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\n \n \n \nPosted 27/05/2022. This randomised controlled trial by Louise Thwaites and colleagues examined two different treatments for adults with tetanus. The first was spinal (intrathecal) injection of antitoxin compared to a sham (dummy) procedure (in addition to normal intramuscular injection) and showed no overall benefit. The second, comparing two types of intramuscular antitoxin (equine and human) also showed no difference between treatments
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\n \n \n \nPosted 20/04/2022. Although seasonality in tuberculosis is seen on all continents, explanations have remained elusive. In a 10-year population study of TB transmission in Birmingham, UK, Timothy Walker and colleagues see seasonality only among patients linked by recent transmission, with diagnoses peaking in spring time. TB\u2019s incubation period may thus be even shorter than hitherto understood.
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\n \n \n \nPosted 19/04/2022. Jennifer Van Nuil and colleagues used a community-based participatory research approach to engage in dialogues with underserved groups at risk for hepatitis C in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We present findings from stakeholder mapping meetings held with representatives from local organizations, including the challenges and dynamics of the communities.
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\n \n \n \nPosted 18/02/2022. Integrating digital health innovations to the public hospital system in Vietnam requires understanding of the local technical and regulation landscape to avoid abandonment and ensure sustainability. Duc Minh Tran and colleagues mapped the relevant policy and academic publications, providing a big picture to inform the adoption of hospital-based digital health systems in Vietnam.
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\n \n \n \nPosted 01/02/2022. Pham Thanh Duy and colleagues at OUCRU have revealed the endemic circulation of fluoroquinolone-resistant extra-intestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli ST1193 in Vietnam, driven by multiple strain importations and sustained transmissions between humans. These organisms have developed resistance to multiple drugs of choice and are major causes of sepsis in neonates and bloodstream infections in adults in this setting.
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\n \n \n \nPosted 26/01/2022. Though Shigella flexneri serotype 6 has been proposed as a target for vaccine development against shigellosis, it is currently understudied. Hao Chung The and colleagues analyzed the genomes of 96 bacteria isolated from Asia, and showed that this pathogen\u2019s dominant lineage likely emerged in 1970s, and predicted that resistance against first-line antimicrobials was rare.
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\n \n \n \nPosted 13/01/2022. Associate Professor Tan and colleagues demonstrated that Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is immunogenic in Vietnamese health-care workers. Neutralizing antibodies were detectable in 98.1% and 94.7% of the study participants at 14 days and month 3 after vaccination, respectively. These data are critical to informing the deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine.
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\n \n \n \nPosted 19/10/2021. The search for more effective and affordable treatments for cryptococcal meningitis must go on, as results of a trial repurposing tamoxifen, a drug developed for breast cancer, found it had no effect in a trial in Vietnam, by Nguyen Thi Thuy Ngan and Jeremy Day. Although tamoxifen shows activity against Cryptococcus neoformans in vitro, there was no evidence of benefit in patients. The OUCRU team will keep looking for better treatments for cryptococcosis.
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\n \n \n \nPosted 15/10/2021. Tan Le Van and colleagues showed Delta variant breakthrough infections may cause asymptomatic or mild disease, but are associated with high viral loads and low levels of vaccine-induced neutralizing antibodies. The data suggested ongoing transmission had occurred between fully-vaccinated individuals. Social distancing measures remain critical to reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2.
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\n \n \n \nPosted 31/08/2021. Using a simple One Health survey design, this pilot study by Juan Carrique-Mas and colleagues measured AMU in the four commonly farmed animal species in the Mekong Delta (Vietnam) and compared it to human AMU using different metrics. Lessons from this study can be used in the formulation of One Health surveillance systems.
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\n \n \n \nPosted 09/07/2021. Dr Tan and his colleagues showed that only subgenogroup B1a of coxsackievirus A16, a common cause of the ongoing Hand Foot and Mouth Disease epidemic in Asia was circulating in southern Vietnam between 2011-2017. Active surveillance for viral circulation is critical to informing outbreak response and vaccine development.
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\n \n \n \nPosted 21/05/2021. Based on the analysis of a large volume of observational data on disease (diarrhea, nervous and respiratory signs, legs lesions) and antimicrobial usage (from 13 classes), Marc Choisy and colleagues highlight the absence or negative effects from prophylactic antimicrobial use in small-scale chicken farms in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam.
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\n \n \n \nPosted 09/04/2021. Survivorship after an intensive care unit (ICU) stay is associated with long-term disability throughout the world. Nguyen Thi Kim Anh, Louise Thwaites and colleagues designed, implemented and evaluated the feasibility of a sustainable ICU rehabilitation programme in a resource-limited setting with the aim of improving the long-term outcome of critically ill patients.
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\n \n \n \nPosted 23/03/2021. In tuberculous meningitis, raised intracranial pressure often results in irreversible neurological injury. In this study of 107 participants with tuberculous meningitis, Joseph Donovan and colleagues show how optic nerve sheath diameter ultrasound may provide a low-cost point-of-care option for the identification of individuals with raised intracranial pressure in tuberculous meningitis
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\n \n \n \nPosted 02/02/2021. Indiscriminate antimicrobial use (AMU) in animal production is a driver of antimicrobial resistance globally. In this trial, Juan Carrique-Mas and colleague provided regular veterinary advice to chicken farmers in Vietnam aiming to reducing AMU. AMU was quantitatively reduced by 66% and flock mortality by 40%. This study demonstrates that reductions in AMU without compromising health and productivity can be achieved in LMICs.
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\n \n \n \nPosted 19/01/2021. Tan Le Van and colleagues show that metagenomics could detect enteroviruses (n=23), hepatitis B virus (3), HIV (2), molluscum contagiosum virus (1) and germycircularvirus (1) in 14.7% of 204 cerebrospinal fluid from Vietnamese patients presenting with central nervous system infections of unknown origin. It remains a challenge to identify a plausible cause in patients with brain infections.
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\n \n \n \nPosted 12/01/2021. Azithromycin is effectively the last remaining oral antimicrobial to treat typhoid fever and is widely used for empirical therapy in South Asia. Although azithromycin resistance in Salmonella Typhi has rarely been reported, Abhilasha Karkey and colleagues show that an increasing reliance on this drug has led to the emergence of azithromycin resistant S. Typhi in the region.
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\n \n \n \nPosted 20/11/2020. Providing compensation for participants in clinical research is well established but defining compensation in low-resource settings is challenging due to ethical concerns and the lack of appropriate frameworks. Evelyne Kestelyn and colleagues at OUCRU Vietnam developed a compensation and reimbursement framework, providing a consistent, fair and transparent decision-making process that will be implemented across all future clinical research.
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\n \n \n \nPosted 17/11/20. Rogier van Doorn and colleagues show that antibiotics were prescribed to almost all 500 children with mild respiratory infection presenting to an outpatient clinic. They assessed prior antibiotic use by questionnaire and urine testing (HPLC), and reported overuse and overprescription of antibiotics when most respiratory infections are caused by viruses, and selection of resistant Enterobacteriaceae in gutflora with transmission potential.
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\n \n \n \nPosted 20/10/2020. Buddha Basnyat and colleagues describe findings from NUFIT, the Nepal Undifferentiated Febrile Illness Trial, a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled trial. The trial revealed that 7 days of sulphamethoxazole-trimethoprim (Bactrim) is inferior to azithromycin in the treatment of undifferentiated febrile illness (fever without a focus) and enteric fever in Nepal and the wider region in South Asia.
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