Integration of a social network strategy into index testing to increase HIV case finding among Haitian migrants and their descendants in the Dominican Republic.

Introduction: Increasing effectiveness, efficiency, and reach of HIV case-finding strategies among priority populations is essential for epidemic control. Index testing is effective but presents potential risks, including stigma, violence, abandonment, and challenges such as fear of disclosure and reluctance to list contacts. We integrated the enhanced peer outreach approach (EPOA) social network strategy into index testing to increase case finding among Haitian migrants and individuals of Haitian descent in Dominican Republic.

Species- and strain-level diversity of Corynebacteria isolated from human facial skin.

Background: Sequencing of the human skin microbiome revealed that Corynebacterium is an ubiquitous and abundant bacterial genus on human skin. Shotgun sequencing further highlighted the microbial "dark matter" of the skin microbiome, consisting of microorganisms, including corynebacterial species that were not cultivated and genome-sequenced so far. In this pilot project, facial human skin swabs of 13 persons were cultivated to selectively obtain corynebacteria.

Systemic Disease Associations in a Cohort of Hispanic Patients with Scleritis.

(1) Purpose: A patient with scleritis may have an associated systemic disease, which is often autoimmunological and seldom infectious in origin. The data regarding such associations in Hispanic populations are scarce. Therefore, we evaluated the clinical characteristics and systemic-disease associations of a cohort of Hispanic patients with scleritis.

Pyridoxine-Deficient Streptococcus: An Uncommon Virulent Cause of Subacute Destructive Aortic Valve Endocarditis.

Nutritional variant streptococcus (NVS) or pyridoxal-dependent streptococcus is a rare but significant cause of infective endocarditis (IE), which presents as a diagnostic dilemma due to difficulty in organism isolation, and high rates of treatment failure, recurrence, and mortality. We discuss a case of a 52-year-old male who presented with chronic fatigue, cyclic fever, night sweats, and weight loss. He was treated with culture-directed antibiotics and surgical aortic valve replacement due to disease severity and risk of embolization.