Incidence and severity of pertussis among hospitalized infants, Sarawak, Malaysia, 2015-2021.

Introduction: A resurgence of pertussis has been reported in numerous countries. This study aimed to determine the incidence, clinical characteristics, and outcome of pertussis among infants in Sarawak, Malaysia.

Methodology: We conducted a descriptive retrospective study of infants aged < 12 months with laboratory-confirmed pertussis admitted to Bintulu Hospital in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, from 2015 until 2021.

Fatal Pediatric Melioidosis and the Role of Hyperferritinemic Sepsis-Induced Multiple-Organ Dysfunction Syndrome.

Melioidosis is reported to cause a high fatality rate in children, even in the absence of risk factors for disease. The aim of this study was to identify characteristics of fatal pediatric melioidosis infection. We performed a retrospective analysis of children aged < 15 years with culture-confirmed melioidosis admitted to Bintulu Hospital in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, from January 2011 to December 2020.

Pharmacological perturbation of CXCL1 signaling alleviates neuropathogenesis in a model of HEVA71 infection.

Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) caused by Human Enterovirus A71 (HEVA71) infection is typically a benign infection. However, in minority of cases, children can develop severe neuropathology that culminate in fatality. Approximately 36.

Corrigendum to: Epidemiological and Clinical Characteristics of Melioidosis Caused by Gentamicin-Susceptible in Sarawak, Malaysia.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1093/ofid/ofab460.].

Fine-needle aspiration to improve diagnosis of melioidosis of the head and neck in children: a study from Sarawak, Malaysia.

Background: Melioidosis, the infection caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei, is associated with a high case fatality rate, due in part to difficulties in clinical recognition and diagnostic confirmation of the disease. Although head and neck involvement is common in children, specific disease manifestations differ between geographic regions. The aim of this study was to provide a detailed description of melioidosis of the head and neck among children in Sarawak, Malaysia, and determine if fine-needle aspiration of suspected head or neck lesions could improve melioidosis diagnosis.

Epidemiological and Clinical Characteristics of Melioidosis Caused by Gentamicin-Susceptible in Sarawak, Malaysia.

Background: , the causative agent of melioidosis, is intrinsically resistant to a broad range of antibiotics, including aminoglycosides. In Sarawak, Malaysia, a high proportion of melioidosis cases are caused by gentamicin-susceptible isolates. There are limited epidemiological and clinical data on these infections.

Spontaneous orbital haematoma in a scurvy child: A forgotten diagnosis.

Spontaneous unilateral orbital haematoma in children is not common and very rarely caused by scurvy. Scurvy is a clinical syndrome with a spectrum of clinical manifestations due to severe prolonged vitamin C deficiency leading to impairment of collagen synthesis over skin, bone, teeth and blood vessels. This paper presents a unique case of a 7- year-old girl with learning difficulty who presented with spontaneous right proptosis due to scurvy.

Detection of spleen abscesses facilitates diagnosis of melioidosis in Malaysian children.

Objectives: Melioidosis is associated with extremely high case fatality ratios. The aim of this study was to determine whether detection of abdominal visceral abscesses can facilitate diagnosis of melioidosis in children.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of all children who had liver and/or spleen abscesses on abdominal ultrasonography admitted to Bintulu Hospital in Sarawak, Malaysia, from January 2014 until December 2018.

TREM-1 activation is a potential key regulator in driving severe pathogenesis of enterovirus A71 infection.

Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), caused by enterovirus A71 (EV-A71), presents mild to severe disease, and sometimes fatal neurological and respiratory manifestations. However, reasons for the severe pathogenesis remain undefined. To investigate this, infection and viral kinetics of EV-A71 isolates from clinical disease (mild, moderate and severe) from Sarawak, Malaysia, were characterised in human rhabdomyosarcoma (RD), neuroblastoma (SH-SY5Y) and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs).

Invasive Salmonella infections among children in Bintulu, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo: a 6-year retrospective review.

Background: Invasive Salmonella infections result in significant morbidity and mortality in developing countries. In Asia, typhoid and paratyphoid fever are reported to be the major invasive Salmonella infections, while invasive non-typhoidal Salmonella (iNTS) infections are believed to be uncommon. Data from Sarawak, in Malaysian Borneo, are limited.

Melioidosis in Malaysia: Incidence, Clinical Challenges, and Advances in Understanding Pathogenesis.

Malaysia is an endemic hot spot for melioidosis; however, a comprehensive picture of the burden of disease, clinical presentations, and challenges faced in diagnosis and treatment of melioidosis is not available. This review provides a nonexhaustive overview of epidemiological data, clinical studies, risk factors, and mortality rates from available literature and case reports. Clinical patterns of melioidosis are generally consistent with those from South and Southeast Asia in terms of common primary presentations with diabetes as a major risk factor.

Epidemiology of Recurrent Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease, China, 2008-2015.

