Publications by authors named "Milagros Munoz-Chimeno"

Article Synopsis
  • - This study compares the effectiveness of four different tests for detecting Hepatitis E virus (HEV) antibodies: LIAISON MUREX, VIRCLIA, WANTAI, and VIDAS.
  • - All tests showed 100% sensitivity for detecting anti-HEV IgM in the acute phase, but there were variations in their sensitivity and specificity during later phases of infection.
  • - LIAISON MUREX performed the best overall, especially for detecting acute HEV infections and providing accurate results for anti-HEV IgG antibodies.
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Point of care rapid diagnostic tests (POC-RDT) for Hepatitis C virus (HCV), Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Hepatitis B virus (HBV), are ideal for screening in non-clinical outreach settings as they can provide immediate results and facilitate diagnosis, allowing high risk population screening. The aim of this study was to compare POC-RDT with laboratory conventional tests. A total of 301 vulnerable evaluable subjects (drug users, migrants and homeless population) were recruited at a mobile screening unit in outreach settings in Madrid.

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Emerging infectious diseases are one of the most important global health challenges because of their impact on human and animal health. The vector-borne West Nile virus (WNV) is transmitted between birds by mosquitos, but it can also infect humans and horses causing disease. The local circulation of WNV in Spain has been known for decades, and since 2010, there have been regular outbreaks in horses, although only six cases were reported in humans until 2019.

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Hepatitis E virus genotype 3 (HEV-3) is an EU/EEA emergent zoonosis. HEV-3 clades/subtypes have been described. Its genome contains ORF1, which encodes nonstructural proteins for virus replication, ORF2, the capsid protein, and ORF3, a multifunctional protein involved in virion pathogenesis.

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BackgroundHepatitis E virus genotype 3 (HEV-3) is widely distributed throughout Europe, with incidence of infections increasing in many countries. Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have reported the distribution of HEV-3 subtypes in cohorts of patients with hepatic disease.AimTo describe the distribution of the HEV-3 subtypes in Spain at national and autonomous community (AC) levels between 2009 and 2019.

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The hepatitis E virus (HEV) hypervariable region (HVR) presents the highest divergence of the entire HEV genome. It is characteristically rich in proline, and so is also known as the "polyproline region" (PPR). HEV genotype 3 (HEV-3) exhibits different PPR lengths due to insertions, PPR and/or RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) duplications and deletions.

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Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is estimated to affect 292 million people worldwide, 90% of them are unaware of their HBV status. The Determine HBsAg 2 (Alere Medical Co, Ltd Chiba Japan [Now Abbott]) is a rapid test that meets European Union (EU) regulatory requirements for Hepatitis B surface antigen 2 (HBsAg) analytical sensitivity, detecting the 0.1 IU/mL World Health Organization (WHO) International HBsAg Standard.

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Zoonotic hepatitis E, mainly caused by hepatitis E virus (HEV) genotype (gt) 3, is a foodborne disease that has emerged in Europe in recent decades. The main animal reservoir for genotype 3 is domestic pigs. Pig liver and liver derivates are considered the major risk products, and studies focused on the presence of HEV in pig muscles are scarce.

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Article Synopsis
  • Sequence-based typing of hepatitis A virus (HAV) is crucial for detecting and investigating outbreaks, as demonstrated during a significant EU-wide outbreak linked to frozen berries in 2013, though challenges arose due to partial genomic comparability among countries.
  • In 2014, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) surveyed EU/EEA countries to assess their HAV surveillance practices and proposed harmonized procedures to enhance cross-border outbreak response, focusing on sequencing methods.
  • Follow-up surveys in 2016 showed an increase in countries participating in centralized collection and sequencing of HAV samples, but disparities in the specific genomic regions sequenced still exist, indicating that further collaboration is needed for effective surveillance.
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Introduction: The reporting of one case of hepatitis A in a food handler at a bakery and five cases in employees of a company after consuming products from the same bakery prompted an outbreak investigation.

Methods: Outbreak cases were defined as individuals with laboratory-confirmed hepatitis A (HAV) infection, with symptoms which started in June and who, during the incubation period, worked with the food handler and/or had close contact with him and/or consumed products from the bakery. Epidemiologic questionnaires were performed and blood samples were obtained to be tested for the presence of anti-hepatitis A antibodies.

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