Ocular infections in international travelers.

Introduction: Ophthalmological conditions in international travelers may be associated with low mortality but high morbidity. Eye involvement in travelers is less frequently reported than febrile, gastrointestinal and respiratory infections, but data probably represent a degree of under-notification.

Methods: an extensive narrative review of the main viral, bacterial, fungal and parasitic infections affecting the eye in travelers was performed.

Leishmaniasis in transplant patients: what do we know so far?

Purpose Of Review: The number of cases of visceral leishmaniasis associated with transplant-associated immunosuppression has increased in recent years. Reviewing and updating the latest developments in its diagnostic management, treatment, and follow-up is necessary and relevant.

Recent Findings: Visceral leishmaniasis cases associated with non-HIV immunosuppression are a growing cause of the parasitic infections, and the transplant patients are included in this context.

Screening blood donors for malaria, can we increase the number of eligible donors? An observational retrospective study.

Background: In non-endemic countries, malaria can be transmitted through blood donations from imported cases. To ensure standards of quality and safety of human blood, the European Union and Spanish national law, requires a deferral period, or a screening by immunological or genomic test among those donors with potential risk of malaria. Scientific societies, European Committee on Blood Transfusion, and Spanish Society of Haematology and Haemotherapy, refer only to the result of the immunological test.

Infections with long latency in international refugees, immigrants, and migrants seen at GeoSentinel sites, 2016-2018.

Background: The continued increase in global migration compels clinicians to be aware of specific health problems faced by refugees, immigrants, and migrants (RIM). This analysis aimed to characterize RIM evaluated at GeoSentinel sites, their migration history, and infectious diseases detected through screening and diagnostic workups.

Methods: A case report form was used to collect data on demographics, migration route, infectious diseases screened, test results, and primary infectious disease diagnosis for RIM patients seen at GeoSentinel sites.

Cystic echinococcosis of the bone.

Purpose Of Review: Cystic echinococcosis (CE) has a wide world distribution causing important morbidity. Osseous involvement is present in less than 4% of the CE cases. Its diagnosis and therapeutic management is full of challenges and low grade of evidence.

Screening of imported malaria infection in asymptomatic migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa: A retrospective analysis of a 2010-2019 cohort.

Background: Up to 40% of cases of imported malaria in Europe are diagnosed in recently arrived migrants, who generally exhibit asymptomatic or mild symptoms and show low parasitaemia (submicroscopic). The study describes the prevalence of malaria infection among asymptomatic Sub-Saharan African migrants (ASSAM) and compares asymptomatic malaria-infected (AMI) vs non-malaria infected patients.

Methods: An observational, comparative, retrospective study was carried out in ASSAM who underwent a medical examination, between 2010 and 2019 at the National Reference Unit for Tropical Diseases (NRU-Trop) in Madrid, Spain.

Pediatric Chagas disease in the non-endemic area of Madrid: A fifteen-year review (2004-2018).

Background: Chagas disease (CD) has become an emerging global health problem in association with the immigration of individuals from endemic areas (in LatinAmerica) to other countries.Spain is the country in Europe with the highest number of CD cases. Concerning pediatric CD, treatment is not only better tolerated by younger children but also has greater cure possibilities.

Overview of virus and cancer relationships. Position paper.

The role of certain viruses in the etiology of some tumors is today indisputable, but there is a lack, however, of annoverview of the relationship between viruses and cancer with amultidisciplinary approach. For this reason, the Health Sciences Foundation has convened a group of professionals from different areas of knowledge to discuss the relationship between viruses and cancer, and the present document is the result of these deliberations. Although viruses cause only 10-15% of cancers, advances in oncology research are largely due to the work done during the last century on tumor viruses.

Anfotericina B liposomal en el tratamiento de la leishmaniasis visceral.

A review on the current evidence of the efficacy and security of liposomal amphotericinB (L-AmB) for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) has been performed. In the Indian subcontinent, a single dose of 10mg/kg has shown effectiveness in the treatment of VL due to Leishmania donovani. In contrast, higher doses of L-AmB (up to 30mg/kg) are required in Africa to treat a VL of the same etiology.

Autoantibodies against the immunodominant sCha epitope discriminate the risk of sudden death in chronic Chagas cardiomyopathy.

In Chagas disease (ChD) caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, new biomarkers to predict chronic cardiac pathology are urgently needed. Previous studies in chagasic patients with mild symptomatology showed that antibodies against the immunodominant R3 epitope of sCha, a fragment of the human basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor like 5, correlated with cardiac pathology. To validate sCha as a biomarker and to understand the origin of anti-sCha antibodies, we conducted a multicenter study with several cohorts of chagasic patients with severe cardiac symptomatology.

Seroprevalence of vaccine-preventable and non-vaccine-preventable infections in migrants in Spain.

Background: Updated seroprevalence studies of infections in migrants may aid the design of tailored vaccination and prevention programmes. The objective of this study was to describe the seroprevalence rates for potentially transmissible viral infections in migrants attended at a referral centre in a major European city.

Methods: Descriptive analysis of seroprevalence of vaccine-preventable and non-vaccine-preventable infections in migrants attended at a centre in Madrid, Spain (2018-19).

Epidemiological and clinical profile of immunosuppressed patients with imported strongyloidiasis: a substudy from a larger cohort of the +REDIVI Spanish Collaborative Network.

The aim of this study was to describe the clinical and epidemiological profile of immunosuppressed patients with imported strongyloidiasis in a non-endemic setting, and to compare these results with non-immunosuppressed patients. This is a case-control substudy from a larger observational retrospective study that included all patients with strongyloidiasis registered in the +REDIVI Spanish Collaborative Network. Overall, 1245 patients with imported strongyloidiasis were included.

Cholera in travellers: improving vaccination guidance in Europe.

Background: Cholera is endemic in ~50 countries worldwide and remains a disease associated with poverty, causing illness and death in the poorest and most vulnerable people. In travellers, cholera is considered a low-incidence disease, but the true impact on travellers is difficult to assess. Cholera vaccination may improve safety for certain European travellers at risk.

COVID-19 and geographical area of origin.

Objectives: To describe and compare the main clinical characteristics and outcome measures in hospitalized patients with confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) according to geographical area of origin.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of patients hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 at a referral centre in Madrid, Spain, during March-May 2020 was performed. Recorded variables (age, gender, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, outcome), and geographical area of origin were compared for Europeans and non-Europeans (Latin Americans, Asians and Africans).

Travelling with HIV in the XXI century: Case report and narrative review.

The number of migrants and travellers has grown in recent decades. This phenomenon is also true of people living with HIV, given their much-improved life expectancy and quality of life. A significant number of travellers with HIV are migrants returning to their home countries to visit friends and relatives (VFRs).

Travel-related infections presenting in Europe: A 20-year analysis of EuroTravNet surveillance data.

Background: Disease epidemiology of (re-)emerging infectious diseases is changing rapidly, rendering surveillance of travel-associated illness important.

Methods: We evaluated travel-related illness encountered at EuroTravNet clinics, the European surveillance sub-network of GeoSentinel, between March 1, 1998 and March 31, 2018.

Findings: 103,739 ill travellers were evaluated, including 11,239 (10.