Active clinical trials for "Communicable Diseases"

This is a research study that aims to determine if antibiotic bladder instillations (placing an antibiotic directly into the bladder) over several sessions at the office is a good option to prevent recurrent urinary tract infections, in comparison with oral suppression therapy (taking daily antibiotics in the form of pills by mouth). Oral antibiotic suppression therapy is currently the most common treatment route for recurrent urinary tract infections in post-menopausal women. The bladder antibiotic instillation may overcome the disadvantages of oral suppression therapy such as antibiotic resistance, certain side effects, and recurrence of infections after finishing the treatment course.

Since Dec 2019, over 70000 novel coronavirus infection pneumonia (NCIP) patients were confirmed. 2019 novel coronavirus (2019 nCoV) is a RNA virus, which spread mainly from person-to-person contact. Most of the symptoms are non-specific, including fever, fatigue, dry cough. Sever NCIP patients may have shortness of breath and dyspnea, and progress to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS). The mortality is reported to be around 2.3%. Thus, early detection and early treatment is very important to the improvement of NCIP patients' prognosis. At present, NCIP RNA detection of pharyngeal swab specimen by RT-PCR is recommended. However, due to the universal susceptibility to 2019 nCoV in general population and limited number of NCIP RNA detection kits available, to identify an efficient screening strategy is urgently needed. This study aim to develop and validate the diagnostic accuracy and screening efficiency of a new NCIP screening strategy, which can benefit the disease prevention and control.

The purpose of this study is to see whether chlorhexidine is superior to povidine-iodine vaginal antisepsis at reducing bacteria colony counts in pregnant women by comparing three groups: vaginal washing with chlorhexidine-alcohol, vaginal washing with povidine-iodine, and vaginal washing with saline alone.

The motivation for this study was produced from our preliminary data, which showed that during the first 96 hours of life a full-term neonate will actively reduce the overall serum iron concentration of their blood and the transferrin saturation decreases rapidly from 45% in cord blood to ~20% by six hours post-delivery. The Investigators hypothesise that this active sequestration of iron, which results in hypoferremia, is done in an effort to limit susceptibility to infection, a process referred to as nutritional immunity. Currently, little is known about iron regulation and iron homeostasis during the first week of life and even less is known about the comparisons of nutritional immunity between full term, preterm and low birth weight neonates. Additionally, limited research has been conducted on the impact of these processes on bacterial pathogens. In an effort to study the neonatal nutritional immunity and its role in neonatal susceptibility to infection, The investigator will conduct an observational study in full-term, preterm and low birth weight vaginally-delivered neonates born at Serrekunda General Hospital, The Gambia. The investigators will fully characterise and quantify nutritional immunity during the early neonatal period and the investogators will assess how this impacts bacterial growth. Study sensitisation will occur at the antenatal clinic, during the mother's second trimester of pregnancy. Mothers will be consented and enrolled at delivery. Blood samples will be collected once from the umbilical cord and at serial time points from the neonates over the first week of life.

The gut microbiome plays a significant role in balancing the inflammatory system in the immature gut. A breakdown in this balance with altered colonization of the microbiota in very low birth weight (VLBW) preterm infants is associated with increased feeding intolerance, necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and sepsis. Probiotics are proposed to normalize microbial populations and decrease intestinal disease in preterm infants. There is limited data linking clinical outcomes with the biology of probiotics. We aim to study the colonization of the GI tract with probiotic species contained in a specific probiotic blend - Florababy - in VLBW preterm infants. Stool microbiome will be analyzed at 4 time points in 2 groups (one given Florababy and the other no) of infants less than 1000 grams birth weight and < 29 weeks gestation. A comparison of stool microbiome analysis and the incidence of feeding intolerance and time to reach full feeds in the two groups will be made.

The aim of the study is to assess the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and preference-based health utilities of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) carriers in different stages of illness. It will also estimate the cost-effectiveness of anti-viral treatments resulting from the prevention of the progression of disease from uncomplicated CHB carriers to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The following hypotheses will be tested: Patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) have poorer health-related quality of life (HRQOL) than the general population; Patients with more severe stages of chronic HB infections have lower health related quality of life and health utility values; Anti-viral treatment can improve the HRQOL and health utility for patients with CHB infections; The cost-effectiveness of different treatments for chronic HBV infections can be directly compared in terms of cost/QALY gained.

Surgical site infection (SSI) is the most common healthcare-associated infection, multifactorial in nature, and a typical preventable harm. Many healthcare systems require hospitals to determine the corresponding infection rates as a quality indicator and often stipulate public reporting of these data. Several agencies, among them the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have issued evidence-based prevention guidelines. Despite efforts in implementing best practice, SSI continue to be a relevant complication of modern surgical procedures and generate enormous costs for the healthcare system. Moreover, prevention guidelines acknowledge that the evidence backing their recommendations is low to moderate in most cases, which is partly due to the complexity of SSI pathogenesis. Swissnoso, the Swiss expert group for infection prevention and hospital epidemiology, oversees the nationwide collection of data on select procedures and the associated SSI. Since the inception of this dedicated surveillance in 2009, more than 300'000 procedures have been included and the corresponding patients were followed to ascertain SSIs. Although primarily conceived as a national surveillance system and then used for public reporting starting in 2014, Swissnoso is a prime data source for better understanding the epidemiology of SSI. Here, the investigators seek to raise the quality of evidence behind future prevention guidelines. For this purpose, the investigators will move from a risk factor analysis for SSI (of which a substantial part occurs after patient discharge from the hospital, rendering surveillance difficult) to the collection of additional data (in order to better characterize certain determinants of SSI and their recognition) and, finally, to a mathematical model (which will simulate the probability of developing SSI so the investigators can test what may modulate this risk).

This study aims to assess the feasibility and, acceptability and effects of implementing HIV testing at birth testing using point-of-care (POC) HIV nucleic acid testing (NAT) in maternity settings.

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) is an effective or even the only way to cure blood malignant diseases. Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is a serious early complication of allo-HSCT. Its high incidence and poor prognosis can cause a series of terminal organ diseases such as CMV pneumonia, encephalitis, and enteritis,which seriously affecting the prognosis of patients post allo-HSCT. Our data show that rapid reconstruction of NK cells after transplantation can reduce the incidence of CMV infection. Patients with a rapid reconstruction of NKG2C after transplantation have a low CMV infection rate, and patients with strong secretion of IFN-gamma of NK after transplantation have low CMV infection. Our previous research showed that trophoblast cells transfected with IL-21 and 4-1BBL can achieve a large number of clinical-grade expansion of NK cells (mIL-21 / 4-1BBL NK cells), and mIL-21 / 4-1BBL NK cells It is safe to treat patients with minimal residual disease (MRD) positive AML after transplantation, and can induce MRD to turn negative. Previous studies have shown that adoptive infusion of expanded NK cells after haplotype transplantation is safe and can improve the functional reconstruction of NK cells. Therefore, we hypothesized that the infusion of NK cells can improve the antiviral capacity of NK cells, thereby effectively reducing the CMV infection. Incidence.

Blood samples from participants who have recovered from COVID-19 infection will be obtained and studied. The goal of the research is to identify antibodies that have been generated by the patient to fight the COVID-19 infection. By identifying the most effective antibodies, scientists can make specific antibodies to use to prevent future coronavirus outbreaks or to treat patients with severe disease.