scholarly journals A Fatal Case of Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis from Recreational Waters

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Edward Hamaty ◽  
Saif Faiek ◽  
Minesh Nandi ◽  
David Stidd ◽  
Manish Trivedi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Bacterial Meningitis ◽  
Fatal Case ◽  
Altered Mental Status ◽  
The United States ◽  
Recreational Waters ◽  
Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis ◽  
Presenting Symptoms ◽  
Amoebic Meningoencephalitis

Background. Naegleria Fowleri is a single-cell, thermophilic amphizoid amoeba, and a rare known causative agent for primary amoebic meningoencephalitis with >97% mortality rate. The amoeba resides in freshwater lakes and ponds but can also survive in inadequately chlorinated pools and recreational waters. The mode of infection includes activities such as diving or jumping into freshwater or submerging the head under the water. Although most commonly seen in the southern United States, it is essential to keep this clinical suspicion in mind regardless of geography, as presenting symptoms can be very similar to classic bacterial meningitis. Case Summary. We report the first-ever case in the state of New Jersey of a 29-year-old male presented after a visit to a recreational water park in Texas five days before his presentation with altered mental status. In ICU, his ICP remained refractory to multiple therapies, including antibiotics and antivirals, external ventriculostomy drain, hypertonic saline, pentobarbital-induced coma, and bilateral hemicraniectomies. The CSF analysis revealed trophozoites indicating a protozoan infection, which we diagnosed in the neurocritical unit, and the patient was then immediately started with treatment that included amphotericin B, rifampin, azithromycin, and fluconazole. This suspicion was promptly confirmed by the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Unfortunately, despite all the aggressive intervention by the multidisciplinary team, the patient did not survive. Conclusion. As per the CDC, only four people out of 143 known infected individuals in the United States from 1962 to 2017 have survived. Symptoms start with a median of 5 days after exposure to contaminated water. Given the rarity of this case and its very high mortality rate, it is crucial to diagnose primary amoebic meningoencephalitis accurately as its presentation can mimic bacterial meningitis. It is vital to obtain a careful and thorough history, as it can aid in prompt diagnosis and treatment.

Warning against long-acting sulphonamides

1966 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 13-13
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Erythema Multiforme ◽  
The United States ◽  
Stevens Johnson Syndrome ◽  
Warning Letter ◽  
Johnson Syndrome ◽  
The Us ◽  
Mucous Membranes ◽  
Long Acting

Last month the US Food and Drug Administration required American manufacturers of long-acting sulphonamides (sulphamethoxypyridazine, Lederkyn - Lederle and Midicel - PD; sulphadimethoxine - Madribon - Roche) to warn prescribers that in rare cases the Stevens-Johnson syndrome may develop as a severe and sometimes fatal side effect. This syndrome is a type of erythema multiforme in which large blisters appear on the skin and especially on the mucous membranes. The manufacturers were also to advise doctors ‘to consider prescribing short-acting sulphonamides first because they are effective for most of the same conditions’. The three drug firms concerned accordingly sent a joint warning letter to all doctors, pointing out that the Stevens-Johnson syndrome is a serious complication with a mortality rate of about 25%. So far 116 cases of this syndrome have been reported in association with the use of long-acting sulphonamides, most of them in the United States. Almost two thirds of the patients were children.

scholarly journals Epidemiology and Factors Affecting Mortality of Hospitalized Patients with Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation in the United States

Blood ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 134 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 2404-2404
Author(s):  
Arya Mariam Roy ◽  
Manojna Konda ◽  
Akshay Goel ◽  
Appalanaidu Sasapu
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Native Americans ◽  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Length Of Stay ◽  
Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Hospitalized Patients ◽  
Northeast Region ◽  
Intravascular Coagulation

