The Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccines in Preventing Hospitalizations During the Delta Wave: A Patient-Population Study at a Major Referral Center.

Background and objective Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has turned into a deadly global pandemic since its first discovery in Wuhan, China in December 2019. Safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 have been introduced to the public and have been shown to reduce the severity of the disease and related mortality rates. COVID-19 vaccination was first introduced in Lebanon in mid-February 2021. In this study, we analyzed the effectiveness of vaccination against COVID-19-related hospitalization during the Delta wave at a major referral center in Lebanon. Methods This patient-population study was conducted on patients hospitalized with COVID-19 between July 1, 2021, and September 30, 2021, at the Rafik Hariri University Hospital (RHUH) in Beirut, Lebanon. Data were collected directly from the patients or from digitized records and included demographic characteristics (age, sex, and comorbidities), vaccination status, oxygen requirement, and outcomes. National vaccination data were collected from the daily bulletin provided by the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health. The data collected were analyzed using SPSS Statistics Version 19.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Results A total of 289 patients were included in the study, of whom 90.3% were unvaccinated and 9.7% were vaccinated with at least one dose of a two-dose regimen. Only 4.5% of the 289 patients were fully vaccinated. Among those fully or partially vaccinated, the mean time from symptom onset to hospitalization was shorter but the hospital stay was longer compared to the unvaccinated group. The mortality rate was higher in the unvaccinated group (25.7%) compared to 14.3% among the vaccinated. The vaccine effectiveness compared to the national vaccination rate (22.5% in the population after the first and second dose) was 71.71% and 83.78% respectively. Conclusion The findings of this study highlight the fact that complete/partial vaccination against COVID-19 was highly protective against severe disease and hospitalization during the period with a predominance of the Delta variant in Lebanon.

Visceral Kaposi's Sarcoma as a Presentation in a Newly Diagnosed HIV-Infected Man: A Case Report.

Kaposi's sarcoma is an angioproliferative malignancy due to human herpesvirus-8 and is associated with immunosuppression. Although most cases are cutaneous and resolve with treatment of the underlying condition, few cases present with organ involvement and have a fulminant course. We present a case of a 24-year-old sexually active man who presented with fulminant visceral Kaposi's sarcoma, without cutaneous involvement. He presented with anasarca, high fever, hypoalbuminemia, and anemia on day five of antiretroviral therapy (ART). There was clinical improvement after the first dose of liposomal doxorubicin. However, given that he developed refractory pancytopenia, with disease relapse by the third week, he received a second dose of doxorubicin, with no clinical improvement, and the patient died with multi-organ dysfunction on day 22 of presentation. The main treatment is liposomal doxorubicin with ART, and the disease is typically associated with a poor prognosis.

Prolidase Deficiency Causing Recalcitrant Leg Ulcerations in Siblings.

ABSTRACT: Prolidase deficiency (PD) is a rare autosomal recessive genodermatosis with variable clinical manifestations. It results from a mutation in the peptidase-D gene that leads to abnormal activity of the prolidase enzyme, an important player in collagen catabolism. The authors report the case of two siblings presenting with dysmorphic features, disturbed blood panel, and recalcitrant leg ulcerations of several years' duration. Sequencing of the 15 exons and of the intron/exon junction regions of the peptidase-D gene revealed the presence of a homozygous pathogenic variant c.549-1G > A. An ointment with 5% proline and 5% glycine was compounded, and the patients were instructed to apply it once daily. A follow-up visit after 8 months revealed partial improvement of the ulcerations starting from the third month of treatment. These authors hope this case report sheds light on this disease and recommend it be incorporated into the differential diagnoses of chronic leg ulcerations, particularly those starting at a young age.

Visceral leishmaniasis in Lebanon a report of four cases: case series and review.

INTRODUCTION: Leishmaniasis comprises a complex of vector-borne diseases, caused by more than 20 species of the protozoan genus Leishmania, and ranging from localized skin ulcers to lethal systemic disease. It is endemic in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and the Mediterranean region. In the Middle East countries like Syria reports high incidence of the disease. In addition to the endemicity of the region for leishmaniasis, the Middle East has seen a great deal of human migration either for earning of livelihood or due to political upheaval in the region. Cutaneous form can be disfiguring but visceral form can be lethal. METHODOLOGY: In this article we report the clinical presentation of 4 cases of visceral leishmaniasis; 3 cases were pediatrics and one immunosuppressed adult patient all of them were from Syria from different regions. The diagnosis was made by bone marrow aspirate; PCR was made for 2 of them and was positive for leishmania infantum. All of them were treated with Amphotericn B lipid formulation (ABELCET) with complete response (definite cure). RESULTS: We report in this article 4 cases of visceral leishmaniasis treated with amphotericin B lipid complex (Abelcet) following the guidelines with complete remission. CONCLUSION: Visceral leishmaniasis is a serious disease and if not treated can lead to death. Lebanon is not known to be endemic for leishmania but since the war the ministry of health reported an outbreak of leishmania and mainly cutaneous leishmania. Here we present 4 cases of visceral leishmania and a review of the latest guidelines on the treatment modalities and protocols.

The Lebanese Society for Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (LSIDCM) guidelines for adult community-acquired pneumonia (Cap) in Lebanon.

Adult community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a common cause of morbidity and mortality which is managed by different disciplines in a heterogeneous fashion. Development of consensus guidelines to standardize these wide variations in care has become a prime objective. The Lebanese Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (LSIDCM) convened to set Lebanese national guidelines for the management of CAP since it is a major and a prevalent disease affecting the Lebanese population. These guidelines, besides being helpful in direct clinical practice, play a major role in establishing stewardship programs in hospitals in an effort to contain antimicrobial resistance on the national level. These guidelines are intended for primary care practitioners and emergency medicine physicians. They constitute an appropriate starting point for specialists' consultation being based on the available local epidemiological and resistance data. This document includes the following: 1/ Rationale and scope of the guidelines; 2/ Microbiology of CAP based on Lebanese data; 3/ Clinical presentation and diagnostic workup of CAP; 4/ Management and prevention strategies based on the IDSA/ATS Consensus Guidelines, 2007, and the ESCMID Guidelines, 2011, and tailored to the microbiological data in Lebanon; 5/ Comparison to regional guidelines. The recommendations made in this document were graded based on the strength of the evidence as in the 2007 IDSA/ATS Consensus Guidelines. Hopefully, these guidelines will be an important step towards standardization of CAP care in Lebanon and set the agenda for further research in this area.