Françoise Mouchet

Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Saint-Pierre | CHU Saint-Pierre · Département de Pédiatrie

A young child, 19 months of age, presented with a second episode of tuberculosis after full recovery from initial tuberculosis disease 6 months earlier. Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated from both episodes were genotyped and differed from one another. We present the first case of proven tuberculosis reinfection in a likely immunocompetent...

Introduction: Belgium is a country with low incidence of tuberculosis (TB) and a very low number of TB cases in children. Children in contact with an adult smear-positive TB case are at high risk of transmission. Early diagnosis is important as young children have a significant predisposition of developing TB disease. In this paper, we describe two...

The search for novel vaccines against tuberculosis (TB) would benefit from in-depths knowledge of the human immune responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection. Here, we characterised in a low TB incidence country, the immune responses to a new candidate vaccine antigen against TB, the heparin-binding haemagglutinin (HBHA), in young chil...

The diagnosis of childhood active tuberculosis (aTB) and latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) infection (LTBI) remains a challenge, and the replacement of tuberculin skin tests (TST) with commercialized gamma interferon (IFN-γ) release assays (IGRA) is not currently recommended. Two hundred sixty-six children between 1 month and 15 y...

Background: Paradoxical reaction (PR) during antituberculosis (TB) therapy, defined as clinical or radiologic worsening of preexisting TB lesions or the development of new lesions, has not been widely studied in immunocompetent children. Methods: All children (<17 years) with the diagnosis of TB who sought care at our center between 1994 and 2007 w...

Background: Paradoxical reaction (PR) during antituberculosis (TB) therapy, defined as clinical or radiologic worsening of preexisting TB lesions or the development of new lesions, has not been widely studied in immunocompetent children. Methods: All children (<17 years) with the diagnosis of TB who sought care at our center between 1994 and 200...

The combination of meropenem with clavulanate has high antimycobacterial activity in vitro against extensively drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains. We report the successful use of this combination in association with linezolid in the management of an advanced extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis disease with complex second-line dru...

Treatment with paromomycin (25-35 mg/kg/d for 7 days) was evaluated prospectively in 15 children with Dientamoeba fragilis infection after 1-month follow-up. At the end of the study, parasitologic effectiveness and clinical improvement were observed in 12/15 (80%) and 13/15 (87%) patients, respectively. Paromomycin appears to be an effective drug f...

Despite absence of clear proof of efficacy, the use of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) is widespread in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Therefore, the effect of ICS on lung function and other clinical variables was studied in 27 prepubertal CF children with mild to moderate lung disease. In a prospective double-blind case-controlled study, fluticasone...

To assess the extent of nosocomial transmission of tuberculosis among infants, family members, and healthcare workers (HCWs) who were exposed to a 29-week-old premature infant with congenital tuberculosis, diagnosed at 102 days of age. A prospective exposure investigation using tuberculin skin test (IST conversion was conducted. Contacts underwent...

We report the occurrence of a leiomyoma of the suprarenal gland in a 10-year-old girl with ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T). Muscle cell tumors are very uncommon in this gland as they are in A-T. Possible reasons for developing nonhematologic tumors in this syndrome are reviewed. A defect in DNA repair mechanisms probably favors, in young children, the...