Active clinical trials for "Communicable Diseases"

Catheterisation is an accepted tool in intrapartum bladder care and indwelling catheters are used routinely before elective caesarean sections. However, urinary catheters are associated with an increased rate of urinary tract infections which can lead to complications including increased maternal morbidity and prolonged hospital stay. A Cochrane Review (2014) concluded that there is insufficient evidence to assess the routine use of indwelling bladder catheters in women undergoing caesarean section. The incidence and causation of catheter-associated infection in this population is unknown. We propose to provide this data, by comparing urine samples from pregnant women before and after their delivery and analysing this against observational catheter use during the delivery. This will be vital in conducting future research into potential change in policy on routine catheterisation. It will also be beneficial to patients as it could reduce the burden of catheterisation by reducing their chance of developing a UTI and by reducing the associated morbidity.

Since other genital infections enhance HIV susceptibility by inducing inflammation, the investigators study the relationship between the vaginal microbiota composition and the risk of HPV infection, cervical cytological abnormalities.

The REspiratory Syncytial virus Consortium in EUrope (RESCEU) is an Innovative Medicine Initiative (IMI) funded by the EU under the H2020 framework to define and understand the burden of disease caused by human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection. RSV causes severe disease in individuals at the extremes of the age spectrum and in high risk groups. It was estimated that RSV was associated with 34 million cases of acute respiratory tract infection (ARTI), 3.4 million ARTI hospitalizations and 55,000 to 199,000 deaths in children <5 years in 2005 worldwide. The estimated burden of disease in older adults is comparable with non-pandemic influenza A (for which a vaccine is available). These estimates were based on limited data and there is a substantial gap in knowledge on morbidity and associated healthcare and social costs in Europe. New vaccines and therapeutics against RSV are in development and could soon be available on the European market. RESCEU will deliver knowledge of the incidence and burden of RSV disease in young children and older adults in Europe, which is essential for stakeholders (governments, etc.) to take decisions about prophylaxis and treatment. Objective: To determine the burden of disease due to RSV in older adults. Study design: Prospective epidemiological, observational, multi-country, multicenter cohort study. Study population: Adults aged 60 years and up (n=1,000) of which approximately 50% is above 75 years of age. Main study parameters/endpoints: The primary endpoints of the study are; The incidence of RSV infection-associated ARTI. RSV associated medically attended (MA) ARTI. RSV related hospitalization.

Prosthetic Joint Infections (PJIs) are increasing with the use of orthopedic devices on an ageing population. Cutibacterium acnes is a commensal organism that plays an important role in the ecosystem healthy human skin, yet this species is also recognized as a pathogen in foreign body infection: endocarditis, prostatitis and specifically in PJIs. C. acnes is able to escape the immune system. This phenomenon could reflect two bacterial behavior: the bacterial internalization by host cells and the biofilm formation.

Pulmonary infections remain the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among patients worldwide. Pathogen identification is crucial yet difficult for the majority of the cases. Metagenomic Next-generation Sequencing provides a potential technology for rapid and untargeted pathogen detection for pulmonary infection. The study is designed observationally to investigate if mNGS is superior to traditional paradigm of serial tests in the aspect of diagnostic performance. Patients whose primary diagnosis is pulmonary infetion and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid can be obtained will be enrolled. Both mNGS and traditional paradigm of serial tests wil be performed.

Covid 19 is a pandemic infection developed in late 2019

The research aims to determine the impact of a syndromic mutiplex PCR assay (FilmArray) on the management of patients hospitalized in ICU for severe respiratory disease. During the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, the diagnosis of pneumonia has become considerably more complex as the biological, radiological and clinical criteria of covid-19 interfere with the standard criteria for the diagnosis of severe respiratory diseases. Moreover, patients with COVID-19 are at higher risk of developing other associated infections and thus, patients have therefore often been treated with antibiotics, adequately or not, due to difficulty to quickly identify the etiology of their symptoms with conventional methods. In order to improve their treatment, both diagnostic and therapeutic, we set up a new syndromic molecular test in our laboratories to accelerate and improve the pneumonia management and antibiotic stewardship. This research will include 100 to 150 adult patients hospitalized in ICU during the first half of 2020. It will take place within the Nancy University Hospital and the Reims University Hospital, France.

Hearing loss can be the result of chronic ear infections. The role of bacteria of the genus Achromobacter is not known in these conditions. An epidemiological study including a large number of patients is needed to compare the prevalence of these bacteria in sick and healthy subjects, and to highlight the characteristics of the strains and the factors favouring their emergence.

Coronavirus infection, also known as COVID-19, has become a global pandemic with over 3 million cases and 250,000 deaths worldwide. Coronaviruses (CoV) belong to a family of viruses that predominately infect mammals and birds, affecting their lungs, intestinal tract, liver and nervous systems. Prior to the discovery of the current novel coronavirus strain (SARS-CoV-2), there were six different strains that are known to infect humans, which includes the virus that caused the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) pandemic in 2002. In humans, the majority of severe illness from SARs and COVID-19 is due to inflammation of the lungs and pneumonia. Pregnancy poses a significantly increased risk of viral pneumonia and during SARS more pregnant women required intensive care and breathing support, and the proportion of deaths was higher when compared to non-pregnant adults. Furthermore, kidney failure and development of abnormal blood clotting disorders, which occurs during severe infection, is more common in pregnancy and the associated changes in blood vessels extend to the placentas of infected pregnant women, thus potentially affecting the fetus. This makes pregnant women affected by the virus at high risk of developing severe complications. Fortunately, there have been a number of biomarkers identified that are associated with illness severity. These include, specialised white blood cells, blood clotting cells and constituents, as well as other measures of heart and kidney function. We propose that these biomarkers are important correlates of clinical disease severity and prognosis in pregnant and postnatal women. This knowledge has the potential to help clinicians during this pandemic to better manage and care for their patients.

The purpose of the program. To determine the clinical, functional, immunological, and genetic factors affecting the severity of the course of acute coronavirus infection COVID-19 and PostCovid syndrome, in order to develop management tactics for such patients to reduce the risk of complications and disability.