Changes in the Lipid Asset of HIV/HCV Patients after a Successful Course of Direct-Acting Antivirals.

Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) for HIV infection and Direct-Acting Antivirals (DAA) for HCV infection currently represent the main treatment options for HIV/HCV co-infected patients. However, HAART has been associated with increased lipids. This study aimed to evaluate lipid profile changes after the DAA cycle in HIV/HCV co-infected patients undergoing HAART/DAA therapy.

Hepatitis C virus eradication in people living with human immunodeficiency virus: Where are we now?

Hepatitis C virus (HCV)/human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) co-infection still involves 2.3 million patients worldwide of the estimated 37.7 million living with HIV, according to World Health Organization.

Hepatitis B virus infection reactivation in patients under immunosuppressive therapies: Pathogenesis, screening, prevention and treatment.

With a 5.3% of the global population involved, hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a major public health challenge requiring an urgent response. After a possible acute phase, the natural history of HBV infection can progress in chronicity.

Safety of direct acting antiviral treatment for hepatitis C in oncologic setting: A clinical experience and a literature review.

With a globally estimated 58 million people affected by, chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection still represents a hard challenge for scientific community. A chronic course can occur among patients with a weak innate ad adaptive response with cirrhosis and malignancies as main consequences. Oncologic patients undergoing chemotherapy represent a special immunocompromised population predisposed to HCV reactivation (HCVr) with undesirable changes in cancer treatment and outcome.

Are nucleotide inhibitors, already used for treating hepatitis C virus infection, a potential option for the treatment of COVID-19 compared with standard of care? A literature review.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is global pandemic with various clinical presentations, ranging from cold to sometimes unrecoverable acute respiratory distress syndrome. Although urgently needed, currently there are no specific treatments for COVID-19. Repurposing existing pharmaceuticals to treat COVID-19 is crucial to control the pandemic.

Experimental Pharmacotherapy for COVID-19: The Latest Advances.

The coronavirus infectious disease-2019 (COVID-19) has overwhelmed like a shock wave in a completely unprepared world. Despite coronavirus infections were involved in previous epidemic outbreaks, no antiviral agent was developed for specific treatment. As a consequence, since the beginning of this pandemic, both repositioned and experimental drugs were used to treat the infected patients without evidence of clinical efficacy.

Infections causing stroke or stroke-like syndromes.

Background: Stroke has relevant morbidity and mortality despite appropriate treatments and early diagnosis. Beside common risk factors such as diabetes and atrial fibrillation, infections can be involved in stroke pathogenesis, probably causing a systemic release of cytokines and other inflammatory mediators, triggering a latent pro-thrombotic state or damaging the vascular endothelium. In other cases, infections can occur as stroke-like syndromes, requiring a high grade of suspicion to avoid a delay in establishing a correct diagnosis.

Emerging antibiotic resistance: carbapenemase-producing enterobacteria. Bad new bugs, still no new drugs.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health security threat requiring actions across government sectors and society. Many factors are involved in this phenomenon, being overuse of antibiotics, incorrect antibiotic prophylaxis, and use of antibiotics for zootechnic reasons the main causes of the increasing rate of multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria. The impact of resistance to antimicrobials is an important threat due also to the emergence of MDR Gram-negative bacteria resistant to carbapenems, and the lack of the research for new active molecules.

Alexithymia in HIV, HCV and coinfections.

Recent studies show that alexithymia, an impairment of emotional processing, plays a role in HIV and HCV infections, although little is known about about alexithymia in HIV/HCV coinfection. This study aimed to assess alexithymia in patients suffering from HIV, HCV or HIV/HCV coinfection and observe major differences. We selected 153 subjects, excluding those with psychiatric diagnosis, cognitive impairment or opportunistic diseases, of whom 70 (46%) had HIV infection, 57 (37%) HCV infection and 26 (17%) HIV/HCV coinfection.

Risk of professional accidental exposure to biological agents in health care workers: a retrospective analysis carried out in a southern Italian tertiary hospital.

Worldwide the needlestick injuries of health care workers (HCWs) still represent a major health problem. The authors aimed to evaluate the risk of HCW needlestick injuries in a tertiary university hospital in southern Italy in relation to some HCW characteristics (age, sex, professional profile, work department) and the source of infection. All HCWs of the University Hospital "Federico II" in Naples, Italy, attending the Infectious Diseases Unit after potential accidental contact to blood-borne viruses through needlestick injuries were enrolled during a 22-year period.

Epidemiology and pathogenesis of fulminant viral hepatitis in pregnant women.

Introduction: The pregnancy-associated immunological and hormonal changes may alter the immune response to infectious agents, including hepatitis viruses. Therefore, this phenomenon may affect the clinical course and the outcome of acute viral hepatitis in pregnant women.

Evidence Acquisition: For this reason, we have focused on epidemiological and pathogenetic aspects of the fulminant liver failure caused by acute viral hepatitis reviewing PubMED in April of 2017.

Antiviral therapy for hepatitis C: Has anything changed for pregnant/lactating women?

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) affects about 3% of the world's population, with the highest prevalence in individuals under 40. The prevalence in pregnant women varies with geographical distribution (highest in developing countries). Prevalence also increases in sub-populations of women at high risk for blood-transmitted infections.

Efficacy and Safety of Sofosbuvir in the Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis C: The Dawn of a New Era.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection affects about 160 million people worldwide. Currently, it is treated with pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) plus ribavirin, associated with a protease inhibitor in case of genotype 1 infection. However, this combination is often contraindicated and associated with severe adverse events that limit its use in clinical practice.

Amino acid-based formula as a rescue strategy in feeding very-low-birth-weight infants with intrauterine growth restriction.

Background And Aim: Very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) neonates may develop severe intolerance to standard preterm formula especially if they are associated with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). We tested the hypothesis that these infants may tolerate an elemental, amino acid-based formula as a rescue feeding strategy.

Methods: In a prospective, case-control pilot study, we enrolled VLBW IUGR infants enterally fed with standard preterm formula (SPF) at daily increments of 16 mL/kg.