Semiannual Versus Annual Influenza Vaccination in Older Adults in the Tropics: An Observer-blind, Active-comparator-controlled, Randomized Superiority Trial.

Background: Antibody titres and vaccine effectiveness decline within 6 months after influenza vaccination in older adults. Biannual vaccination may be necessary to provide year-round protection in the tropics, where influenza circulates throughout the year.

Methods: Tropical Influenza Control Strategies (TROPICS1) was a single-center, 1:1 randomized, observer-blinded, active-comparator-controlled, superiority study in 200 community-resident adults aged ≥65 years.

The immune response to 6-monthly versus annual standard dose inactivated trivalent influenza vaccination in older people: study protocol for a randomised clinical trial.

Background: The seasonal influenza vaccine is less effective in older people and a single dose is unlikely to provide the year-round protection necessary for tropical climates which have year-round influenza virus activity. This study aims to assess the effect of a trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV3) booster at 180 days on haemagglutination-inhibition (HI) antibody titres for each of the influenza strains present in the administered vaccine in older people aged 65 years or above in Singapore.

Methods/design: This is a single-centre, randomised, observer-blind, active-comparator controlled, parallel-group, phase IV trial in 200 adults aged 65 years or older.

Association between HACEK bacteraemia and endocarditis.

We retrospectively examined medical records of 87 patients with bacteraemia caused by members of the HACEK group (Haemophilus parainfluenzae, Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, Aggregatibacter aphrophilus, Aggregatibacter paraphrophilus, Cardiobacterium spp., Eikenella corrodens and Kingella spp.) to determine whether endocarditis was present, as defined by the Duke criteria.

Global trends in infective endocarditis epidemiology.

The global epidemiology of infective endocarditis is becoming better understood with the initiation of multi-center collaborative studies and with an increasing number of case series being reported from countries outside North America and Europe. However, there are still many knowledge gaps and a lack of population-based data. For endocarditis in developed countries, the role of rheumatic heart disease as a predisposing factor is diminishing; the population is increasingly elderly, staphylococci are becoming much more important pathogens, and proportionally more are healthcare-associated.

Dynamic changes in white blood cell counts in uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax malaria.

Total and differential white blood cell (WBC) counts are basic and essential indicators in any type of illness resulting from infection. In malaria, WBC counts are generally characterized as low to normal during treatment. WBC-counts data, before and during treatment with artemisinin derivatives, was gathered for patients with either Plasmodium falciparum or Plasmodium vivax infection (at 28-day follow-up), to investigate dynamic changes in WBC count.