Long-term outcomes of older adults with acute COVID-19 following inpatient geriatric rehabilitation: a prospective cohort study from the Republic of Ireland.

BACKGROUND: There is a paucity of research reporting the long-term outcomes of older adults who have completed geriatric rehabilitation following COVID-19. AIM: The primary aim of this study is to describe the long-term functional outcomes of a cohort of older adults with acute COVID-19 who have completed inpatient geriatric rehabilitation. METHODS: This is a subgroup analysis of Irish data from a pan-European prospective cohort study. Functional ability, patient reported symptoms, and quality of life were measured using the Barthel index, the COVID-19 Yorkshire Rehabilitation Screen, and the EQ-5D-5L, respectively. RESULTS: Thirty patients enrolled in the study. The rate of mortality was 23.3% at 6 months after discharge from rehabilitation. Patients achieved a return to pre-admission functional ability but reported a significant increase in patient reported symptoms and their quality of life did not return to pre-admission levels when assessed at 6 months after discharge from rehabilitation. CONCLUSIONS: Multidisciplinary rehabilitation for older adults with acute COVID-19 infection can assist patients to return to their premorbid functional ability. On discharge from rehabilitation, ongoing follow-up of older adults is recommended to assist them to negotiate and manage ongoing symptomatology such as breathlessness or fatigue.

First detection of Zika virus infection in a Croatian traveler returning from Brazil, 2016.

In the last few years, several imported cases of Zika virus (ZIKV) infection were reported in European countries. We report the first imported ZIKV infection case in a Croatian traveler returning from Brazil. The patient presented with a low-grade fever, pruritic rash, general weakness, myalgia, arthralgia and edema of the legs and recovered completely within a week. ZIKV infection was confirmed by detection of IgM/IgG antibodies using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and confirmed by plaque-reduction neutralization test (PRNT). ZIKV IgM antibodies cross-reacted with dengue virus (DENV), West Nile virus (WNV) and tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) in ELISA. In indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA), IgM cross-reactivity was found only with DENV-3.  ZIKV IgG antibodies cross-reacted with DENV in both ELISA and IFA. PRNT for DENV was negative. Control serology performed on days 64 and 98 after disease onset showed a decline in cross-reactive heterologous DENV IgG antibodies compared to persistently high titer of homologous ZIKV IgG antibodies.