Seroepidemiology of trachoma in a low prevalence region receiving annual mass azithromycin distribution in Maradi, Niger.

Background: Trachoma programs use the indicator trachomatous inflammation--follicular (TF) to monitor indication for and response to treatment for trachoma at the district level. Alternative indicators, including serologic markers, are increasingly being evaluated for trachoma surveillance. We evaluated seroprevalence of IgG antibodies to the Pgp3 antigen in two districts in Maradi, Niger thought to have low TF prevalence.

The Influence of Cyanine 5.5 and Doxorubicin on Cell Cycle Arrest, Magnetic Resonance, and Near-Infrared Fluorescence Optical Imaging for FeO-Encapsulated PLA-TPGS Nanoparticles.

The combination of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)/near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence signals and chemotherapy agents has been developed for cancer diagnosis and treatment. In this work, we investigated the impacts of Cyanine 5.5 and Doxorubicin on cell cycle arrest, magnetic resonance, and NIR fluorescence optical imaging for FeO-encapsulated nanosystems based on poly(lactide)-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol succinate (PLA-TPGS) copolymer.

Multiple Anterior Chamber Paracenteses May Be Needed to Identify Cytomegalovirus Anterior Uveitis.

Purpose: To demonstrate cases of anterior uveitis requiring more than one anterior chamber paracenesis to elucidate CMV as the causative etiology.

Design: Retrospective chart review.

Methods: Patients were seen at the Francis I.

Quantifying carbon footprint of salmon fillet processed in Vietnam: impact of transportation and improvement opportunities.

The carbon footprint of a product represents the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions released during its production, transportation, and consumption and is calculated as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO). It should be integrated into different existing and future seafood awareness campaigns to create more holistic yardsticks by which consumers, retail businesses, and producers can assess the environmental impacts of seafood. This study used the life cycle assessment (LCA) method for the first time to quantify the carbon footprint of salmon fillet products processed in Vietnam for export.

Association Between Baseline Macular Morphologic Features on Optical Coherence Tomography and Visual Outcomes in Patients with Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada Disease.

Purpose: The choroidal thickening and serous retinal detachments that characterize Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease can be imaged in detail using spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Whether specific qualitative and quantitative SD-OCT features at presentation were associated with visual outcomes in a randomized controlled trial comparing methotrexate to mycophenolate for steroid-sparing control of uveitis were evaluated.

Methods: An exploratory subanalysis of data from the FAST trial in which SD-OCT images from VKH participants were analyzed for presence/absence of bacillary detachments, retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) folds, and internal limiting membrane (ILM) fluctuations was performed.

Azithromycin to Reduce Mortality - An Adaptive Cluster-Randomized Trial.

Background: Twice-yearly mass distribution of azithromycin to children is a promising intervention to reduce childhood mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. The World Health Organization recommended restricting distribution to infants 1 to 11 months of age to mitigate antimicrobial resistance, although this more limited treatment had not yet been tested.

Methods: We randomly assigned rural communities in Niger to four twice-yearly distributions of azithromycin for children 1 to 59 months of age (child azithromycin group), four twice-yearly distributions of azithromycin for infants 1 to 11 months of age and placebo for children 12 to 59 months of age (infant azithromycin group), or placebo for children 1 to 59 months of age.

Biomarker Detection and Validation for Corneal Involvement in Patients With Acute Infectious Conjunctivitis.

Importance: Infectious conjunctivitis can lead to corneal involvement and result in ocular morbidity. The identification of biomarkers associated with corneal involvement has the potential to improve patient care.

Objective: To identify biomarkers in patients with acute infectious conjunctivitis.

Deep sequencing as a diagnostic tool in patients with suspected primary vitreoretinal lymphoma.

Purpose: To compare the diagnostic utility of metagenomic deep sequencing (MDS) to cytology, flow cytometry and gene rearrangement by PCR in ocular samples of patients with suspected vitreoretinal lymphoma (VRL).

Methods: Patients with suspected VRL underwent ocular sampling of one or both eyes at the Emory Eye Center from September 2017 to June 2022. Ocular samples were evaluated with MDS and conventional diagnostics.

associated severe necrotizing scleral infection.

Purpose: We describe a case of severe scleritis possibly caused by .

Observations: Conventional laboratory evaluation was inconclusive. The associated organism was identified with metagenomic RNA deep sequencing (MDS).

Etiologies of Infectious Keratitis in Malawi.

Infectious keratitis is a leading cause of corneal blindness worldwide with little information known about causative etiologies in Malawi, Africa. This area is resource-limited with ophthalmologist and microbiology services. The Department of Ophthalmology at the Kamuzu College of Health Sciences in Blantyre, Malawi, is a participating site of an international corneal ulcer consortium, capriCORN (Comprehensive Analysis of Pathogens, Resistomes, and Inflammatory-markers in the CORNea).

Neonatal Azithromycin Exposure and Childhood Growth: Long-Term Follow-Up of a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Single-dose azithromycin is being considered by the WHO as an intervention for prevention of child mortality. However, concerns have emerged related to longer term unintended consequences of early life antibiotic use, particularly among infants. We conducted a long-term follow-up in a random sample of children who had been enrolled in a trial of neonatal azithromycin versus placebo for prevention of mortality to assess whether neonatal azithromycin exposure led to differences in child growth up to 4 years of age.

Outcomes in Patients With Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada Disease From the First-Line Antimetabolites for Steroid-Sparing Treatment Uveitis Trial.

