Review of the prevalence, diagnostics, and containment measures of the current mpox outbreak.

Monkeypox (mpox), is a disease from the Poxviridae family that can cause several serious medical issues. This mini-review sought to analyze the existing literature regarding the current mpox outbreak with a focus on the prevalence, diagnostics, and containment measures. Mpox cases have been reported to World Health Organization (WHO) from 85 Member States in all six WHO regions during the period of January 1, 2022, through August 3, 2022. Standardized or optimized guidelines for the clinical care of patients with mpox are limited, particularly in low-resource settings. In an effort to achieve guidance and meet standards, special attention should be paid to this outbreak in order to eradicate such a rare infectious disease by analyzing prevention and control measures. Patient outcomes may also be poor, and their illnesses may last for a long time. The spectrum of clinical symptoms, including complications and sequelae, as well as aspects of the illness may be indicators of sickness severity and complications; therefore, its clinical presentation must be better understood to improve containment measures. In addition, it is important to create and evaluate a standard of care that takes a variety of parameters into account, including antiviral, immune therapies, and clinical metrics that are particular to mpox. The global emergence of mpox has presented new challenges for public health and has called for further investigation into its epidemiological profile across international contexts.

Candida auris: An Overview of the Emerging Drug-Resistant Fungal Infection.

Candida auris is an invasive fungal pathogen that has been recognized globally as a serious health threat due to its extensive innate and acquired resistance to antifungal drugs. A growing number of emerging cases of C. auris have been reported with resistance to the standard antifungal treatments including azoles, echinocandins, and polyenes, making it difficult to treat. Unlike other Candida species, C. auris is challenging to diagnose using the standard laboratory methods and are typically prone to misidentification, resulting in inappropriate management. Consequently, C. auris infections have spread globally. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showed that clinical cases of C. auris increased from 329 in 2018 to 1,012 in 2021. The incidence and prevalence of this invasive fungal infection are high in immunocompromised and hospitalized patients. Patients who had an organ transplant, are on immunosuppressive agents, are diabetic, recent antibiotic use, catheter use, and prolonged hospital or nursing homestays are vulnerable to C. auris infections. C. auris is rapidly spreading across healthcare settings globally and monitoring of its virulence as well as devising appropriate treatment approaches are thus highly required.

Current advancements and future prospects of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics: a narrative review.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has made a global impact on the daily lives of humanity, devastating health systems, and cataclysmically affecting the world's economy. Currently, the Standard Public Health Protective practices consist of but are not limited to wearing masks, social distancing, isolating sick and exposed people, and contact tracing. Scientists around the globe undertook swift scientific efforts to develop safe and effective therapeutics and vaccines to combat COVID-19. Presently, as of mid-March 2022, 57.05% of the world population have been fully vaccinated, and 65.3% of the United States of America's (USA) total population have been fully vaccinated while 76.7% have received at least one dose of the vaccine. This article explores the various vaccines created through modern science and technology, including their safety, efficacy, and mechanism of action. Although the vaccines produced are up to 95.0% efficacious, their efficacy wanes over time, underscoring the need for booster doses. Also, vaccination has not been able to prevent "breakthrough" infections. The limitations of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines indicate that further measures are required to ensure a firm control of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the use of certain therapeutic agents because they have shown remarkable clinical outcomes. Several therapeutic agents for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 include Gilead's remdesivir, Regeneron's casirivimab and imdevimab combination, Eli Lilly's baricitinib and remdesivir combination, Pfizer's co-packaged nirmatrelvir tablets and ritonavir tablets, and Merck's molnupiravir capsules. Hence concerted efforts in early and accurate diagnosis, education on the COVID-19 virulence, transmission and preventive measures, global vaccination, and therapeutic agents could bring this COVID-19 pandemic under control across the globe.

SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant (B.1.1.529): A concern with immune escape.

Omicron, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variant that is now spreading across the world, is the most altered version to emerge so far, with mutations comparable to changes reported in earlier variants of concern linked with increased transmissibility and partial resistance to vaccine-induced immunity. This article provides an overview of the SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron (B.1.1.529) by reviewing the literature from major scientific databases. Although clear immunological and clinical data are not yet available, we extrapolated from what is known about mutations present in the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 and offer preliminary indications on transmissibility, severity, and immune escape through existing research and databases.

Post-acute Sequelae in COVID-19 Survivors: an Overview.

