Gut microbiota drives colon cancer risk associated with diet: a comparative analysis of meat-based and pesco-vegetarian diets.

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) risk is strongly affected by dietary habits with red and processed meat increasing risk, and foods rich in dietary fibres considered protective. Dietary habits also shape gut microbiota, but the role of the combination between diet, the gut microbiota, and the metabolite profile on CRC risk is still missing an unequivocal characterisation.

Methods: To investigate how gut microbiota affects diet-associated CRC risk, we fed Apc-mutated PIRC rats and azoxymethane (AOM)-induced rats the following diets: a high-risk red/processed meat-based diet (MBD), a normalised risk diet (MBD with α-tocopherol, MBDT), a low-risk pesco-vegetarian diet (PVD), and control diet.

GDF15 is dispensable for the insulin-sensitizing effects of chronic exercise.

Growth and differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) has recently emerged as a weight loss and insulin-sensitizing factor. Growing evidence also supports a role for GDF15 as a physiological, exercise-induced stress signal. Here, we tested whether GDF15 is required for the insulin-sensitizing effects of exercise in mice and humans.

Common mouse models of chronic kidney disease are not associated with cachexia.

The 5/6 nephrectomy and adenine-induced nephropathy mouse models have been extensively used to study Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)-related cachexia. One common caveat of these CKD models is the cross-sectional nature of comparisons made versus controls. We here performed a comprehensive longitudinal assessment of body composition and energy metabolism in both models.

Readmission and inhospital death 1 year after COVID-19 hospitalization in South Africa.

Background: Acute SARS-COVID-19 infection may increase readmission risk compared to other respiratory infections. We assessed the 1-year readmission and inhospital death rates of hospitalized SARS-COVID-19 patients compared to patients hospitalized with other types of pneumonia.

Methods: We determined the 1-year readmission and inhospital death rate of adult patients initially hospitalized with a positive SARS-COVID-19 result, and subsequently discharged, between March 2020 and August 2021, at a Netcare private hospital in South Africa, and compared this to all hospitalized adult pneumonia patients in the 3 years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (2017-2019).

Urinary Metabolome Analysis Reveals Potential Microbiota Alteration and Electrophilic Burden Induced by High Red Meat Diet: Results from the French NutriNet-Santé Cohort and an In Vivo Intervention Study in Rats.

Scope: High red and processed meat consumption is associated with several adverse outcomes such as colorectal cancer and overall global mortality. However, the underlying mechanisms remain debated and need to be elucidated.

Methods And Results: Urinary untargeted Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) metabolomics data from 240 subjects from the French cohort NutriNet-Santé are analyzed.

A critical analysis of Discovery Health's claims-based risk adjustment of mortality rates in South African private sector hospitals.

In 2019, Discovery Health published a risk adjustment model to determine standardised mortality rates across South African private hospital systems, with the aim of contributing towards quality improvement in the private healthcare sector. However, the model suffers from limitations due to its design and its reliance on administrative data. The publication's aim of facilitating transparency is unfortunately undermined by shortcomings in reporting.

Study of the colonic epithelial-mesenchymal dialogue through establishment of two activated or not mesenchymal cell lines: Activated and resting ones differentially modulate colonocytes in co-culture.

Continuous and rapid renewal of the colonic epithelium is crucial to resist the plethora of luminal deleterious agents. Subepithelial fibroblasts contribute to this turnover by regulating epithelial proliferation and differentiation. However, when intestinal homeostasis is disturbed, fibroblasts can acquire an activated phenotype and play a major role in the progression of intestinal pathologies.

Maternal heme-enriched diet promotes a gut pro-oxidative status associated with microbiota alteration, gut leakiness and glucose intolerance in mice offspring.

Maternal environment, including nutrition and microbiota, plays a critical role in determining offspring's risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes later in life. Heme iron requirement is amplified during pregnancy and lactation, while excessive dietary heme iron intake, compared to non-heme iron, has shown to trigger acute oxidative stress in the gut resulting from reactive aldehyde formation in conjunction with microbiota reshape. Given the immaturity of the antioxidant defense system in early life, we investigated the extent to which a maternal diet enriched with heme iron may have a lasting impact on gut homeostasis and glucose metabolism in 60-day-old C3H/HeN mice offspring.

Direct and Indirect Effects of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic on Private Healthcare Utilization in South Africa, March 2020-September 2021.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused severe disruptions to healthcare in many areas of the world, but data remain scarce for sub-Saharan Africa.

Methods: We evaluated trends in hospital admissions and outpatient emergency department (ED) and general practitioner (GP) visits to South Africa's largest private healthcare system during 2016-2021. We fit time series models to historical data and, for March 2020-September 2021, quantified changes in encounters relative to baseline.

Characteristics and Outcomes of Hospitalized Patients in South Africa During the COVID-19 Omicron Wave Compared With Previous Waves.

This study describes the characteristics and clinical outcomes of patients hospitalized in South Africa during the Omicron wave compared with the same variables from earlier COVID-19 waves.

Detection of a SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern in South Africa.

