigator-initiated randomised trial addressing combination therapy with colistin plus meropenem. The limitations of the study have been elegantly discussed by the authors and in a Comment;2 however, a few points require further comments. (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - April 19, 2018 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Alexandre P Zavascki Tags: Correspondence Source Type: research

[Correspondence] It's too soon to pull the plug on antibiotic cycling – Authors' reply
Daniel Nichol and colleagues express concern that the negative findings from our study1 will discourage future investigators from attempting to further study the effects of antibiotic rotation. Indeed, we concluded that antibiotic rotation (both mixing and cycling) is not justified as clinical practice, but we do not intend to halt further research and sincerely hope that it will not deter others from exploring antibiotic rotation strategies to reduce antibiotic resistance. (Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - April 19, 2018 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Pleun Joppe van Duijn, Marc Bonten Tags: Correspondence Source Type: research