An open-label crossover study to evaluate potential pharmacokinetic interactions between oral oseltamivir and intravenous zanamivir in healthy Thai adults.

There is no parenteral formulation of the neuraminidase inhibitor oseltamivir, the most widely used anti-influenza virus drug. Oseltamivir resistance is an increasing problem. Zanamivir is effective against the most prevalent oseltamivir-resistant influenza viruses.

The microscopic agglutination test (MAT) is an unreliable predictor of infecting Leptospira serovar in Thailand.

A prospective study in Thailand identified 106 patients with culture-proven leptospirosis. The accuracy of the microscopic agglutination test (MAT) in predicting the infecting serovar was evaluated in 78/106 (74%) patients with a diagnostic titer. MAT correctly determined the infecting serovar in 26 cases (33%), indicating that this assay is a poor predictor of infecting serovar in our setting.

An open randomized controlled trial of desmopressin and pulse dexamethasone as adjunct therapy in patients with pulmonary involvement associated with severe leptospirosis.

Pulmonary involvement in leptospirosis is emerging as a common complication of severe leptospirosis. A prospective randomized controlled trial of desmopressin or high-dose (pulse) dexamethasone as adjunctive therapy in 68 patients with pulmonary involvement associated with severe leptospirosis was conducted between July 2003 and October 2006 at five hospitals in Thailand. There were 23 patients in the desmopressin group, 22 in the pulse dexamethasone group, and 23 in a control group who received standard critical care alone.

Doxycycline versus azithromycin for treatment of leptospirosis and scrub typhus.

Leptospirosis and scrub typhus are important causes of acute fever in Southeast Asia. Options for empirical therapy include doxycycline and azithromycin, but it is unclear whether their efficacies are equivalent. We conducted a multicenter, open, randomized controlled trial with adult patients presenting with acute fever (<15 days), without an obvious focus of infection, at four hospitals in Thailand between July 2003 and January 2005.

Patient and sample-related factors that effect the success of in vitro isolation of Orientia tsutsugamushi.

Orientia tsutsugamushi is the causative agent of scrub typhus infection, a major cause of human disease in rural areas of Southeast Asia. Twenty-six blood samples collected from patients with serologically proven scrub typhus during a six month period were sent to Bangkok (535 km from the clinical site) by road at ambient temperature (average daily temperature range: 27.1-29.