Ocular infections caused by Scedosporium apiospermum: A case series

The aim of our retrospective study is to report a case series of ocular infections caused by a rare fungus, Scedosporium apiospermum, in a South Indian population. Thirteen cases of culture-positive S. apiospermum infections diagnosed between January 2011 and March 2016 were included in this study. The parameters evaluated were predisposing factors, treatment and final clinical outcome. The most common mode of presentation was keratitis (84.6%) followed by sclerokeratitis (15.3%). The predisposing factors involved were unspecified foreign body injury (30.7%), organic matter injury (15.3%), uncontrolled diabetes (7.6%), and recent manual small-incision cataract surgery (7.6%). Five cases (38.46%) had no predisposing factor. Of the 11 keratitis cases, nine (69.2%) responded well to combination medical therapy while one case (7.6%) required therapeutic keratoplasty. One case was lost to follow-up. Both cases which presented with sclerokeratitis showed no response to medico-surgical treatment progressing to panophthalmitis and evisceration.

Electronmicroscopic evidence of torovirus like particles in children with diarrhoea.

Pleomorphic virus-like particles approximately 90 nm in diameter with short fringe (7-9 nm long) were observed in faecal specimens of two diarrhoeic children in the course of routine screening of samples for viruses by electronmicroscopy. No other viral, bacterial or parasitic pathogens were detected in the same samples. Immune electronmicroscopic examination showed that these virus like particles were agglutinated by immunesera raised against Breda I and Breda II viruses of calves. This observation suggests that torovirus may be a new viral pathogen of humans.

Rotavirus vaccine: current status & future prospects.

A number of rotavirus vaccines, live attenuated, killed, and subunit, genetically engineered vaccines have been developed to control infantile diarrhoea. Field trials in several parts of the world have met with moderate or no success as the vaccinees failed to develop heterotypic protection. The failure of vaccine to control rotavirus diarrhoea may be due to the lack of understanding of the neonatal mucosal immune response, evolution of reassortant strains in nature and seasonal re-emergence of different types of strains in the field situation.