Dry Swabs and Dried Saliva as Alternative Samples for SARS-CoV-2 Detection in Remote Areas in Lao PDR.

Background: Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 circulation is mainly based on real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, which requires laboratory facilities and cold chain for sample transportation. This is difficult to achieve in remote rural areas of resource-limited settings. The use of dried blood spots shipped at room temperature has shown good efficiency for the detection of arboviral RNA.

Utility of InTray COLOREX Screen agar and InTray COLOREX ESBL agar for urine culture in the Lao PDR.

Background: There is a need for simple microbiology diagnostics to enable antimicrobial resistance surveillance in low- and middle-income countries.

Objectives: To investigate the field utility of InTray COLOREX plates for urine culture and ESBL detection.

Methods: Clinical urine samples from Mahosot Hospital, Vientiane, Lao PDR were inoculated onto chromogenic media and InTray COLOREX Screen plates between June and August 2020.

A pilot study to investigate the risk of SARS-CoV-2 household transmission following hospital discharge of confirmed cases in Vientiane Capital, Lao PDR.

Background: Global guidelines from the World Health Organization on discharging patients diagnosed with COVID-19 changed in 2021 to a symptom-based rather than negative PCR-based approach. Studies have shown that shedding of viable virus continues for approximately eight days after symptom onset in most patients. In Vientiane, Laos, until now, patients diagnosed with asymptomatic or mild COVID-19 are hospitalised for 2 weeks and then, if they still test PCR positive for SARS-CoV-2, stay for a further week in a designated quarantine hotel before being discharged home.

Management of Central Nervous System Infections, Vientiane, Laos, 2003-2011.

During 2003-2011, we recruited 1,065 patients of all ages admitted to Mahosot Hospital (Vientiane, Laos) with suspected central nervous system (CNS) infection. Etiologies were laboratory confirmed for 42.3% of patients, who mostly had infections with emerging pathogens: viruses in 16.

Rotavirus diarrhea in hospitalized children under 5 years of age in Vientiane, Lao PDR, 2009-2015.

Background: Diarrhea is a leading cause of death in children <5 years worldwide, causing an estimated 215,000 deaths in 2013. This evaluation tracks the epidemiologic patterns and most common rotavirus genotypes among hospitalized children in this age group with acute gastroenteritis in Lao PDR.

Methods: Children <5 years in a central tertiary hospital in the capital city were prospectively enrolled into the surveillance platform during January 2009-December 2015.

Molecular epidemiology of dengue viruses in three provinces of Lao PDR, 2006-2010.

Few data on dengue epidemiology are available for Lao PDR. Here, we provide information on the complexity of dengue epidemiology in the country, demonstrating dynamic circulation that varies over space and time, according to serotype. We recruited 1,912 consenting patients presenting with WHO dengue criteria at Mahosot Hospital, Vientiane (central Laos), between 2006 and 2010.

High prevalence of Tropheryma whipplei in Lao kindergarten children.

Background: Tropheryma whipplei is a bacterium commonly found in feces of young children in Africa, but with no data from Asia. We estimated the prevalence of T. whipplei carriage in feces of children in Lao PDR (Laos).

Causes of non-malarial fever in Laos: a prospective study.

Background: Because of reductions in the incidence of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Laos, identification of the causes of fever in people without malaria, and discussion of the best empirical treatment options, are urgently needed. We aimed to identify the causes of non-malarial acute fever in patients in rural Laos.

Methods: For this prospective study, we recruited 1938 febrile patients, between May, 2008, and December, 2010, at Luang Namtha provincial hospital in northwest Laos (n=1390), and between September, 2008, and December, 2010, at Salavan provincial hospital in southern Laos (n=548).

An epidemic of dengue-1 in a remote village in rural Laos.

In the Lao PDR (Laos), urban dengue is an increasingly recognised public health problem. We describe a dengue-1 virus outbreak in a rural northwestern Lao forest village during the cool season of 2008. The isolated strain was genotypically "endemic" and not "sylvatic," belonging to the genotype 1, Asia 3 clade.

Inter- and intra-operator variability in the reading of indirect immunofluorescence assays for the serological diagnosis of scrub typhus and murine typhus.

Inter- and intra-observer variation was examined among six microscopists who read 50 scrub typhus (ST) and murine typhus (MT) indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) immunoglobulin M (IgM) slides. Inter-observer agreement was moderate (κ = 0.45) for MT and fair (κ = 0.

Complete Genome of a Genotype I Japanese Encephalitis Virus Isolated from a Patient with Encephalitis in Vientiane, Lao PDR.

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) (, ) is an arthropod-borne flavivirus transmitted by species mosquitoes. We report here the complete genome of the JEV genotype I strain JEV_CNS769_Laos_2009 isolated from an infected patient in Vientiane, Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) (Laos).