ABSTRACT
Introduction: Central venous catheters (CVCs) implanted in patients with malignancies may often be associated with local or central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI), which are a major source of morbidity and rarely mortality, making such patients' care difficult and complicated. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study is a single-centre's experience including both paediatric and adult patients with malignancy, who had a CVC inserted and were receiving care at cancer centre of our hospital over a period between January 2017 and June 2018. Results: In the period from January 2017 to June 2018, 73 confirmed cases of CLABSIs among cancer patients were included in this study. The rate of CLABSIs was estimated as 2.1 episodes/1000 CVC days. Out of 73 CLABSI cases, Gram-negative bacilli were the predominant causative agents of CLABSI constituting 72.6% (n = 53/73) of isolated organisms, 21.9% (n = 16/73) of infections were caused by Gram-positive cocci while polymicrobial infections accounted for 5.4% (n = 4/73) of these cases. Conclusion: Over the last 20 years, an epidemiologic shift has occurred among CLABSI in cancer patients. These findings should be considered with the development of interventions that will prevent Gram-negative CLABSI after CVC insertion. To our knowledge, this is the first study reporting data on the incidence of CLABSIs in cancer patients at tertiary care hospital from North Indian hospital.
ABSTRACT
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of multifocal hepatic abscesses in a young immunocompetent adult from India, which was successfully treated with hepatectomy and short course of oral antibiotic regimen. Publishing further such case reports will provide more clarity regarding the clinical significance of the disease, including associated risk factors and appropriate treatment.
ABSTRACT
Legionella pneumophila was first recognised as a fatal cause of pneumonia more than four decades ago, during the 1976-American Legion convention in Philadelphia, USA. Legionella spp. continue to cause disease outbreaks of public health significance, and at present, Legionnaires' disease (LD) has emerged as an important cause of community and hospital-acquired pneumonia. Parallel to this, the understanding of LD has also increased exponentially. However, the disease is likely to be underreported in many countries because of the dearth of common definitions, diagnostic tests and active surveillance systems. In this review, we outline the basic concepts of Legionella including clinical presentations, epidemiology, laboratory diagnosis and the status of LD in India. This article also summarises the progress of research related to Legionella in this country, identifying the research gaps and discussing priorities to explore this unexplored pathogen in India.