Background: Influenza viral shedding studies provide fundamental information for preventive strategies and modelling exercises. We conducted a prospective household study to investigate viral shedding in seasonal and pandemic influenza between 2007 and 2011 in Berlin and Munich, Germany.
Methods: Study physicians recruited index patients and their household members.
Multiplex PCR assays are a cost- as well as labour-effective way to analyse one sample for several pathogens simultaneously. Besides the mutual competition of the individual PCR reactions included in a multiplex PCR assay, their specific read-out displays a limiting factor for the total number of PCR reactions that can be multiplexed. In this study, two PCR systems with different read-out approaches are compared, using a pentaplex PCR assay for the detection of highly pathogenic agents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Previous controlled studies on the effect of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) - namely the use of facemasks and intensified hand hygiene - in preventing household transmission of influenza have not produced definitive results. We aimed to investigate efficacy, acceptability, and tolerability of NPI in households with influenza index patients.
Methods: We conducted a cluster randomized controlled trial during the pandemic season 2009/10 and the ensuing influenza season 2010/11.
After eradication of variola virus, one of the most dangerous infectious diseases affecting mankind, today other poxviruses of different genera can cause infection in humans. These viruses include human-specific molluscipoxviruses as well as zoonotic orthopoxviruses and parapoxviruses. While non-variola orthopoxvirus infections mostly cause mild symptoms in immunocompetent persons, they can evoke severe disease in immunocompromised patients.
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