Providing prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of patients after COVID-19 using artificial intelligence.

Objective: The aim of this research was to investigate the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of patients after COVID-19 with the possibility of using artificial intelligence and virtual reality in combination with traditional approaches to patient rehabilitation.

Materials And Methods: Statistical methods were used to evaluate the situation of COVID-19 worldwide and in Slovakia until March 2022. We investigated the rehabilitation options of breathing exercises, upper and lower limb rehabilitation, and cognitive tasks in patients with post-COVID syndrome who met the criteria for a combined rehabilitation program using virtual reality.

Etiology, Risk Factors and Outcome of 1003 Cases of Infective Endocarditis from a 33-year National Survey in the Slovak Republic: An increasing proportion of elderly patients.

Background: Infective endocarditis (IE) is still a significant cause of mortality in European hospitals, despite of the fact, that large nationwide studies were performed in last twenty years and pathogens are well known. The aim of the study was to assess risk factors, mortality, etiology and proportion of elderly patients within a longitudinal nation wide survey of infectious endocarditis in Slovakia.

Patients And Methods: Etiology, risk factors and outcome of 1003 cases of infective endocarditis (IE) in Slovakia over the last 33 years have been assessed.

Prevalence of non-pathogenic types of gastrointestinal protozoa in population in Slovakia and their potential importance in the aspect of public health.

The aim of the research was to determine the prevalence of non-pathogenic protozoa circulating in the human population of Slovakia. We particularly focused on the socially deprived areas with poor sanitation conditions, as they are one of the factors affecting the transmission of these infections. Within this study, 2760 people were coprologically screened for the presence of protozoan cysts.

Misdiagnosing of malaria as RTI decreased after introduction of RDTs in rural areas of Kenya.

Background: Clinical presentation of malaria is highly variable and can be mistaken for number of other diseases, including respiratory tract diseases, which are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. However, presumptive management of fever as malaria can result in significant overdiagnosis, even in high-risk areas. Quality microscopy services for the diagnosis of malaria are not widely available in rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa as well as in substandard conditions of low-income settings and the accuracy of microscopy is usually poor.

Decision and cost analysis of empirical antibiotic therapy of acute sinusitis in the era of increasing antimicrobial resistance: do we have an additional tool for antibiotic policy decisions?

Objective: No previous analyses have attempted to determine optimal therapy for upper respiratory tract infections on the basis of cost-minimization models and the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance among respiratory pathogens in Slovakia. This investigation compares macrolides and cephalosporines for empirical therapy and look at this new tool from the aspect of potential antibiotic policy decision-making process.

Methods: We employed a decision tree model to determine the threshold level of macrolides and cephalosporines resistance among community respiratory pathogens that would make cephalosporines or macrolides cost-minimising.

Our experience with smartphone and spherical lens for the eye fundus examination during humanitarian project in Africa.

To present the experience of eye fundus photo documentation by using the plus 20 diopters spherical Volk lens and a smartphone with 4.2 Mpix camera and LED flash within the screening project of eye disorders in countries where the standard ophthalmology equipment is not available. Totally 241 patients underwent ophthalmology screening examination.

[New antibiotics: do we need new molecules or new strategies?].

Unlabelled: Even though the situation in the field of research and development of new antimicrobial agents is not ideal, the years of stagnation, especially among anti-gramnegative agents, seem to be over. During the years 2011-2012 we have witnessed a movement towards a development of some new antibiotic agents not only with anti-gramposi-tive activity but with anti-gramnegative too, as well as new antituberculotics and antifungals. Here we present some of these new antiinfectives, presented in conferences during the last year, of which many are being shifted to the level of clinical trials of phase II-III, while others are in stage of preclinical studies.

First report of New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase-1-producing strains in Slovakia.

Occurrence of carbapenemase-producing organisms, including New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase-1 (NDM-1) is increasingly reported worldwide. The aim of this study was to assess the distribution of carbapenemase producers among multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria isolated from blood cultures. All carbapenem-resistant strains collected from December 2011 to December 2012 were analyzed.

Detection of protein homolougs with HIV-1 antigens in bacteria of positive patients - phase II.

Objectives: Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 is widely accepted as the cause of AIDS (Acquires Immunodeficiency Syndrome) but it is necessary to consider other factors, not only HIV, which may be involved in AIDS process. It is apparent that a viral reservoir persists in virtually all infected individuals receiving HAART. Reservoirs were detected in macrophages and other cells of the blood system, in which even very effective HAART was not able to eliminate the virus.

Transferable fluoroquinolone resistance in Enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from hemocultures.

