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P Crimi,
M Valgiusti,
G Macrina,
A Grieco, L Massone,
A Ciucci,
F Ansaldi,
L Sticchi,
L Sasso,
S Del Buono,
P Durando
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ABSTRACT: Nosocomial infections (NI) are above all due to health-care workers practices, but also the contamination of the environment could lead to their rise in health-care facilities. Introduction. In the last years, the incidence of NI has increased due to a substantial rise in the number of immuno-compromised patients. These patients are often gathered in hospital areas declared at "high risk" of infection such as Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplant ward. In this study, we evaluated microbial contamination of the air in two divisions with high risk patients, focusing on the validity of the air system with correlation to the presence or not of the HEPA absolute filters.
An environmental surveillance study has been carried out in two Divisions of Haematology, in two different Hospitals. Investigations have been performed by sampling air and by analyzing bacterial and fungal growth on microbiology plates after an incubation period.
Unit A, without HEPA filters in the ventilation systems, showed a gradual increase in the bacterial load 20 and 60 days after cleaning of the ventilation system. Mycetes and Aspergilli were not present in basal conditions, at 20 or 60 days after decontamination. Unit B, equipped with HEPA filters placed at the inlet vents, showed extremely low values of the bacterial load either in basal conditions or upon inspection 60 days after cleaning. No mycetes were present.
From the results obtained, it was evident that following the cleaning operation, the quality of the air is excellent in both types of equipment, since no mycetes were present and the bacterial load was < 20 CFU/mc in all the sites tested. However, although in subsequent controls mycetes were absent in both types of equipment, a great difference in the suspended bacterial load was found: Unit B was close to sterility whereas in Unit A a progressive increase was observed.
Journal of preventive medicine and hygiene 03/2009; 50(1):33-6.
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ABSTRACT: Twenty-three children infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were vaccinated with a trivalent inactivated virosomal influenza vaccine. Serum haemagglutinin inhibition antibody titres were determined for the three viral strains at the time of vaccination and 1 month later. CD4 cell counts and HIV viral loads were measured to evaluate the effect of vaccination on HIV status. Adverse reactions were monitored during the first hour following vaccination by an investigator and then on a continuous basis by the parents. Seroconversion rates against the three viral strains A/H3N2, A/H1N1 and B were 73.9%, 56.5% and 52.2%, respectively. Geometric mean antibody titres increased after 1 month compared with baseline values (A/H3N2: 70.9 versus 13.5; A/H1N1: 24.7 versus 5.8; B: 34.4 versus 9.1). No significant changes were observed in either HIV viral load or CD4 cell count following vaccination. Vaccination was well tolerated with only a few mild, transient symptoms.
The Journal of international medical research 32(5):492-9. · 0.90 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Markers of viral replication are fundamental tools for understanding the mode of transmission, diagnosis and management of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. A new enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for quantitative detection of free and complexed HCV core antigen (HCV Ag) has been developed. The aim of this study is to evaluate the clinical performance of the new test and compare it with the most widely used commercially available RT-PCR-based assay. To determine the cut-off value we tested 60 samples from anti-HCV negative samples and selected a qualitative cut-off value of 3 pg/ml. To evaluate the usefulness of the new assay in confirming serologically indeterminate results we collected 62 sera. To evaluate the HCV Ag and HCV-RNA relationship we tested 245 samples from patients with different clinical conditions. The results of 61 out of 62 (98.4%) anti-HCV indeterminate samples were found to agree, whereas only one serum was found to be RT-PCR positive and HCV Ag negative. We also found the results to agree in 77.6% (190/245) of the samples from infected patients, while we observed higher agreement in untreated patients, both with and without evidence of liver damage. The correlation coefficient (r) observed between HCV Ag and HCV-RNA was 0.88. The regression line meets the cut-off value at an HCV-RNA concentration of approximately 40,000 IU/ml. In conclusion, we found that the results from the total HCV Ag test agree with the RT-PCR results and therefore we believe that this test could become a useful tool for the diagnosis and management of HCV infection.
Annali di igiene: medicina preventiva e di comunità 15(6):863-70.
