Effect of Tocilizumab vs Standard Care on Clinical Worsening in Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19 Pneumonia: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is threatening billions of people worldwide. Tocilizumab has shown promising results in retrospective studies in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia with a good safety profile.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of early tocilizumab administration vs standard therapy in preventing clinical worsening in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia.

infections following cardiac surgery in Treviso Hospital, Italy, from 2016 to 2019: Cases report.

Background: An epidemic of () infections following cardiac surgery is ongoing worldwide. The outbreak was first discovered in 2011, and it has been traced to a point source contamination of the LivaNova 3T heater-cooler unit, which is used also in Italy. International data are advocated to clarify the spectrum of clinical features of the disease as well as treatment options and outcome.

Desimplification to multi-tablet antiretroviral regimens in human immunodeficiency virus-type 1 infected adults: A cohort study.

Background: Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is provided free of charge to all human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive residents in Italy. As fixed dose coformulations (FDCs) are often more expensive in comparison to the same drugs administered separately in a multi-tablet regimen (MTR), we considered a cost-effective strategy involving patients in the switch from their FDCs to corresponding MTRs including generic antiretrovirals.

Aim: To verify if this would affect the virological and immunological response in comparison to maintaining the FDC regimens.

Monitoring for multidrug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum isolates and analysis of pyrimethamine resistance evolution in Uige province, Angola.

Objectives: To assess the extent of drug resistance in Uige through molecular genetic analysis and to test whether the dhfr triple mutant alleles present in Angola are of southeast Asian origin.

Methods: Seventy-one samples of blood from children admitted to the Pediatric Emergency Unit of Uige Provincial Hospital in 2004 were screened for resistance mutations at pfcrt, pfmdr1, pfdhfr, pfdhps and pfATPase6.

Results: Mutations in pfcrt (codon76), pfmdr1 (codon86), pfdhfr (codons 51, 59, 108) and pfdhps (codons 436, 437) were common.

Diagnosing human African trypanosomiasis in Angola using a card agglutination test: observational study of active and passive case finding strategies.

Objective: To assess the operational feasibility of detecting human African trypanosomiasis by active and passive case finding using the card agglutination test with serial dilution of serum to guide treatment.

Setting: Trypanosomiasis control programme in the Negage focus, northern Angola, during a period of civil war.

Design: Observational study.