Infectious disease physicians in England have been diagnosing and managing occasional cases of viral hemorrhagic fever since 1971, including the United Kingdom's first case of Ebola virus disease in 1976. Specialist isolation facilities to provide safe and effective care have been present since that time. Following the emergence of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2012, and the avian influenza A (H7N9) outbreak in 2013, and the 2014-2016 Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa, clinical and public health preparedness and response pathways in England have been strengthened for these types of diseases, now called high-consequence infectious diseases (HCIDs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Respir Crit Care Med
January 2024
Respiratory metagenomics (RMg) needs evaluation in a pilot service setting to determine utility and inform implementation into routine clinical practice. Feasibility, performance, and clinical impacts on antimicrobial prescribing and infection control were recorded during a pilot RMg service. RMg was performed on 128 samples from 87 patients with suspected lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) on two general and one specialist respiratory ICUs at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this retrospective observational cohort study, we aimed to describe the rate of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) circuit change, the associated risk factors and its relationship with patient characteristics and outcome in patients receiving venovenous (VV) ECMO at our center between January 2015 and November 2017. Twenty-seven percent of the patients receiving VV ECMO (n = 224) had at least one circuit change, which was associated with lower ICU survival (68% vs 82% p=0.032) and longer ICU stay (30 vs .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (V-A ECMO) as a bridge to cardiac transplantation is considered a high risk support strategy in the paediatric population.
Methods: We describe the case of a 12 year old boy who required V-A ECMO support for rapidly deteriorating cardiomyopathy and developed a massive pulmonary embolus (PE) peri-cannulation. Subsequent investigations were also positive for heparin induced thrombocytopenia.