Continued uncontrolled transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in many parts of the world is creating conditions for substantial evolutionary changes to the virus. Here we describe a newly arisen lineage of SARS-CoV-2 (designated 501Y.V2; also known as B.

Implementing a multi-faceted framework for proprietorship of hand hygiene compliance in a network of South African hospitals: leveraging the Ubuntu philosophy.

Background: Given the lack of hospital-wide ownership and shortage of nurses, the ideal model for large-scale implementation of hand hygiene (HH) behaviour change in low- and middle-income countries is unknown.

Aim: The aim of the multi-modal strategy was to engender hospital accountability for HH compliance.

Methods: The quasi-experimental study was conducted in 50 South African hospitals (November 2015 to July 2017) and involved five overlapping phases: executive governance and corporate behaviour change; group-wide systematic situational analysis; development of an electronic-assisted direct-observed data collection and analysis application; launch and implementation; and accountable governance.

Federation of Infectious Diseases Societies of Southern Africa guideline: Recommendations for the detection, management and prevention of healthcare-associated colonisation and disease in South Africa.

has been detected at almost 100 South African hospitals, causing large outbreaks in some facilities, and this pathogen now accounts for approximately 1 in 10 cases of candidaemia. The objective of this guideline is to provide updated, evidence-informed recommendations outlining a best-practice approach to prevent, diagnose and manage disease in public- and private-sector healthcare settings in South Africa. The 18 practical recommendations cover five focus areas: laboratory identification and antifungal susceptibility testing, surveillance and outbreak response, infection prevention and control, clinical management and antifungal stewardship.

The efficacy of pulsed-xenon ultraviolet light technology on Candida auris.

Background: Candida auris is an emerging, often multi-resistant, yeast that causes invasive infections in healthcare settings. Patients may be colonized for months and C. auris has been shown to remain viable on surfaces for at least 14 days.

Impact of iron loading on the activity of isoniazid or ethambutol in the treatment of murine tuberculosis.

Objective: To assess the impact of iron loading on the activity of isoniazid and ethambutol in the treatment of murine tuberculosis.

Design: Iron-loaded and iron-normal female Balb/C mice infected with 1.5 x 10(7) colony forming units of Mycobacterium tuberculosis were treated with either isoniazid or ethambutol for 28 days.

Epidemiology of invasive aspergillosis in France: a six-year multicentric survey in the Greater Paris area.

Invasive aspergillosis is the most prevalent mould infection. An epidemiological surveillance network was set up in 18 teaching hospitals in Paris and the Greater Paris area. Prospective surveillance was conducted between 1994 and 1999.

Prospective evaluation of risk factors of cutaneous drug reactions to sulfonamides in patients with AIDS.

Background: Persons with HIV infection have increased rates of drug eruptions.

Objective: Our aim was to evaluate the risk factors of drug eruptions in response to sulfonamides in patients with AIDS, using a case-control analysis.

Methods: One hundred thirty-six patients who were hospitalized for pneumocystosis or toxoplasmosis were evaluated at the onset of treatment for various risk factors, which were then compared among patients with (48, 36%) and without (88, 64%) a drug eruption.

[Piercing and its infectious complications. A public health issue in France].

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES: Piercing, an act that modifies the body, has progressed considerably in France over the last few years. The population involved has grown and become more diversified. Performed with a solid needle or a catheter, a wide variety of anatomic localizations are concerned, particularly the nose, ears, and navel.

Trial of oral fumagillin for the treatment of intestinal microsporidiosis in patients with HIV infection. ANRS 054 Study Group. Agence Nationale de Recherche sur le SIDA.

Objective: Intestinal microsporidiosis caused by Enterocytozoon bieneusi is a cause of chronic diarrhoea in patients with HIV infection for which there is no current therapy. This study was designed to assess the safety and efficacy of oral fumagillin in this infection.

Design: A dose-escalation trial.

Long-term central venous catheter infection in HIV-infected and cancer patients: a multicenter cohort study.

Objectives: To evaluate and compare the risk of long-term central venous catheter (CVC) infection in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected and cancer patients.

Design: Prospective multicenter cohort study based on active surveillance of long-term CVC manipulations and patient outcome over a 6-month period.

Setting: Services of infectious diseases and oncology of 12 university hospitals in Paris, France.

Acute renal failure in the course of HIV infection: a single-institution retrospective study of ninety-two patients and sixty renal biopsies.

Background: Acute renal failure syndromes are frequently encountered in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Most reported cases of acute renal failure are related to acute tubular necrosis, but many other causes of renal failure have been described in these patients.

Methods: The present work is a single-institution retrospective study of 92 HIV-infected patients with acute or rapidly progressing renal failure.

Effect of indinavir on HIV-related wasting.

Objective: To study the effect of the protease inhibitor indinavir on body weight and body composition of subjects with HIV-related wasting.

Design: Prospective measurement of body weight in patients who had wasting and were treated with indinavir. A subgroup of 16 representative patients also underwent a metabolic study that included measurements of body composition (skinfolds and bioelectrical impedance) and food intake.