Purpose: To compare the effectiveness of methotrexate (MTX) and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) in achieving corticosteroid-sparing control of uveitis in patients with Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease.

Methods: A subanalysis of patients with VKH from the First-line Antimetabolites as Steroid-sparing Treatment Uveitis Trial, a randomized, observer-masked, comparative effectiveness trial, with comparisons by treatment (MTX vs MMF) and disease stage (acute vs chronic). Individuals with noninfectious uveitis were placed on a standardized corticosteroid taper and block randomized 1:1 to either 25 mg weekly oral MTX or 1.

Coxsackievirus A24 causing acute conjunctivitis in a 2023 outbreak in Vietnam.

Objectives: To determine the associated pathogen during the 2023 conjunctivitis outbreak in Vietnam METHODS: RNA-sequencing was used to identify pathogens before and during the outbreak.

Results: 24 patients with infectious conjunctivitis between March and October 2023 from Hai Yen Vision Institute in Vietnam were swabbed. Coxsackievirus A24v was the most common pathogen identified.

Pathogen Profiles of Infectious Conjunctivitis in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Purpose: Conjunctivitis epidemics and pandemics remain a global burden. This study aims to comprehensively identify pathogens associated with conjunctivitis in Vietnam.

Methods: Patients with acute conjunctivitis presented to an outpatient clinic in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, were enrolled from September 2022 to March 2023.

Ocular manifestations of mpox.

Purpose Of Review: To highlight the clinical features of mpox with an emphasis on ocular manifestations and to review treatment options for this re-emerging infectious disease.

Recent Findings: Ocular involvement of mpox varies by clade. The most recent 2022 outbreak appears to be associated with fewer conjunctivitis cases compared to previous outbreaks.

Human Conjunctival Transcriptome in Acanthamoeba Keratitis: An Exploratory Study.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify conjunctival transcriptome differences in patients with Acanthamoeba keratitis compared with keratitis with no known associated pathogen.

Methods: The host conjunctival transcriptome of 9 patients with Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) is compared with the host conjunctival transcriptome of 13 patients with pathogen-free keratitis. Culture and/or confocal confirmed Acanthamoeba in 8 of 9 participants with AK who underwent metagenomic RNA sequencing as the likely pathogen.

Assessment of Spillover of Antimicrobial Resistance to Untreated Children 7-12 Years Old After Mass Drug Administration of Azithromycin for Child Survival in Niger: A Secondary Analysis of the MORDOR Cluster-Randomized Trial.

Background: The risk of antibiotic resistance is complicated by the potential for spillover effects from one treated population to another. Azithromycin mass drug administration programs report higher rates of antibiotic resistance among treatment arms in targeted groups. This study aimed to understand the risk of spillover of antibiotic resistance to nontarget groups in these programs.

Prolonged mass azithromycin distributions and macrolide resistance determinants among preschool children in Niger: A sub-study of a cluster-randomized trial (MORDOR).

Background: Randomized controlled trials found that twice-yearly mass azithromycin administration (MDA) reduces childhood mortality, presumably by reducing infection burden. World Health Organization (WHO) issued conditional guidelines for mass azithromycin administration in high-mortality settings in sub-Saharan Africa given concerns for antibiotic resistance. While prolonged twice-yearly MDA has been shown to increase antibiotic resistance in small randomized controlled trials, the objective of this study was to determine if macrolide and non-macrolide resistance in the gut increases with the duration of azithromycin MDA in a larger setting.

Could the effect of antimicrobials on antimicrobial resistance be saturated at high-antimicrobial consumption? A comparison of the MORDOR and ResistAZM studies.

Objectives: Antimicrobial resistance poses a considerable threat in high-antimicrobial-consumption populations, such as men who have sex with men (MSM) taking HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis. While the ResistAZM trial found no increase in macrolide resistance genes in MSM with gonorrhea after azithromycin treatment, the MORDOR trial observed an increase in these genes after mass azithromycin distribution. We hypothesized that this could be due to saturation of the resistome.

Acute neuroretinitis as a delayed manifestation of tubulointerstitial nephritis and uveitis syndrome.

Purpose: Tubulointerstitial nephritis syndrome with uveitis (TINU) is a rare, acquired syndrome characterized by interstitial nephritis with bilateral uveitis. We report a case of TINU with typical bilateral anterior uveitis complicated by an atypical, delayed-onset neuroretinitis in a 12-year old patient.

Observation: A 12-year-old female with a 21-month history of TINU featuring chronic bilateral anterior uveitis presented with one week of blurred vision in her left eye.

Mass Azithromycin Distribution to Prevent Child Mortality in Burkina Faso: The CHAT Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Repeated mass distribution of azithromycin has been shown to reduce childhood mortality by 14% in sub-Saharan Africa. However, the estimated effect varied by location, suggesting that the intervention may not be effective in different geographical areas, time periods, or conditions.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of twice-yearly azithromycin to reduce mortality in children in the presence of seasonal malaria chemoprevention.

Gut Microbiome Diversity and Antimicrobial Resistance After a Single Dose of Oral Azithromycin in Children: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial.

Mass antibiotic distribution to preschool children resulted in alterations of the gut microbiome months after distribution. This individually randomized, placebo-controlled trial evaluated changes in the gut microbiome and resistome in children aged 8 days to 59 months after one dose of oral azithromycin in Burkina Faso. A total of 450 children were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to either placebo or azithromycin.