Background: The main mechanisms causing high-level resistance to fluoroquinolones (FQ) are encoded chromosomally; that includes mutations in genes coding DNA-gyrase, but overexpression of efflux pumps contributes to increased minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of FQ as well. However, genes responsible for FQ-resistance may be harboured in transferable/conjugative plasmids. For some time, there was an assumption that resistance to FQ cannot be transferable in conjugation due to their synthetic origin, until 1998, when plasmid-mediated resistance transmission in Klebsiella pneumoniae was proved.

Nasopharyngeal bacterial colonisation in HIV-positive children in Cambodia.

Objective: To determine patterns of nasopharyngeal colonisation in HIV-positive children.

Methods: Nasopharyngeal, nasal and ear swabs were prospectively taken from all children living in two paediatric nursing homes for HIV-positive orphans in Cambodia from 2004 to 2011.

Results: A total of 882 swabs were taken, of which 586 tested positive for bacteria.

Cerebral malaria complicated with coma, multiorgan failure and psychosocial sequellae observed among non-immune travelers to Benin, Sudan and Madagascar.

Objective: Severe malaria represents less than 10% of all malaria cases and is associated with significant mortality. The aim of this case series was to review severe malaria cases in travelers within the last 10 years in Slovakia.

Methods: All cases of severe malaria in travelers reported within last 10 years from the Inpatient Department in Slovakia to the Slovak Tropical Institute (STI) are reviewed.

Are subinhibitory concentrations of antibiotics the only culprit of antibiotic resistance?

Evaluation of: Gullberg E, Cao S, Berg OG et al. Selection of resistant bacteria at very low antibiotic concentrations. PLoS Pathog.

Confirmation of HIV-like sequences in respiratory tract bacteria of Cambodian and Kenyan HIV-positive pediatric patients.

Background: Bacteria and yeasts isolated from respiratory tracts of 39 Cambodian and 28 Kenyan HIV-positive children were tested for the presence of HIV-1 sequences.

Material/methods: Bacteria and yeasts from the respiratory tract (nose, pharyngeal swabs) were isolated from 39 Cambodian and 28 Kenyan HIV-positive children. Bacterial chromosomal DNA was prepared by standard protocol and by Qiagen kit.

Antibiotic stewardship and consumption: findings from a pan-European hospital study.

Objectives: Much has been written about antibiotic stewardship although less is known about the structure and content of antibiotic policies at hospital level. As part of the European Commission Concerted Action Antibiotic Resistance Prevention And Control (ARPAC) Project, data on antibiotic stewardship were collated and relationships investigated by antibiotic consumption in European hospitals.

Methods: A questionnaire survey on antibiotic stewardship factors was completed by 170 hospitals from 32 European countries.

Colonization of the respiratory tract by drug-resistant bacteria in HIV-infected children and prior exposure to antimicrobials.

The aim of this short communication is to assess colonization by MRSA, penicillin-resistant pneumococci (PRP), fluconazole-resistant (FLU-R) Candida albicans (CA) and non-albicans Candida (NAC), and ciprofloxacin-resistant E. coli with regard to immune recovery due to CD4 T-cell increase depending on the duration of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Prior exposure to oral cephalosporins (P<0.

Hospital antibiotic management in Slovakia--results of the ABS maturity survey of the ABS International group.

Background: Antibiotic stewardship (ABS) is one of the important indicators in a healthcare system. Slovakia is participating in the project "Implementing antibiotic strategies for appropriate use of antibiotics in hospitals in member states of the European Union--ABS International", the objectives of which are identification of strengths and weaknesses of antibiotic policy in participating countries. This paper summarizes the results for Slovakia.

Antifungal drug discovery, six new molecules patented after 10 years of feast: why do we need new patented drugs apart from new strategies?

After 10 years absence (between 1990-1999) of new antifungal agents and intensive research being introduced into clinical practice, 3 new azoles (Voriconazole - Pfizer, Posaconazole - Schering-Plough, Ravuconazole - Bristol-Myers Squibb) and 3 new echinocandins (Caspofungin - MSD, Anidulafungin - Astellas-Pfizer, Micafungin - Fujisawa) were patented. The question raises if we really need 6 new antifungal agents in such a short time? Perhaps, they are not here because we need them all, but because of at least fifteen years effort of many groups of investigators who successfully discovered, proved and introduced these agents to the drug market. Voriconazole (2000), Posaconazole (2005), Ravuconazole (2007) from the group of azoles; and Caspofungin (2002), Anidulafungin (2004) and Micafungin (2006) from the group of echinocandins, with unique mode(s) of action (cell wall synthesis inhibition) different from polyens, azoles, antimetabolites and new monoclonal antifungal antibody (Mycograb), were approved and introduced to the clinical practice.