Infections in travellers returning to Turkey from the Arabian peninsula: a retrospective cross-sectional multicenter study.

Mass gatherings pooling people from different parts of the world-the largest of which is to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, for Hajj-may impose risks for acquisition and dissemination of infectious diseases. A substantial number of pilgrims to Hajj and Umrah are Turkish citizens (456,000 in 2014) but data are lacking on scale of the problem. We did a retrospective cross-sectional multicenter study in Turkey to explore the range of infections among inpatients who had recently returned from the Arabian Peninsula. Our inclusion criteria were patients who had acquired an infection during their trip to an Arabian Peninsula country, or who became symptomatic within 1 week of their return. The data were collected retrospectively for January 1, 2013 and March 1, 2015. 185 Turkish patients were recruited to the study across 15 referral centers with travel associated infectious diseases after returning from Arabian Peninsula countries (predominantly Saudi Arabia 163 [88.1 %] for religious purposes 162 [87.5 %]). Seventy four (40.0 %) of them were ≥ 65 years old with numerous comorbidities including diabetes (24.3 %) and COPD (14.1 %). The most common clinical diagnosis was respiratory tract infections (169 [91.5 %]), followed by diarrheal diseases (13 [7 %]), and there was one case of MERS-CoV. Patients spent a median of 5 (3-7) days as hospital inpatients and overall mortality was 1.1 %. Returning travellers from the Arabian Peninsula present as inpatients with a broad range of infectious diseases similar to common community acquired infections frequently seen in daily medical practices in Turkey.

Daptomycin versus teicoplanin in the treatment of osteomyelitis: Results of the Göztepe retrospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVES: Daptomycin is highly effective against Gram-positive multidrug-resistant bacteria. Publications on daptomycin in osteomyelitis treatment are limited. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this multicenter retrospective cohort study, the aim was to evaluate the outcomes of osteomyelitis cases having received daptomycin or teicoplanin. This multicenter retrospective cohort study gathered data from seven centers located in five cities of Turkey. Study inclusion criteria were as follows: (a) magnetic resonance imaging and/or direct X-ray revealed osteomyelitis or biopsy pathologic examination results concomitant with osteomyelitis. Chi-squareand Student t-tests were used for statistical comparison. RESULTS: A total of 72 patients, 38 cases in the daptomycin group and 34 cases in the teicoplanin group diagnosed with osteomyelitis fulfilling the study inclusion criteria, were included in the study. Clinical success at the end of induction therapy was achieved in 32/38 cases in the daptomycin cohort vs. 30/34 cases in the teicoplanin cohort (p: 0.73). CONCLUSION: Although this is a limited experience in a small but well-defined cohort, our data suggest that daptomycin may be a safe alternative to glycopeptides in osteomyelitis treatment. A randomized controlled clinical study involving larger cohorts may increase the available evidence.

Managing atypical and typical herpetic central nervous system infections: results of a multinational study.

There have been many studies pertaining to the management of herpetic meningoencephalitis (HME), but the majority of them have focussed on virologically unconfirmed cases or included only small sample sizes. We have conducted a multicentre study aimed at providing management strategies for HME. Overall, 501 adult patients with PCR-proven HME were included retrospectively from 35 referral centres in 10 countries; 496 patients were found to be eligible for the analysis. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis using a PCR assay yielded herpes simplex virus (HSV)-1 DNA in 351 patients (70.8%), HSV-2 DNA in 83 patients (16.7%) and undefined HSV DNA type in 62 patients (12.5%). A total of 379 patients (76.4%) had at least one of the specified characteristics of encephalitis, and we placed these patients into the encephalitis presentation group. The remaining 117 patients (23.6%) had none of these findings, and these patients were placed in the nonencephalitis presentation group. Abnormalities suggestive of encephalitis were detected in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 83.9% of the patients and in electroencephalography (EEG) in 91.0% of patients in the encephalitis presentation group. In the nonencephalitis presentation group, MRI and EEG data were suggestive of encephalitis in 33.3 and 61.9% of patients, respectively. However, the concomitant use of MRI and EEG indicated encephalitis in 96.3 and 87.5% of the cases with and without encephalitic clinical presentation, respectively. Considering the subtle nature of HME, CSF HSV PCR, EEG and MRI data should be collected for all patients with a central nervous system infection.