Introduction: The aim of this study was to find statistically valid criteria to preoperatively divide acute appendicitis into simple and complicated to enable surgeons to administer the most appropriate antibiotic prophylaxis/therapy before surgery.
Materials And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed a cohort of patients who underwent appendectomy from January 2022 to December 2023. Patients included were 0-14 years of age.
SARS-CoV-2 typically causes mild symptoms in children, but evidence suggests that persistent immunopathological changes may lead to long COVID (LC). To explore the interplay between LC and innate immunity, we assessed the type I interferon (IFN-I) response in children and adolescents with LC symptoms (LC; n = 28). This was compared with age-matched SARS-CoV-2 recovered participants without LC symptoms (MC; n = 28) and healthy controls (HC; n = 18).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMalaria is still a leading cause mortality in CĂ´te d'Ivoire despite extensive LLINs coverage. We present the results of an entomological survey conducted in a coastal and in an inland village with the aim to estimate sensu lato (s.l.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Emerging arboviral diseases in Europe pose a challenge due to difficulties in detecting and diagnosing cases during the initial circulation of the pathogen. Early outbreak detection enables public health authorities to take effective actions to reduce disease transmission. Quantification of the reporting delays of cases is vital to plan and assess surveillance and control strategies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Outbreaks of Aedes-borne diseases in temperate areas are not frequent, and limited in number of cases. We investigate the associations between habitat factors and temperature on individuals' risk of chikungunya (CHIKV) in a non-endemic area by spatially analyzing the data from the 2017 Italian outbreak.
Methodology/principal Findings: We adopted a case-control study design to analyze the association between land-cover variables, temperature, and human population density with CHIKV cases.
Background: Incompatible insect technique (IIT) is a population suppression approach based on the release of males with manipulated Wolbachia infection inducing egg inviability in wild females. We here present results of multiple field releases of incompatible ARwP males carried out in 2019 in a 2.7-ha green area within urban Rome (Italy) to assess the effect on Aedes albopictus egg viability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFand -the two most recently radiated species of the complex and the major Afrotropical malaria vector species-are identified by markers in the X-centromeric IGS rDNA region. Putative IGS-hybrids are rarely found in the field, except in restricted areas where genomic studies have led to the hypothesis that the observed IGS-patterns are due to cryptic taxa rather than to hybridization between the two species. We investigated the genome-wide levels of admixture in two villages in CĂ´te d'Ivoire where high levels of IGS-hybrids have been detected, confirming unparalleled high frequencies in the coastal village.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Colonization of large part of Europe by the Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus is causing autochthonous transmission of chikungunya and dengue exotic arboviruses. While pyrethroids are recommended only to reduce/limit transmission, they are widely implemented to reduce biting nuisance and to control agricultural pests, increasing the risk of insurgence of resistance mechanisms. Worryingly, pyrethroid resistance (with mortality < 70%) was recently reported in Ae.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmong the few mosquito larvicides available in the market, Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis (Bti) and B. sphaericus (Bs) represent the most environmentally safe alternatives.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnopheles gambiae and An. coluzzii are very closely related and recently differentiated species representing the main malaria vectors in the Afrotropical region and responsible of up to >3 infective bites/person/night in CĂ´te D'Ivoire, where prevention and control has stagnated in recent years. The aim of the present study was to genetically and ecologically characterize An.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the last decades, the colonization of Mediterranean Europe and of other temperate regions by Aedes albopictus created an unprecedented nuisance problem in highly infested areas and new public health threats due to the vector competence of the species. The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) and the Incompatible Insect Technique (IIT) are insecticide-free mosquito-control methods, relying on mass release of irradiated/manipulated males, able to complement existing and only partially effective control tools. The validation of these approaches in the field requires appropriate experimental settings, possibly isolated to avoid mosquito immigration from other infested areas, and preliminary ecological and entomological data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMosquitoes-borne diseases are major public health issues particularly in Africa. Vector control interventions and human-made environmental/climatic changes significantly affect the distribution and abundance of vector species. We carried out an entomological survey targeting host-seeking mosquitos in two different ecological contexts-coastal and inland-in Senegal, by CDC-light and BG-sentinel traps.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The aim of this study was to compare the influences from different access angles and curvature radii on cyclic fatigue resistance of nickel-titanium rotary files.
Methods: Two file systems (2Shape [TS; MicroMega, Besançon, France] and HyFlex CM [HCM; Coltène/Whaledent, Allstätten, Switzerland]) were used. A total of 192 instruments of TS #25/.