ABSTRACT
Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) refers to sudden, unpredictable and unexplained death of seemingly healthy individuals with epilepsy, which is an important reason for the higher risk of death in patients with epilepsy than in the general population. The risk factors of SUDEP include poor seizure control, nocturnal seizures, prone position, antiepileptic drugs and comorbidities. SUDEP has become a major public health problem. The latest progress in the definition, incidence, risk factors, mechanism and preventive methods of SUDEP were reviewed in this article.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>INTRODUCTION</b>Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) have emerged as one of the major nosocomial antimicrobial-resistant pathogens globally. In this article, we describe the epidemiology of VRE in Singaporean public hospitals in the 5 years following the major local VRE outbreak in 2005.</p><p><b>MATERIALS AND METHODS</b>A passive laboratory surveillance programme identified non-duplicate VRE isolates from 7 hospitals from 2006 to 2010. Descriptive statistics and time-series analysis was performed on all clinical VRE isolates for each individual hospital as well as for the combined dataset.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>There were a total of 418 VRE isolates over 5 years, of which 102 isolates (24.4%) were from clinical cultures. Between 0.4% and 0.7% of all clinical enterococcal isolates were resistant to vancomycin. The overall incidence-density of VRE did not change over time in Singapore despite 2 separate outbreaks in tertiary hospitals in 2009 and 2010. Incidence-density of clinical VRE cases fell in 2 secondary hospitals, while another 2 hospitals experienced no significant VRE infections after 2008.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The prevalence of VRE clinical isolates remains low in Singaporean public sector hospitals. However, the presence of at least 2 outbreaks in separate hospitals over the past 5 years indicates the need for continued vigilance in order to prevent any further increase in VRE prevalence locally.</p>