Clinical predictors of dengue fever co-infected with leptospirosis among patients admitted for dengue fever - a pilot study.

Background: Dengue and leptospirosis infections are currently two major endemics in Malaysia. Owing to the overlapping clinical symptoms between both the diseases, frequent misdiagnosis and confusion of treatment occurs. As a solution, the present work initiated a pilot study to investigate the incidence related to co-infection of leptospirosis among dengue patients.

Cellular proteome alterations in response to enterovirus 71 and coxsackievirus A16 infections in neuronal and intestinal cell lines.

Hand, foot and mouth disease is mainly caused by enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) and coxsackievirus A16 (CV-A16), but EV-A71 is also associated with severe neurological complications. Host factors may contribute to the different clinical outcomes of EV-A71 and CV-A16 infections. A neurovirulent EV-A71 strain (EV-A71/UH1) from a fatal case, a non-neurovirulent EV-A71 strain (EV-A71/Sha66) and a CV-A16 strain (CV-A16/22159) from cases of uncomplicated HFMD were used.

Genotypic and phenotypic characterization of Chikungunya virus of different genotypes from Malaysia.

Background: Mosquito-borne Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) has recently re-emerged globally. The epidemic East/Central/South African (ECSA) strains have spread for the first time to Asia, which previously only had endemic Asian strains. In Malaysia, the ECSA strain caused an extensive nationwide outbreak in 2008, while the Asian strains only caused limited outbreaks prior to this.

Chikungunya virus of Asian and Central/East African genotypes in Malaysia.

Background: Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) of the Central/East African genotype has caused large outbreaks worldwide in recent years. In Malaysia, limited CHIKV outbreaks of the endemic Asian and imported Central/East African genotypes were reported in 1998 and 2006. Since April 2008, an unprecedented nationwide outbreak has affected Malaysia.