Active clinical trials for "Communicable Diseases"

COVID-19, the coronavirus responsible for the pandemic that began at the end of 2019 in China, spreads through respiratory droplets and direct contact. The most common symptoms of the disease include fever, cough, asthenia or myalgia, wheezing and headache, and the most serious complication is acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The new coronavirus has continued to spread to multiple countries and continents so much so that the epidemic was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Interest (PHEIC) by the World Health Organization (WHO) on January 30, 2020. In the first phase of emergency worldwide, characterized by high morbidity and mortality, scientific interest has been mainly directed to the study of the transmission mechanisms of the infection, diagnostic tools and therapies for ARDS, especially in elderly and co-morbid patients. Interest has rapidly spread to other categories of patients and in particular to pregnancy, on which the virus could impact in different ways, with consequences for both the mother and the fetus. A recent systematic review that included all published reports on Coronaviruses (COVID-19, SARS, and MERS) in pregnancy showed that preterm delivery is the most frequently reported adverse event in these women, and that COVID-19 is associated with an increased risk of preeclampsia and caesarean section. Nonetheless, the limited sample size, the main inclusion of cases reported for acute respiratory symptoms, the lack of information on previous pathologies potentially capable of complicating pregnancy, do not allow for the extrapolation of strong evidence on the course of infection in pregnancy. Therefore, the current status of the scientific literature does not allow for general and wide-ranging implications. THe investigators therefore believe it is particularly useful to investigate maternal and fetal outcomes in this new broader scenario, including all pregnancies associated with asymptomatic or symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, found in any gestational period, in order to evaluate in a "real world scenario" "Actual rates of maternal-fetal and neonatal adverse events

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is an inflammatory disease of the pancreas, most commonly caused by gallstones, or excessive use of alcohol. It represents a management challenge and a significant healthcare burden. The incidence of AP ranges globally from 5 to 30 cases per 100.000 inhabitants/year, and there is evidence that the incidence has been rising in recent years. The overall case-fatality rate for AP is roughly 5%, and it is expectedly higher for more severe stages of the disease. In most cases (80%), the outcome of AP is rapidly favorable. However, acute necrotizing pancreatitis (ANP) may develop in up to 20% of cases, and is associated with significant rates of early organ failure (38%), needing some type of surgical/endoscopic intervention (38%) and death (15%). In the United States, AP is a leading cause of inpatient care among gastrointestinal conditions: more than 270.000 patients are hospitalized for AP annually, at an aggregate cost of over 2.5 billion dollars per year. In Europe, the UK incidence of AP is estimated as 15-42 cases per 100.000/year and is rising by 2.7% each year. Despite existing evidence-based practice guidelines for the management of biliary AP, clinical compliance with recommendations is poor, with studies on this field identifying major discrepancies between evidence-based recommendations and daily clinical practice. Audits about biliary AP have been performed in Italy, Germany, France, and England, with quite disappointing results. Indeed, in these audits, the treatment of biliary AP differed substantially from the recommendations. For example, less than 15% of the responders stated that they strictly followed all recommendations included in the guidelines in Germany and 25.8% of patients did not receive definitive treatment for biliary AP within 1 year in the UK. These findings support the view that publication alone of nationally or internationally developed and approved guidelines is insufficient to modify the practice of non-specialists and raises the question of how best to spread guideline recommendations. In 2020, the spread of the virus Covid-19 has represented a pandemic that also had a profound impact on the surgical community. There are many ways through which the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic could have influenced daily clinical practice for patients with biliary AP also leading to a failure to adhere to the recommendations coming from the guidelines, especially those regarding the early and definitive treatment with cholecystectomy or ERCP and sphincterotomy. First of all, the recommendation to postpone all non-urgent endoscopic procedures during the peak of the pandemic. Second, the recommendation to conservatively treat inflammatory conditions such as acute cholecystitis and acute appendicitis wherever possible. Since the clinical compliance with recommendations about AP is poor and the impact of implementing guideline recommendations in biliary AP has not been well studied on a global basis, we launched the MANCTRA-1 study with the aim to demonstrate areas where there is currently a sub-optimal implementation of contemporary guidelines on biliary AP. Moreover, we argue that during the Covid-19 pandemic the tendency to disregard the guidelines recommendations has been more marked than usual and we will try to find out if AP patients' care during the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a higher rate of adverse outcomes compared to non-pandemic times due to the lack in the compliance of the guidelines. The MANCTRA-1 can identify a number of areas for quality improvement that will require new implementation strategies. Our aim is to summarize the main areas of sub-optimal care to provide the basis for introducing a number of bundles in the management of AP patients to be implemented during the next years. The primary objective of the study is to evaluate which items of the current AP guidelines if disregarded, correlate with negative clinical outcomes according to the different clinical presentations of the disease. Secondary objectives are to assess the compliance of surgeons worldwide to the most up-to-date international guidelines on biliary AP, to evaluate the medical and surgical practice in the management of biliary AP during the non-pandemic (2019) and pandemic Covid-19 periods (2020), and to investigate outcomes of patients with biliary AP treatment during the two study periods.

