Publications by authors named "Berengua C"
Article Synopsis
- In 2023, Europe raised concerns about rising severe neonatal infections due to a new lineage of echovirus 11 (E11), prompting an analysis of E11 cases in Spain from 2019 to 2023.
- Out of 1,288 samples, 103 were found to be E11-positive, but the detection rates and severity of infections among neonates did not significantly change after the new lineage appeared in June 2022.
- The findings suggest that the new lineage 1 is not responsible for increased neonatal infections, but the discovery of novel E11 recombinants linked to severe cases highlights the need for better monitoring and surveillance.
Article Synopsis
- Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) infections can cause severe respiratory issues and acute flaccid myelitis, with a significant rise reported during the fall-winter season of 2021-2022 across Europe.
- The study by the European Non-Polio Enterovirus Network (ENPEN) analyzed over 10,481 samples from 19 countries, identifying 1,004 as EV-D68, predominantly affecting young children, where 37.9% required hospitalization.
- Additionally, genetic analyses uncovered two new B3-derived lineages without regional patterns, indicating a notable impact of the infections and the emergence of new virus strains.
Article Synopsis
- The study compares viral culture and qPCR for detecting human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid, aiming to find a viral load threshold for identifying HCMV-related pneumonitis.
- Out of 176 BAL samples, 81.25% showed concordant results; however, qPCR identified HCMV in some samples that culture did not, highlighting challenges in result interpretation.
- A threshold of 1258 IU/mL in BAL fluid was determined, showing strong sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing pneumonia, indicating that qPCR can efficiently rule out HCMV pneumonitis when negative, though positive results may not always signal significant lung replication.
Background: This study describes the genotypic and phenotypic characterization of novel human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) genetic variants of a cohort of 94 clinically resistant HCMV patients.
Methods And Results: Antiviral-resistant mutations were detected in the UL97, UL54, and UL56 target genes of 25 of 94 (26.6%) patients.
Background: Knowing how long SARS-CoV-2-positive individuals can remain infective is crucial for the design of infection prevention and control strategies. Viral culture is the gold standard for detecting an active-replicative virus and evaluating its infectious potential.
Objective: To assess the correlation of SARS-CoV-2 infectivity with the number of days from symptom onset and the Ct value, using culture as a reference method.
Background: Few long-term reports have been published on the epidemiology of respiratory viruses despite their frequent involvement in extremely common infections. The aim here was to determine the frequency and distribution of respiratory viruses in a temperate climate area (Barcelona, Spain) throughout a 24-year period.
Methods: We collected data on all respiratory viruses detected from 1997 to 2020 in our institution.
Determining SARS-CoV-2 viral infectivity is crucial for patient clinical assessment and isolation decisions. We assessed subgenomic RNA (sgRNA) as a surrogate marker of SARS-CoV-2 infectivity in SARS-CoV-2-positive reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) respiratory samples ( = 105) in comparison with viral culture as the reference standard for virus replication. sgRNA and viral isolation results were concordant in 99/105 cases (94%), indicating highly significant agreement between the two techniques (Cohen's kappa coefficient 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) provides a highly variable cycle threshold (Ct) value that cannot distinguish viral infectivity. Subgenomic ribonucleic acid (sgRNA) has been used to monitor active replication. Given the importance of long RT-PCR positivity and the need for work reincorporation and discontinuing isolation, we studied the functionality of normalized viral loads (NVLs) for patient monitoring and sgRNA for viral infectivity detection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConjunctivitis is a frequent ocular disorder caused by human adenoviruses (HAdVs). Only a few of the 45 HAdV-D species are associated with epidemic keratoconjunctivitis, including HAdV-D8. Nosocomial outbreaks due to HAdV-D8 have been rarely described, because keratoconjunctivitis cases are clinically diagnosed and treated without having to characterize the causative agent.
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