Using China's national surveillance data on hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) for 2008-2015, we described the epidemiologic and virologic features of recurrent HFMD. A total of 398,010 patients had HFMD recurrence; 1,767 patients had 1,814 cases of recurrent laboratory-confirmed HFMD: 99 reinfections of enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) with EV-A71, 45 of coxsackievirus A16 (CV-A16) with CV-A16, 364 of other enteroviruses with other enteroviruses, 383 of EV-A71 with CV-A16 and CV-A16 with EV-A71, and 923 of EV-A71 or CV-A16 with other enteroviruses and other enteroviruses with EV-A71 or CV-A16. The probability of HFMD recurrence was 1.

Immunopathogenesis and Virus-Host Interactions of Enterovirus 71 in Patients with Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease.

Enterovirus 71 (EV71) is a global infectious disease that affects millions of people. The virus is the main etiological agent for hand, foot, and mouth disease with outbreaks and epidemics being reported globally. Infection can cause severe neurological, cardiac, and respiratory problems in children under the age of 5.

Pediatric melioidosis in Sarawak, Malaysia: Epidemiological, clinical and microbiological characteristics.

Background: Melioidosis is a serious, and potentially fatal community-acquired infection endemic to northern Australia and Southeast Asia, including Sarawak, Malaysia. The disease, caused by the usually intrinsically aminoglycoside-resistant Burkholderia pseudomallei, most commonly affects adults with predisposing risk factors. There are limited data on pediatric melioidosis in Sarawak.

Workshop on use of intravenous immunoglobulin in hand, foot and mouth disease in Southeast Asia.

The South East Asia Infectious Disease Clinical Research Network convened subject matter experts at a workshop to make consensus recommendations for study design of a clinical trial for use of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) in severe hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD). HFMD is a highly contagious emerging infection among children in the region, a small proportion of whom develop neurologic and cardiopulmonary complications with high case-fatality rates. The use of IVIg for treatment of severe disease is widespread and a part of local, national, and international guidelines, but no clinical evidence warrants the use of this drug, which is expensive and has potentially serious side effects.

Burkholderia pseudomallei isolates from Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, are predominantly susceptible to aminoglycosides and macrolides.

Melioidosis is a potentially fatal disease caused by the saprophytic bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei. Resistance to gentamicin is generally a hallmark of B. pseudomallei, and gentamicin is a selective agent in media used for diagnosis of melioidosis.

The effect of vaccination coverage and climate on Japanese encephalitis in Sarawak, Malaysia.

Background: Japanese encephalitis (JE) is the leading cause of viral encephalitis across Asia with approximately 70,000 cases a year and 10,000 to 15,000 deaths. Because JE incidence varies widely over time, partly due to inter-annual climate variability effects on mosquito vector abundance, it becomes more complex to assess the effects of a vaccination programme since more or less climatically favourable years could also contribute to a change in incidence post-vaccination. Therefore, the objective of this study was to quantify vaccination effect on confirmed Japanese encephalitis (JE) cases in Sarawak, Malaysia after controlling for climate variability to better understand temporal dynamics of JE virus transmission and control.

Enterovirus 75 encephalitis in children, southern India.

Recent outbreaks of enterovirus in Southeast Asia emphasize difficulties in diagnosis of this infection. To address this issue, we report 5 (4.7%) children infected with enterovirus 75 among 106 children with acute encephalitis syndrome during 2005-2007 in southern India.

Clinical features, diagnosis, and management of enterovirus 71.

Although poliomyelitis has been mostly eradicated worldwide, large outbreaks of the related enterovirus 71 have been seen in Asia-Pacific countries in the past 10 years. This virus mostly affects children, manifesting as hand, foot, and mouth disease, aseptic meningitis, poliomyelitis-like acute flaccid paralysis, brainstem encephalitis, and other severe systemic disorders, including especially pulmonary oedema and cardiorespiratory collapse. Clinical predictors of severe disease include high temperature and lethargy, and lumbar puncture might reveal pleocytosis.

Virology, epidemiology, pathogenesis, and control of enterovirus 71.

First isolated in California, USA, in 1969, enterovirus 71 (EV71) is a major public health issue across the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. The virus, which is closely related to polioviruses, mostly affects children and causes hand, foot, and mouth disease with neurological and systemic complications. Specific receptors for this virus are found on white blood cells, cells in the respiratory and gastrointestinal tract, and dendritic cells.

Disability after encephalitis: development and validation of a new outcome score.

Objective: To develop a simple tool for assessing the severity of disability resulting from Japanese encephalitis and whether, as a result, a child is likely to be dependent.

Methods: A new outcome score based on a 15-item questionnaire was developed after a literature review, examination of current assessment tools, discussion with experts and a pilot study. The score was used to evaluate 100 children in Malaysia (56 Japanese encephalitis patients, 2 patients with encephalitis of unknown etiology and 42 controls) and 95 in India (36 Japanese encephalitis patients, 41 patients with encephalitis of unknown etiology and 18 controls).