Introduction Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC) is a systemic coagulopathy which leads to widespread thrombosis and hemorrhage and ultimately results in multiorgan dysfunction. DIC usually occurs as a complication of illnesses like severe sepsis, malignancies, trauma, acute pancreatitis, burns, and obstetrical complications. The prognosis and mortality of DIC depend on the etiology, however, the mortality of DIC is known to be on the higher side. The aim of the study is to analyze if gender, race, regional differences have any association with the mortality of hospitalized patients with DIC. Method The National Inpatient Sample database from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) for the year 2016 was queried for data. We identified hospital admissions for DIC with the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification diagnosis code D65. The data was analyzed with STATA 16.0 version and univariate and multivariate analysis were performed. We studied the characteristics of all such hospitalizations for the year 2016 and the factors associated with the in-hospital mortality rate (MR) of DIC. We used length of stay, cost of stay as an outcome to determine if gender, race, and location play a role in the mortality. Results A total of 8704 admissions were identified with a diagnosis of DIC during the year 2016. The mean age for admission was found to be 56.48± 0.22. The percentage of admissions in females and males did not have a notable difference (50.57% vs 49.43%). The disease specific MR for DIC was 47.7%. Admission during weekend vs weekdays did not carry a statistically significant difference in terms of MR. Females with DIC were less likely to die in the hospital when compared to males with DIC (OR= 0.906, CI 0.82 - 0.99, p= 0.031). Interestingly, African Americans (AA) with DIC admissions were found to have 24% more risk of dying when compared to Caucasians admitted with DIC (OR= 1.24, CI 1.10 - 1.39, P= 0.00), Native Americans (NA) has 67% more risk of dying when compared to Caucasians (OR= 1.67, CI 1.03 - 2.69, p= 0.035). The mortality rate of NA, AA, Caucasians with DIC was found to be 57%, 52%, 47% respectively. The MR was found to be highest in hospitals of the northeast region (52%), then hospitals in the south (47%), followed by west and mid-west (46%), p= 0.000. Patients admitted to west and mid-west were 24% less likely to die when compared to patients admitted to northeast region hospitals (OR= 0.76, p= 0.001). The average length of stay and cost of stay were also less in west and mid-west regions when compared to north east. The difference in outcomes persisted after adjusting for age, gender, race, hospital division, co-morbid conditions. Conclusion Our study demonstrated that African Americans and Native Americans with DIC have high risk of dying in the hospital. Also, there exists a difference between the mortality rate, length and cost of stay among different regions in the United States. More research is needed to elucidate the factors that might be impacting the location-based variation in mortality. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

scholarly journals Using Satellite Images and Deep Learning to Identify Associations Between County-Level Mortality and Residential Neighborhood Features Proximal to Schools: A Cross-Sectional Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua J. Levy ◽  
Rebecca M. Lebeaux ◽  
Anne G. Hoen ◽  
Brock C. Christensen ◽  
Louis J. Vaickus ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Deep Learning ◽  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Satellite Images ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
Image Features ◽  
County Level ◽  
Crude Mortality Rate ◽  
Crude Mortality

What is the relationship between mortality and satellite images as elucidated through the use of Convolutional Neural Networks?Background: Following a century of increase, life expectancy in the United States has stagnated and begun to decline in recent decades. Using satellite images and street view images, prior work has demonstrated associations of the built environment with income, education, access to care, and health factors such as obesity. However, assessment of learned image feature relationships with variation in crude mortality rate across the United States has been lacking.Objective: We sought to investigate if county-level mortality rates in the U.S. could be predicted from satellite images.Methods: Satellite images of neighborhoods surrounding schools were extracted with the Google Static Maps application programming interface for 430 counties representing ~68.9% of the US population. A convolutional neural network was trained using crude mortality rates for each county in 2015 to predict mortality. Learned image features were interpreted using Shapley Additive Feature Explanations, clustered, and compared to mortality and its associated covariate predictors.Results: Predicted mortality from satellite images in a held-out test set of counties was strongly correlated to the true crude mortality rate (Pearson r = 0.72). Direct prediction of mortality using a deep learning model across a cross-section of 430 U.S. counties identified key features in the environment (e.g., sidewalks, driveways, and hiking trails) associated with lower mortality. Learned image features were clustered, and we identified 10 clusters that were associated with education, income, geographical region, race, and age.Conclusions: The application of deep learning techniques to remotely-sensed features of the built environment can serve as a useful predictor of mortality in the United States. Although we identified features that were largely associated with demographic information, future modeling approaches that directly identify image features associated with health-related outcomes have the potential to inform targeted public health interventions.

