Background: Influenza B/Yamagata viruses exhibited weak antigenic selection in recent years, reducing their prevalence over time and requiring no update of the vaccine component since 2015. To date, no B/Yamagata viruses have been isolated or sequenced since March 2020.
Methods: The antibody prevalence against the current B/Yamagata vaccine strain in Italy was investigated: For each influenza season from 2012/2013 to 2021/2022, 100 human serum samples were tested by haemagglutination inhibition (HAI) assay against the vaccine strain B/Phuket/3073/2013.
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control has reported 19 cases of severe echovirus 11 infections in neonates since 2022, nine of which were fatal. We report a new fatal neonatal case that occurred in a male twin for which we evaluated the respiratory and intestinal mucosal innate immune response.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Following the pandemic restrictions, the epidemiology of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has changed, leading to intense hospitalization peaks.
Objectives: This study, conducted at multiple sites in Italy, aimed to describe the temporal dynamics of two post-COVID-19 RSV epidemics. Additionally, the circulating RSV-A and -B lineages were characterized and compared to those found in 2018 and 2019.
Echovirus 11 (E11) has gained attention owing to its association with severe neonatal infections. Due to the limited data available, the World Health Organization (WHO) considers public health risk to the general population to be low. The present study investigated the genetic variation and molecular evolution of E11 genomes collected from May to December 2023.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfluenza Other Respir Viruses
April 2024
Introduction: Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is one of the most frequent causes of respiratory infections in children under 5 years of age, but its socioeconomic impact and burden in primary care settings is still little studied.
Methods: During the 2022/2023 winter season, 55 pediatricians from five Italian regions participated in our community-based study. They collected a nasal swab for RSV molecular test from 650 patients under the age of 5 with acute respiratory infections (ARIs) and performed a baseline questionnaire.
Objectives: To report epidemiological and virological results of an outbreak investigation of influenza-like illness (ILI) among refugees in Northern Italy.
Study Design: Outbreak investigation of ILI cases observed among nearly 100 refugees in Northern Italy unvaccinated for influenza.
Methods: An epidemiological investigation matched with a differential diagnosis was carried out for each sample collected from ILI cases to identify 10 viral pathogens (SARS-CoV-2, influenza virus type A and B, respiratory syncytial virus, metapneumovirus, parainfluenza viruses, rhinovirus, enterovirus, parechovirus, and adenovirus) by using specific real-time PCR assays according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) protocols.
(1) Background. Exploring the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 load and clearance from the upper respiratory tract samples is important to improving COVID-19 control. Data were collected retrospectively from a laboratory dataset on SARS-CoV-2 load quantified in leftover nasal pharyngeal swabs (NPSs) collected from symptomatic/asymptomatic individuals who tested positive to SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection in the framework of testing activities for diagnostic/screening purpose during the 2020 and 2021 winter epidemic waves.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiagn Microbiol Infect Dis
December 2023
Since the beginning of the pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 has shown genetic variability. All the variants that have sustained pandemic waves have shown several mutations, especially in the Spike protein that could affect viral pathogenesis. A total of 15,729 respiratory samples, collected between December 2020 and August 2022, have been included in this study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) was conducted to track Enteroviruses (EVs) circulation in the Milan metropolitan area (Northern Italy) during Covid-19 pandemic (March 2020-December 2022). 202 composite 24-hour wastewater samples (WWSs) were collected weekly from March 24, 2020, to December 29, 2022 at the inlet of two wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) in Milan (1.5 million inhabitants).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The impact of seasonal influenza vaccination (SIV) on mortality is still controversial; some studies have claimed that increasing vaccination coverage rates is beneficial, while others have found no significant association. This study aimed to construct a granular longitudinal dataset of local VCRs and assess their effect on pneumonia- and influenza-related (P&I) mortality among Italian adults aged ≥ 65 years.
Methods: NUTS-3 (nomenclature of territorial units for statistics) level data on SIV coverage were collected via a survey of local data holders.
Background: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a leading cause of hospitalisation and mortality in young children globally. The social distancing measures implemented against COVID-19 in Lombardy (Italy) disrupted the typically seasonal RSV circulation during 2019-2021 and caused substantially more hospitalisations during 2021-2022. The primary aim of this study is to quantify the immunity gap-defined as the increased proportion of the population naïve to RSV infection following the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions in Lombardy, which has been hypothesised to be a potential cause of the increased RSV burden in 2021-2022.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn developed countries, congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) infection is the most common congenital viral infection, representing the leading non-genetic cause of sensorineural hearing loss (HL). Diagnosis of cCMV infection can be performed by detection of CMV DNA in urine or saliva within 2-3 weeks after birth, or later in dried blood samples on the Guthrie card. Currently, there are many controversies regarding the preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic approaches to cCMV infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlongside vaccines, antiviral drugs are becoming an integral part of our response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Nirmatrelvir-an orally available inhibitor of the 3-chymotrypsin-like cysteine protease-has been shown to reduce the risk of progression to severe COVID-19. However, the impact of nirmatrelvir treatment on the development of SARS-CoV-2-specific adaptive immune responses is unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlobal mitigation strategies to tackle the threat posed by SARS-CoV-2 have produced a significant decrease of the severity of 2020/21 seasonal influenza, which might result in a reduced population natural immunity for the upcoming 2021/22 influenza season. To predict the spread of influenza virus in Italy and the impact of prevention and control measures, we present an age-structured Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Removed (SEIR) model including the role of social mixing patterns and the impact of age-stratified vaccination strategies and Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) such as school closures, partial lockdown, as well as the adoption of personal protective equipment and the practice of hand hygiene. We find that vaccination campaigns with standard coverage would produce a remarkable mitigation of the spread of the disease in moderate influenza seasons, making the adoption of NPIs unnecessary.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a leading cause of acute respiratory infections worldwide. While historically RSV research has been focused on children, data on RSV infection in adults are limited. The goal of this study was to establish the prevalence of RSV in community-dwelling Italian adults and analyze its genetic variability during the 2021/22 winter season.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis multicenter observational study included 171 COVID-19 adult patients hospitalized in the ICUs of nine hospitals in Lombardy (Northern Italy) from December, 1st 2021, to February, 9th 2022. During the study period, the Delta/Omicron variant ratio of cases decreased with a delay of two weeks in ICU patients compared to that in the community; a higher proportion of COVID-19 unvaccinated patients was infected by Delta than by Omicron whereas a higher rate of COVID-19 boosted patients was Omicron-infected. A higher number of comorbidities and a higher comorbidity score in ICU critically COVID-19 inpatients was positively associated with the Omicron infection as well in vaccinated individuals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Few studies have reported the implications and adverse events of performing endotracheal intubation for critically ill COVID-19 patients admitted to intensive care units. The aim of the present study was to determine the adverse events related to tracheal intubation in COVID-19 patients, defined as the onset of hemodynamic instability, severe hypoxemia, and cardiac arrest.
Setting: Tertiary care medical hospitals, dual-centre study performed in Northern Italy from November 2020 to May 2021.
Following an extremely low incidence of influenza during the first waves of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021/22 Northern Hemisphere winter season saw a resurgence of influenza virus circulation. The aim of this study was to describe epidemiology of severe acute respiratory infections (SARIs) among Italian adults and estimate the 2021/22 season influenza vaccine effectiveness. For this purpose, a test-negative case-control study was conducted in a geographically representative sample of Italian hospitals.
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