In the acute phase of SARS-CoV-2 infection, varying degrees of clinical manifestations have been noticed in patients. Some patients who recovered from the infection developed long-term effects which have become of interest to the scientific and medical communities, as it relates to pathogenesis and the multidisciplinary approach to treatment. Long COVID (long-term or long-haul) is the collective term used to define recovered individuals of SARS-CoV-2 infection who have presented with persistent COVID symptoms, as well as the emergence of disorders and complications. Following the review of literature from major scientific databases, this paper investigated long COVID and the resulting post-sequela effects on survivors, regardless of initial disease severity. The clinical manifestations and multisystem complications of the disease specifically, cardiovascular, neurologic and psychologic, hematologic, pulmonary, dermatologic, and other ailments were discussed. Patients with chronic COVID-19 were found to experience heart thrombosis leading to myocardial infarction, inflammation, lung fibrosis, stroke, venous thromboembolism, arterial thromboembolism, "brain fog", general mood dysfunctions, dermatological issues, and fatigue. As the disease continues to progress and spread, and with the emergence of new variants the management of these persisting symptoms will pose a challenge for healthcare providers and medical systems in the next period of the pandemic. However, more information is needed about long COVID, particularly concerning certain patient populations, variability in follow-up times, the prevalence of comorbidities, and the evolution of the spread of infection. Thus, continued research needs to be conducted concerning the disease pathology to develop preventative measures and management strategies to treat long COVID.

Reactogenicity to COVID-19 vaccination in the United States of America.

PURPOSE: In the United States, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Janssen's coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines have been granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine presently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. The purpose of this study is to analyze passive surveillance data on COVID-19 vaccine adverse reaction in the United States. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed passive surveillance data on COVID-19 vaccine adverse reactions which were retrieved from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System database. Retrieved records on demographic information as well as the top 10 common vaccine adverse events were extracted and assessed from 200 of the most recently reported cases for the study analysis. RESULTS: Local and systemic adverse reactions were reported in the study. A significant difference (p<0.05) was recorded for the top 10 systemic reactions by age category (0.041) and by gender (0.002). Analysis of the top five systemic reactions, stratified by vaccine type yielded a significant difference (p<0.05) for chills (p=0.044), and when stratified by age group and type of vaccination received, it yielded a significant difference (p<0.05) for fatigue (p=0.023). Overall, Pfizer had 182 persons (91.0%) reporting adverse events, Moderna with 13 (6.5%), and Janssen with 5 (2.5%). CONCLUSION: Mild side effects were reported following vaccination with the EUA COVID-19 vaccines in the United States. Thus, continuous monitoring and reporting of all adverse events are recommended to ensure the safety of vaccination.

The emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern.

Since emerging from Wuhan, China, in December of 2019, the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has been causing devastating severe respiratory infections in humans worldwide. With the disease spreading faster than the medical community could contain it, death tolls increased at an alarming rate worldwide, causing the World Health Organization to officially sanction the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak as a pandemic, leading to a state of worldwide lockdown for the majority of the year 2020. There have been reports of new strains of the virus emerging in various parts of the world, with some strains displaying even greater infectivity and transmissibility. Areas of the emerging variant of concern arise from countries like the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, and India. These mutations carry a lineage from N501Y, D614G, N439K, Y453F, and others, which are globally dominated by clades 20A, 20B, and 20C. This literature review intends to identify and report SARS-CoV-2 variants that are currently evolving and their disease implications.

Navigating the Diagnostics of COVID-19.

The recent outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) began in Hubei province, China, in December 2019 and has spread worldwide at an alarming rate. With over eight million individuals infected and exceeding 400,000 deaths globally, the necessity to develop fast and efficient diagnostic methods is of high importance. This paper reports on currently available diagnostic screening methods for patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 to guide frontline healthcare workers involved with the diagnosis of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patient. An electronic literature search was performed for peer-reviewed articles published from January 1, 2020, until June 19, 2020. Published articles were then reviewed and included based on the applicability to the topic. The preferred diagnostic approach is the reverse transcription (RT) of the virus' ribonucleic acid (RNA) followed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification (RT-PCR). However, this method has been proven to be time-consuming. In improving the speed and efficiency of diagnostics, newer rapid diagnostic serological tests are in development for testing SARS-CoV-2, each with its unique advantages and disadvantages. They could potentially be used as triage tests to rapidly identify patients who are very likely to have COVID-19 in combination with other accurate diagnostic methods, such as diagnostic imaging. A combination of the disease history, clinical manifestations, laboratory diagnostic testing, and diagnostic imaging is crucial for making an accurate and useful diagnosis for COVID-19. Hopefully, the continuous development and use of rapid diagnostic tests and the implementation of public health measures will help control the spread of the disease.