scholarly journals Heartland virus: a novel and emerging tick-borne encephalitis

2016 ◽  
pp. 5099-5101
Author(s):  
Salim Mattar V. ◽  
Marco González T.
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Causative Agent ◽  
Human Disease ◽  
Fatal Case ◽  
The United States ◽  
Tick Borne Encephalitis

Heartland virus (HRTV) is a Bunyaviridae, phlebovirus that it has recently emerged as the causative agent of human disease characterized by thrombocytopenia and leukopenia in the United States and China. It seems to be the HRTV has been also reported in China, Japan and Korea. Recently the first fatal case of HRTV disease in an 80-year-old Tennessee resident was reported (1)

Geographic Disparity in the United States Heart Allocation System

2019 ◽  
pp. 65-87
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Karami ◽  
Mehdi Nayebpour ◽  
Monica Gentili ◽  
Naoru Koizumi ◽  
Andrew Rivard
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Waiting Time ◽  
Average Distance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Allocation Model ◽  
Geographic Disparity ◽  
Transplant Candidates ◽  
Geographic Equity ◽  
The Impact

Organ allocation for transplantation across the United States is administered by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). UNOS recently approved a major policy change of the system used to allocate hearts for adult transplant candidates. The main objective of this study is to investigate the impact of the new policy on geographic disparity measured by four performance indicators (waiting time before a transplant, transplant rate, pre-transplant mortality rate, and average distance traveled by donated hearts). The current policy and the new policy were evaluated using the thoracic simulation allocation model. The results show that the new policy improves the median waiting time, transplant rate, and pre-transplant mortality rate. The overall predicted improvement in geographic equity is modest except in terms of waiting time. The findings highlight the need for a targeted approach for donor heart allocation to achieve equal access to heart transplantation in the US.

Hitch a Sugar to a Protein

2019 ◽  
pp. 197-222
Author(s):  
Janet R. Gilsdorf
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Bacterial Meningitis ◽  
American Indian ◽  
Disease Control ◽  
The United States ◽  
Indian Children ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Centers For Disease Control ◽  
American Children ◽  
Native Alaskan

The success of the conjugate Hib vaccines has been spectacular. Prior to their introduction, an estimated 10,000 cases of Hib meningitis occurred annually in the United States, which was approximately 1 in 300 children. It was even higher among native Alaskan and American Indian children. Since the widespread use of the vaccine, the disease has nearly disappeared in the United States, with only 40 cases in children under age 5 years reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2014. Thus, bacterial meningitis, once a scourge that killed and damaged too many American children is, for the most part, now a bad memory.

Craniotomy for Resection of Pediatric Brain Tumors in the United States, 1988 to 2000: Effects of Provider Caseloads and Progressive Centralization and Specialization of Care

Neurosurgery ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 553-565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward R. Smith ◽  
William E. Butler ◽  
Fred G. Barker
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Brain Tumor ◽  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Multivariate Analyses ◽  
Pediatric Brain Tumor ◽  
High Volume ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
Discharge Disposition ◽  
Pediatric Brain

