Ghatbale et al. adapted a co-evolutionary technique to develop Klebsiella pneumoniae phages to be highly active longitudinally against K. pneumoniae clinical isolates, including drug resistant isolate...

Meningococcal urethritis is recognized as an emerging disease. However, its contemporary prevalence is unknown, and no molecular diagnostic tests are commercially available. With the widespread transition to molecular methods for sexually transmitted infection screening, high-throughput well-validated molecular methods for Neisseria meningitidis detection in urine may be useful for surveillance and diagnosis.MethodsWe tested for N. meningitidis using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in 1005 residual male urines submitted for standard-of-care gonorrhea/chlamydia testing. Subjects were designated “Symptomatic” if an ICD10 code matching urethritis, dysuria, or urethral discharge was noted or “Random” if not. A sodC-targeted PCR was adapted on the Panther Fusion (Hologic) for initial testing; an orthogonal metA-targeted PCR was used for confirmation of initial positive results.ResultsOverall prevalence (95% CI) of N. meningitidis was 1.5% (0.8-2.5%) when considering initial results, and 0.5% (0.2-1.2%) when considering only samples with successful confirmation. An initial detection of meningococcus more frequently confirmed as positive from subjects in the “Symptomatic” compared to “Random” cohort (100% vs. 9.1%, p=0.004). Positive and negative percent agreement (95% CI) of sodC PCR with metA PCR as reference was 100% (47.8-100%) and 91.7% (85.2-95.9%) respectively. Only 1 of 15 individuals who were sodC-positive was diagnosed with meningococcal urethritis by culture.ConclusionsOur molecular prevalence study revealed meningococcal urethritis is likely underdiagnosed in Ohio men, with one case for every 4 to 11 men with urogenital gonorrhea. With further optimization and validation, molecular testing may become a viable diagnostic or surveillance method for meningococcal urethritis.

npj Vaccines - How Rwanda mounted a research response with an investigational vaccine just ten days into a Marburg outbreak

Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health has confirmed an outbreak of Marburg virus disease in the South Ethiopia Region, the first of its kind in the country, following laboratory testing of samples from a clus...

A respiratory vaccine platform shows promise against pertussis (whooping cough) by providing sterilizing immunity and generating local mucosal immunity. This approach could potentially solve the inabi...

James Cashman, Paul McCarroll, Peter Choong, Pedro Ivo Carvalho, Nicolaas Budhiparama, Ewout S Veltman, David Dewar, Mehmet Kursat Yilmaz

This cohort study compares risk of surgical site infection among patients treated with β-lactam vs non–β-lactam surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis.

AbstractBackground. Delamanid has demonstrated potential in the treatment of multidrug-resistant (MDR) or rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis (TB); however,

Researchers are competing to make “virtual cells” that could transform biomedicine by predicting gene activity and more