Consistent high prevalence of undiagnosed blood-borne virus infection in patients attending large urban emergency departments in England.

Understanding local viral hepatitis and HIV epidemiology is essential if WHO elimination targets are to be achieved. We demonstrate a consistently high prevalence of undiagnosed active infection in urban emergency department attendees in England, with variations in local risk groups crucial to informing targeted testing initiatives.

Screening tests for Chlamydia trachomatis or Neisseria gonorrhoeae using the cobas 4800 PCR system do not require a second test to confirm: an audit of patients issued with equivocal results at a sexual health clinic in the Northwest of England, U.K.

Objectives: To assess the clinical utility of supplementary PCRs following a positive cobas 4800 CT/NG PCR screening test result.

Methods: Laboratory reports, for Chlamydia trachomatis or Neisseria gonorrhoeae, issued to genitourinary medicine patients between April 2010 and April 2011 were reviewed retrospectively. Positive reports were routinely confirmed by supplementary PCRs and N gonorrhoeae culture.

Viral and atypical bacterial detection in acute respiratory infection in children under five years.

Background: Acute respiratory infection (ARI) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children worldwide. This study aimed to determine the viral and atypical bacterial causes of different severities and clinical manifestations of ARI in preschool children from low-income families in North-East Brazil.

Methods: Clinical/demographic data and nasopharyngeal aspirates (NPA) were prospectively collected from children <5 years presenting with ARI over one year to a paediatric A&E department.

Using the full spectral capacity (six channels) of a real-time PCR instrument can simplify diagnostic laboratory screening and typing protocols for pandemic H1N1 influenza.

Background: Timely reporting of influenza A virus subtype affects patient management. Real-time PCR is a rapid and sensitive method routinely used to characterise viral nucleic acid, but the full spectral capability of the instruments is not employed.

Objectives: To evaluate a hexaplex real-time PCR assay (Flu-6plx assay) capable of detecting influenza A and B, hMPV, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and distinguishing 2008 'human' influenza A/H1 from 2009 pandemic A/H1 subtypes.

Invasive non-typhoid salmonellae establish systemic intracellular infection in HIV-infected adults: an emerging disease pathogenesis.

Background: Salmonellae are facultative intracellular pathogens. Non-typhoid salmonellae (NTS) cause self-limiting mucosal disease in immunocompetent adults but invasive, recurrent disease among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected adults in Africa. The importance of intracellular NTS infection in HIV is unknown.

Detection and characterisation of human metapneumovirus from children with acute respiratory symptoms in north-west England, UK.

Background: Human metapneumovirus (hMPV) causes a spectrum of respiratory disease ranging from trivial coryzal symptoms to fatal pneumonia, with a predilection for the very young, the immune suppressed and the frail elderly. Five distinct lineages of the virus genome have been described.

Objectives: To develop and evaluate a sensitive, real-time PCR (RT-PCR) assay capable of detecting all lineages of hMPV, suitable for use in a diagnostic laboratory.

Characterisation of intestinal bacteria in infant stools using real-time PCR and northern hybridisation analyses.

Real-time PCR and northern hybridisations were used to quantify bacterial populations in the large gut of infants. PCR primers for rapid, sensitive, high throughput detection of bifidobacteria, bacteroides, sulphate-reducing bacteria and Enterococcus faecalis, based on analysis of 16S rRNA genes were used. Bacterial populations were analysed in faeces from 40 infants aged 0-6, 7-12 and 13-24 months.

Degradation of cross-linked and non-cross-linked arabinoxylans by the intestinal microbiota in children.

In humans, nonstarch polysaccharides (NSP), such as arabinoxylans (AX), are not digested in the upper gut and provide fermentable carbon sources for bacteria growing in the large bowel. Despite the ubiquity of AX in nature, the microbiologic and physiologic consequences of AX digestion in the gut are poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the breakdown of ferulic acid-cross-linked AX (AXF) and non-cross-linked AX in children's intestinal microbiotas, using starch as a readily fermentable polysaccharide for comparative purposes.

Nondigestible oligosaccharides enhance bacterial colonization resistance against Clostridium difficile in vitro.

Clostridium difficile is the principal etiologic agent of pseudomembranous colitis and is a major cause of nosocomial antibiotic-associated diarrhea. A limited degree of success in controlling C. difficile infection has been achieved by using probiotics; however, prebiotics can also be used to change bacterial community structure and metabolism in the large gut, although the effects of these carbohydrates on suppression of clostridial pathogens have not been well characterized.

The effect of 5-aminosalicylic acid-containing drugs on sulfide production by sulfate-reducing and amino acid-fermenting bacteria.

The toxic, bacterial metabolite sulfide is implicated in ulcerative colitis. Ulcerative colitis patients taking 5-aminosalicylic acid-containing drugs have lower fecal sulfide levels than those not taking these drugs. The effects of sulfasalazine, balsalazide, olsalazine, and 5-aminosalicylic acid on sulfide production were studied in a three-stage chemostat pulsed on days 1 to 3 with 5 g sulfasalazine (40 mM) and in pure cultures of amino acid-fermenting and sulfate-reducing bacteria.