Search

We report 3 cases of Puumala virus infection in a family in Switzerland in January 2019. Clinical manifestations of the infection ranged from mild influenza-like illness to fatal disease. This cluster illustrates the wide range of clinical manifestations of Old World hantavirus infections and the challenge of diagnosing travel-related hemorrhagic fevers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Next-generation sequencing has identified novel astroviruses for which a pathogenic role is not clearly defined. We identified astrovirus MLB2 infection in an immunocompetent case-patient and an immunocompromised patient who experienced diverse clinical manifestations, notably, meningitis and disseminated infection. The initial case-patient was identified by next-generation sequencing, which revealed astrovirus MLB2 RNA in cerebrospinal fluid, plasma, urine, and anal swab specimens. We then used specific real-time reverse transcription PCR to screen 943 fecal and 424 cerebrospinal fluid samples from hospitalized patients and identified a second case of meningitis, with positive results for the agent in the patient's feces and plasma. This screening revealed 5 additional positive fecal samples: 1 from an infant with acute diarrhea and 4 from children who had received transplants. Our findings demonstrate that astrovirus MLB2, which is highly prevalent in feces, can disseminate outside the digestive tract and is an unrecognized cause of central nervous system infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which described the clinical presentation of the first 40 pediatric cases of COVID-19 and the dynamics of their familial clusters. Topics discussed include clinical presentation, diagnosis and management; demographics and clinical presentation of study patients; and limitations and importance of the study.

Objective: We aimed to examine factors associated with parental willingness to vaccinate their children against COVID-19., Methods: We surveyed adults included in a digital longitudinal cohort study composed of participants in previous SARS-CoV-2 serosurveys conducted in Geneva, Switzerland. In February 2022, an online questionnaire collected information on COVID-19 vaccination acceptance, parental willingness to vaccinate their children aged ≥5 years and reasons for vaccination preference. We used multivariable logistic regression to assess the demographic, socioeconomic and health-related factors associated with being vaccinated and with parental intention to vaccinate their children., Results: We included 1,383 participants (56.8% women; 69.3% aged 35-49 years). Parental willingness to vaccinate their children increased markedly with the child's age: 84.0%, 60.9% and 21.2%, respectively, for parents of adolescents aged 16-17 years, 12-15 years and 5-12 years. For all child age groups, unvaccinated parents more frequently indicated not intending to vaccinate their children than vaccinated parents. Refusal to vaccine children was associated with having a secondary education (1.73; 1.18-2.47) relative to a tertiary education and with middle (1.75; 1.18-2.60) and low (1.96; 1.20-3.22) household income relative to high income. Refusal to vaccine their children was also associated with only having children aged 12-15 years (3.08; 1.61-5.91), aged 5-11 years (19.77; 10.27-38.05), or in multiple age groups (6.05; 3.22-11.37), relative to only having children aged 16-17 years., Conclusion: Willingness to vaccinate children was high for parents of adolescents aged 16-17 years but decreased significantly with decreasing child age. Unvaccinated, socioeconomically disadvantaged parents and those with younger children were less likely to be willing to vaccinate their children. These results are important for vaccination programs and developing communication strategies to reach vaccine-hesitant groups, both in the context of COVID-19 and in the prevention of other diseases and future pandemics.

Immunocompromised patients may be at increased risk for complications of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. However, comprehensive data of SARS-CoV-2 infection in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients are still lacking. We performed a multicenter nationwide observational study within the Swiss Transplant Cohort Study (STCS) to describe the epidemiology, clinical presentation, treatment and outcomes of the first microbiologically documented SARS-CoV-2 infection among SOT recipients. Overall, 21 patients were included with a median age of 56 years (10 kidney, 5 liver, 1 pancreas, 1 lung, 1 heart and 3 combined transplantations). The most common presenting symptoms were fever (76%), dry cough (57%), nausea (33%), and diarrhea (33%). Ninety-five percent and 24% of patients required hospital and ICU admission, respectively, and 19% were intubated. After a median of 33 days of follow-up, 16 patients were discharged, 3 were still hospitalized and 2 patients died. These data suggest that clinical manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 infection in middle-aged SOT recipients appear to be similar to the general population without an apparent higher rate of complications. These results need to be confirmed in larger cohorts., (© 2020 The American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons.)

Epidemiological trends in congenital toxoplasmosis and CMV are extremely divergent. While there were only 39 cases of congenital toxoplasmosis in Switzerland between 1982 and 2015, there was an equivalent number of cases of congenital CMV, 38 in total, in 2017 alone. Serological screening for toxoplasmosis was logically abandoned in Switzerland in 2008. Regarding CMV, there is no recommendation for serological screening or neonatal screening in Switzerland, whereas early diagnosis can improve prognosis through the rapid initiation of antiviral treatment. The epidemiological data generated by sentinel surveillance of congenital CMV infections in Switzerland may or may not justify such a measure in our country in the future., Competing Interests: Les auteurs n’ont déclaré aucun conflit d’intérêts en relation avec cet article.