This cross-sectional survey will be conducted prospectively in 2 communes in the Battambang Province, Roka and Prey Khpos commune. The principal objective of the study is to compare HIV and HCV prevalence rates in three groups of subjects as follows: Group 1: subjects living in Roka and Ambaeng Thngae villages where most of HIV and HCV cases were identified during the Roka outbreak in 2014-2015 Group 2: subjects living in the other 4 villages of the Roka commune (Ta Haen I and II, Pou Batdambang, and Chhung Tradak) Group 3: subjects living in selected villages from Prey Khpos commune 1,098 eligible residents will be selected using three-stage cluster sampling method. A structure questionnaire will assess the medical injection practices through face-to-face interview. The study will be conducted into two steps. The first step will be a prevalence study to assess HIV and HCV prevalence rates in three groups of subject; Group 1: subjects living in Roka and Ambaeng Thngae villages where most of HIV and HCV cases were identified during the Roka outbreak; Group 2: subjects living in the other 4 villages of the Roka commune (Ta Haen I and II, Pou Batdambang, and Chhung Tradak) and Group 3: subjects living in villages from Prey Khpos commune).The second step will be the phylogenetic study of HIV. The phylogenetic study of HIV will be performed ONLY if HIV prevalence rates among group 2 and/or group 3 is higher or equal to 0.7% (upper limit of confidence interval of HIV prevalence estimated in Cambodia)

The current study is a pilot study to assess the feasibility of a superordinate project. The final objective of this superordinate project is to describe and model the pharmacokinetic behaviour of a small number of standard antimicrobials used in the treatment of frequent blood stream infections, and to link this via pharmacodynamic models to (inhibition of) bacterial or fungal growth as well as to clinical outcomes in patients.

Microbiota contributes to the immunological, hormonal and metabolic homeostasis of the host. As in all natural orifices in the body, there is also a microbiota and mycobiota specific to the vagina. On the other hand, the sonographic short cervix in the second trimester of pregnancy is associated with preterm delivery, which may be an important cause of mortality and morbidity in the neonatal period. American Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), British Royal Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (RCOG) and the American Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine (SMFM) suggest that the measurement of transvaginal sonographic cervical length at 20-24 gestational weeks for the screening of preterm birth. The aforementioned associations also recommend the use of progesterone in the treatment of women who diagnosed with short cervix by transvaginal ultrasonography due to the fact that progesterone is an effective medication in the prevention of preterm birth (Grade B). Previous vaginal microbiota studies have shown that some bacterial species such as Lactobacillus insers cause a predisposition to premature labor in women with a short cervix. However, the prominent lack in these studies is that the eukaryotic fungi in abundant vaginal flora have not been evaluated. On the other hand, it was already shown that progesterone treatment is able to prevent only 45% preterm birth in women with short cervical length. This observational prospective study thus aims to evaluate the variety of microbiota and/or mycobiota in pregnancies resulting in preterm birth and those who give birth at term. Although women with short cervical length receive progesterone regularly from the second trimester, the preterm birth may occur. In this study, the investigators also aim to evaluate the patterns of microbiota and mycobiota from vaginal swabs of women who had preterm birth with short cervical length and postpartum swabs of the placenta and fetal oral cavity.

The goal of this research program is to understand the natural history of asymptomatic bacteriuria in the renal transplant patients, to determine if screening for asymptomatic bacteriuria and identification of key host characteristics and virulence factors present on uropathogenic bacteria identifies a sub-population of patients with asymptomatic bacteriuria that are at risk to develop symptomatic urinary tract infection. Ultimately, the knowledge obtained from this study will prevent inappropriate antibiotic use and may identify whether certain bacterial isolates predispose to renal allograft injury. We will test the hypothesis that (i) asymptomatic bacteriuria is common in the renal allograft recipient and (ii) that symptomatic urinary tract infection and renal allograft dysfunction do not occur unless key host susceptibility factors and uropathogenic bacterial virulence factors are present.

