Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Neonatal Sepsis.

BACKGROUND: There is a sudden rise in infectious diseases, with special concern to the most recent SARS-CoV 2 outbreak. A retrospective study was conducted to study the effect of this outbreak on neonatal sepsis as a global issue that poses a challenge for pediatric management and to identify its risk factors, microbial profile, and mortality rate at King Faisal Medical Complex, Taif, KSA, a COVID-19-tertiary care segregation hospital. METHODS: This research included 111 neonates with a culture-proven diagnosis of neonatal sepsis (4 and 62 cases during 2019 and 2020, respectively). RESULTS: During 2019 early onset sepsis (EOS) occurred in 6/49 (12.2%) while in 2020 22/62 (35.5%), and during 2019 late onset sepsis (LOS) occurred in 43/49 (87.7%) while in 2020 40/62 (64.5%). Premature rupture of membrane was the major neonatal risk factor for EOS during 2019 and 2020 with proportions of 4 (66.7%), 20 (90.9%); respectively. As regards LOS, the peripherally inserted central catheters and peripheral lines were the top neonatal risk factors. In the two-year outbreak, the most prevalent causative organism for EOS neonates was Escherichia coli and for LOS neonates it was Klebsiella. There was non-significant change in the mortality rate of neonatal sepsis between 2019 and 2020. However, the mortality rate was higher in EOS 9/22 (40.9%) in 2020 in comparison to 2/6 (33.3%) in 2019. CONCLUSIONS: Neonatal sepsis remains a major health problem causing serious morbidity and mortality, and health care policy makers have to implement EOS preventive measures.

Application of CRISPR-Cas System to Mitigate Superbug Infections.

Multidrug resistance in bacterial strains known as superbugs is estimated to cause fatal infections worldwide. Migration and urbanization have resulted in overcrowding and inadequate sanitation, contributing to a high risk of superbug infections within and between different communities. The CRISPR-Cas system, mainly type II, has been projected as a robust tool to precisely edit drug-resistant bacterial genomes to combat antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains effectively. To entirely opt for its potential, advanced development in the CRISPR-Cas system is needed to reduce toxicity and promote efficacy in gene-editing applications. This might involve base-editing techniques used to produce point mutations. These methods employ designed Cas9 variations, such as the adenine base editor (ABE) and the cytidine base editor (CBE), to directly edit single base pairs without causing DSBs. The CBE and ABE could change a target base pair into a different one (for example, G-C to A-T or C-G to A-T). In this review, we addressed the limitations of the CRISPR/Cas system and explored strategies for circumventing these limitations by applying diverse base-editing techniques. Furthermore, we also discussed recent research showcasing the ability of base editors to eliminate drug-resistant microbes.