Abstract OBJECTIVE Large provider caseloads are associated with better patient outcomes after many complex surgical procedures. Mortality rates for pediatric brain tumor surgery in various practice settings have not been described. We used a national hospital discharge database to study the volume-outcome relationship for craniotomy performed for pediatric brain tumor resection, as well as trends toward centralization and specialization. METHODS We conducted a cross sectional and longitudinal cohort study using Nationwide Inpatient Sample data for 1988 to 2000 (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD). Multivariate analyses adjusted for age, sex, geographic region, admission type (emergency, urgent, or elective), tumor location, and malignancy. RESULTS We analyzed 4712 admissions (329 hospitals, 480 identified surgeons) for pediatric brain tumor craniotomy. The in-hospital mortality rate was 1.6% and decreased from 2.7% (in 1988–1990) to 1.2% (in 1997–2000) during the study period. On a per-patient basis, median annual caseloads were 11 for hospitals (range, 1–59 cases) and 6 for surgeons (range, 1–32 cases). In multivariate analyses, the mortality rate was significantly lower at high-volume hospitals than at low-volume hospitals (odds ratio, 0.52 for 10-fold larger caseload; 95% confidence interval, 0.28–0.94; P = 0.03). The mortality rate was 2.3% at the lowest-volume-quartile hospitals (4 or fewer admissions annually), compared with 1.4% at the highest-volume-quartile hospitals (more than 20 admissions annually). There was a trend toward lower mortality rates after surgery performed by high-volume surgeons (P = 0.16). Adverse hospital discharge disposition was less likely to be associated with high-volume hospitals (P < 0.001) and high-volume surgeons (P = 0.004). Length of stay and hospital charges were minimally related to hospital caseloads. Approximately 5% of United States hospitals performed pediatric brain tumor craniotomy during this period. The burden of care shifted toward large-caseload hospitals, teaching hospitals, and surgeons whose practices included predominantly pediatric patients, indicating progressive centralization and specialization. CONCLUSION Mortality and adverse discharge disposition rates for pediatric brain tumor craniotomy were lower when the procedure was performed at high-volume hospitals and by high-volume surgeons in the United States, from 1988 to 2000. There were trends toward lower mortality rates, greater centralization of surgery, and more specialization among surgeons during this period.

scholarly journals Large-Scale Complete-Genome Sequencing and Phylodynamic Analysis of Eastern Equine Encephalitis Virus Reveals Source-Sink Transmission Dynamics in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 92 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Tan ◽  
Tommy Tsan-Yuk Lam ◽  
Lea A. Heberlein-Larson ◽  
Sandra C. Smole ◽  
Albert J. Auguste ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Mortality Rate ◽  
The United States ◽  
Encephalitis Virus ◽  
Eastern Equine Encephalitis Virus ◽  
Genome Sequences ◽  
Eastern Equine Encephalitis ◽  
Equine Encephalitis Virus ◽  
Source Sink

ABSTRACTEastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV) has a high case-fatality rate in horses and humans, and Florida has been hypothesized to be the source of EEEV epidemics for the northeastern United States. To test this hypothesis, we sequenced complete genomes of 433 EEEV strains collected within the United States from 1934 to 2014. Phylogenetic analysis suggested EEEV evolves relatively slowly and that transmission is enzootic in Florida, characterized by higher genetic diversity and long-term local persistence. In contrast, EEEV strains in New York and Massachusetts were characterized by lower genetic diversity, multiple introductions, and shorter local persistence. Our phylogeographic analysis supported a source-sink model in which Florida is the major source of EEEV compared to the other localities sampled. In sum, this study revealed the complex epidemiological dynamics of EEEV in different geographic regions in the United States and provided general insights into the evolution and transmission of other avian mosquito-borne viruses in this region.IMPORTANCEEastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV) infections are severe in horses and humans on the east coast of the United States with a >90% mortality rate in horses, an ∼33% mortality rate in humans, and significant brain damage in most human survivors. However, little is known about the evolutionary characteristics of EEEV due to the lack of genome sequences. By generating large collection of publicly available complete genome sequences, this study comprehensively determined the evolution of the virus, described the epidemiological dynamics of EEEV in different states in the United States, and identified Florida as one of the major sources. These results may have important implications for the control and prevention of other mosquito-borne viruses in the Americas.

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