The primary objective is to determine if early infectious disease (ID) consultation (defined as within 48 hours of a positive blood culture) will reduce mortality rates from Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB). This study will also determine if such consultations could reduce the duration of hospitalisation, recurrence and financial costs in patients with this infection.

Background: Survival in Granzyme A gene (gzmA) knocked-out mice was significantly longer than in wild-type mice in a murine peritonitis model (cecal ligation puncture). Hypothesis: GZM A has a pathogenic role in sepsis in humans and gzmA polymorphisms can help to predict the risk of sepsis among patients with systemic infections (E. coli bacteremic urinary tract infections). Objectives: To assess the correlation between GZM A serum levels and systemic inflammatory response in a human model of infection/sepsis (E. coli bacteremic UTI) To characterize gzmA polymorphisms among patients with E. coli bacteremic UTI To determine GZM A serum kinetics among patients with E. coli bacteremic UTI To characterize E. coli strains causing bacteremic UTI: antimicrobial phenotype and virulence factors ("virulome"). Methods: Design and setting: Prospective nested case-control study Study population: consecutive adult patients with bacteremic urinary tract infections (UTIs) caused by E. coli Exclusion criteria: Patients with conditions that significantly compromise immune status or patients exposed to urologic procedures Estimated sample size: 50 patients with a sepsis/ non sepsis 1:1 ratio. Septic and non septic patients will be matched on gender, age (+/- 10 years), comorbidity (Charlson score +/-1), time symptom onset to blood culture (+/- 24h) Measurements: GZM A serum levels will be determined on day 0, day 2-3, day 30. GZM A kinetics, gzmA polymorphisms (whole exome sequencing).Whole genome sequencing of E. coli isolates retrieved from blood cultures will be performed. Analysis: Association between GZM A levels and gzmA polymorphisms and sepsis will be analyzed adjusting for patient, infection and microorganism-related factors (multivariate analysis).

Prospective, multicenter, observational study on the evaluation of efficacy of appropriate monotherapy vs combination treatment for non-complicated Enterococcus faecalis bloodstream infection (EF-BSI). The aims of our study are: Primary: To compare the efficacy of appropriate monotherapy vs combination treatment for EF-BSI, according to standard of care. Secondary: To compare the impact on clinical outcome of the initial combination therapy in the subgroup of patients with enterococcal endocarditis. In this case we will evaluate only the antibiotic treatment administered before the diagnosis of endocarditis assuming that any case of endocarditis will be treated with a combination therapy. To compare the efficacy of combination treatment (vs monotherapy) in the following subgroup of patients: A. Patients with low versus high risk of endocarditis according with the "Number of positive blood cultures, Origin of the bacteremia, previous Valve disease, Auscultation of heart murmur (NOVA) score". B. Patients with metastatic septic localizations. C. Patients with catheter-related BSI. D. Patients with indwelling cardiovascular device or prosthetic valve. To validate the NOVA score as a predictor of enterococcal endocarditis in a large multicentre cohort of patients with EF-BSI. To estimate optimal duration of treatment of EF-BSI in patients without endocarditis. To evaluate the rate of 90-day development of Clostridium difficile infection. The promoting center is S. Orsola-Malpighi Hospital is a 1,420-bed tertiary care University Hospital in Bologna with an average of 72,000 admissions per year. A dedicate team of Infectious Diseases (ID) specialists is active in the promoting center. Investigators of this team have already coordinated multicenter studies on infections topics. Centers from other countries will be invited to participate by email, they will be ask to fulfil an agreement form. All consecutive, unselected patients with monomicrobial EF-BSI will be screened for study inclusion. We expect to enroll about 500 patients. Period of data collection will be from september 2019 to 31th December 2020.

In recent years, mycoplasma pneumoniae caused more than 30% of respiratory infections in children in China, among which the detection rate of drug-resistant mycoplasma pneumoniae was higher than 90%. Pediatricians are facing great challenges. In this study, a total of 2312 clinical cases were expected to be collected, including 1160 cases of outpatient respiratory infection including common cold, acute bronchitis and cough after infection, and 1152 cases of hospitalized community-acquired pneumonia, through uniform enrollment in 11 multi-centers for 1 year. Clinical data and respiratory samples were collected and clinical follow-up was completed.To investigate the infection rate and drug resistance gene of mycoplasma pneumoniae in children's respiratory tract infection.To evaluate the effectiveness of azithromycin in the treatment of mycoplasma pneumoniae respiratory infection.The early prediction model of refractory mycoplasma pneumoniae was established.To explore the clinical value of colloidal gold in early diagnosis of mycoplasma pneumoniae infection