Spatial distribution of SARS-CoV-2 incidence, social inequality, housing conditions, and density in South-Eastern France: keys for future epidemics.

Introduction: Early in 2021, the SARS-CoV-2 incidence rate was higher in the East than in the West of the Alpes-Maritimes district in France. What was the impact of social deprivation, household overcrowding and population density per km on this difference in incidence rate?

Methods: Cases were defined as persons with a first SARS-CoV-2 positive test detected between 04/01/2021 and 14/02/2021. We studied the « French Deprivation index » (FDep), rate of overcrowded households and population density/km.

Asymptomatic Leishmania infantum infection in dogs and dog owners in an endemic area in southeast France.

The prevalence of asymptomatic leishmaniasis in dogs and their owners in the main endemic areas of France has not been studied to date. The objective of this study was to quantify asymptomatic Leishmania infantum infection in southeast France in healthy people and their dogs using molecular and serological screening techniques. We examined the presence of parasitic DNA using specific PCR targeting kinetoplast DNA (kDNA) and specific antibodies by serology (ELISA for dogs and Western blot for humans) among immunocompetent residents and their dogs in the Alpes-Maritimes.

An evaluation of the association between lockdown during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and prematurity at the Nice University Hospital.

Aim: To study the association between lockdown in France due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and premature births at the Nice University Hospital.

Methods: Data concerning neonates born at the level III maternity of the Nice University Hospital and immediately hospitalised in the neonatal reanimation unit or the neonatology department of the hospital with their mothers between the 1st of January 2017 and the 31st of December 2020, included.

Results: We did not find a significant decrease in the global number of premature births <37 weeks of gestation, in low weight at birth or a significant increase in stillbirths during lockdown compared to a period with no lockdown.

Impact of social and demographic factors on the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in the town of Nice.

Introduction: Socio-demographic factors are known to influence epidemic dynamics. The town of Nice, France, displays major socio-economic inequalities, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), 10% of the population is considered to live below the poverty threshold, i.e.

Evaluation of an Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing Method on -Positive Blood Cultures in Less Than 8 h Using the Rapid Mueller-Hinton Diffusion Method in Conjunction with the SIRscan 2000 Automatic Reading Device.

bloodstream infections are life-threatening and require rapid, targeted antibiotherapy based on antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST). A new method using Muller-Hinton Rapid-SIR (MHR-SIR) agar (i2a, Montpellier, France) allows complete direct AST (dAST) to be read from positive blood culture bottles (BCBs) for all species after 6-8 h of incubation. We evaluated (i) the performance of dAST from positive BCBs on MHR-SIR agar using two different inoculum protocols; (ii) the categorical agreement between dAST results obtained with MHR-SIR agar vs.