Kidney transplantation with presymptomatic COVID-19–positive surgeon

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A nosocomial outbreak of 2009 pandemic influenza A(H1N1) in a paediatric oncology ward in Italy, October – November 2009

A nosocomial outbreak of 2009 pandemic influenza A(H1N1), with eight confirmed cases, occurred in a paediatric oncology ward in Italy, in October/November 2009. The fact that one case was infected despite being isolated and without contact to a symptomatic patient, hints towards potential transmission through a health care worker (HCW) and underlines the importance of vaccination of HCW who are involved in the care of critically ill patients

Determinants of varicella breakthrough: Results of a 2012 case control study

This study aims to evaluate the determinants of breakthrough infection after one dose of varicella vaccine. We designed a retrospective case-control study. Breakthrough cases were children, aged 1-15, who presented varicella symptoms ≥ 42 days after the first dose of varicella vaccine (breakthrough). Controls were children, aged 1-15 years, who attended the same class (in a school or in a kindergarten) than the cases in the year of the breakthrough onset; they received a dose of varicella vaccine ≥ 42 days before the case rash onset and they did not develop varicella symptoms. We enrolled 45 cases and 135 controls. 40% of cases (n = 18; 95% CI = 25.4-54. 6) presented at least one risk factor; this proportion was 39.2% (95% CI = 30.9-47.6) among the controls (chi-square = 0.0078; P = 0.93). Time between vaccination and virus exposure was longer among cases. Logistic regression showed that breakthrough disease was associated with duration of time from vaccination

Convex domains of Finsler and Riemannian manifolds

A detailed study of the notions of convexity for a hypersurface in a Finsler manifold is carried out. In particular, the infinitesimal and local notions of convexity are shown to be equivalent. Our approach differs from Bishop's one in his classical result (Bishop, Indiana Univ Math J 24:169-172, 1974) for the Riemannian case. Ours not only can be extended to the Finsler setting but it also reduces the typical requirements of differentiability for the metric and it yields consequences on the multiplicity of connecting geodesics in the convex domain defined by the hypersurface.Comment: 22 pages, AMSLaTex. Typos corrected, references update

Thin walled pottery from Alife (Northern Campania, Italy)

The file attached is the published version of the article

Epidemiology of pulmonary embolism in Apulia from analysis of current data.

Background and aims. Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a relatively common cardiovascular emergency: present evidence suggests that PE is the third most acute cardiovascular disease after cardiac ischemic syndromes and stroke. The aim of this study is to evaluate hospital admissions for PE in the Apulia Region of Italy in the period 2001-2007 through an analysis of the Apulia Region hospital patient discharge database. Methods. Patients were selected on the basis of admissions between 01/01/2001 and 31/12/2007 with ICD-9-CM code of 415.11 (Iatrogenic pulmonary embolism and infarction) or 415.19 (Other pulmonary embolism and infarction) as principal or secondary diagnosis. Results. The number of patients selected from the database was 4,303. The raw annual admission data shows an increasing trend from 13.9x100,000 residents in 2001 to 18.9x100,000 residents in 2007. The average patient age was 68.7 years and 59% were females and 41%. There were 470 deaths in hospital (10.9% of patients). Conclusions. PE is associated with much health care and a substantial economic burden, yet many PE and general venous thromboembolism (VTE) events are preventable. It remains the responsibility of individual hospitals to identify specific areas in which they can improve their VTE prophylaxis rates to obtain positive results from the reporting initiatives and incentive programs

Infinitesimal and local convexity of a hypersurface in a semi-Riemannian manifold

Given a Riemannian manifold M and a hypersurface H in M, it is well known that infinitesimal convexity on a neighborhood of a point in H implies local convexity. We show in this note that the same result holds in a semi-Riemannian manifold. We make some remarks for the case when only timelike, null or spacelike geodesics are involved. The notion of geometric convexity is also reviewed and some applications to geodesic connectedness of an open subset of a Lorentzian manifold are given.Comment: 14 pages, AMSLaTex, 2 figures. v2: typos fixed, added one reference and several comments, statement of last proposition correcte

Clonal spread of a unique strain of macrolide-resistant mycoplasma pneumoniae within a single family in Italy

Macrolide-resistant Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MR-MP) is an increasing problem worldwide. This study describes the clonal spread of a unique strain of MR-MP within a single family. On January 23, 2015, nasopharyngeal swabs and sputum samples were collected from the index case (a 9-year-old girl) in southern Italy. The patient had pneumonia and was initially treated with clarithromycin. MR-MP infection was suspected due to prolonged symptoms despite appropriate antibiotic therapy. Two further cases of pneumonia occurred in relatives (a 7-year-old cousin and the 36-year-old mother of the index case); therefore, respiratory samples were also collected from other family members. Sequence analysis identified mutations associated with resistance to macrolides. Both P1 major adhesion protein typing and multiple loci variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) typing were performed to assess the relatedness of the strains. The index case, the cousin, the mother, and another 4 family members (twin siblings of the index case, a 3-year-old cousin, and the grandmother) were positive for MR-MP. All strains harbored the mutation A2063G, had the same P1 subtype (1), and were MLVA (7/4/5/7/2) type Z. In addition, the index case's aunt (31 years of age and the probable source of infection) harbored an M pneumoniae strain with the same molecular profile; however, this strain was susceptible to macrolides. This cluster of MR-MP infection/carriage caused by a clonal strain suggests a high transmission rate within this family and highlights the need for increased awareness among clinicians regarding the circulation of MR-MP. Novel strategies for the treatment and prevention of M pneumoniae infections are required