10th Anniversary celebrations: ECCMID
 In a major presentation to the medical and scientific communities we have taken a booth (917) at the 18th ECCMID on 19 - 22 April in Barcelona, Spain.
All website staff will be present and presenting information about the website at booth 917, so please come and see us if you are there. We would especially like to see medical professionals who could offer a new language translation for our 'What is Aspergillus' page - already translated into 32 languages.
We hope to see you there!
This month
One of the largest conferences featuring aspergillus and antifungal medications (ECCMID - The European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases) takes place on 19th -22nd April in Barcelona, Spain. We will be presenting all abstracts and posters as soon as possible after the meeting.
Latest News and Articles
There have been 26 additions to the articles section. We have picked out a few of the highlights here:
A study on the possible relationships between certain morphological and physiological properties of Aspergillus fumigatus Fres. and its presence in, or on, human and animal (pulmonary) tissue.
A series of morphological and physiological and biochemical characteristics where examined in a total of 120 Aspergillus strains - mostly A. fumigatus. Some of the strains were from cases of aspergillosis in human and animal patients and others were taken from locations where they fed saprophytically on dead plant matter. The intention was to identify any characteristic that was more commonly found in the pathogenic strains compared with the saprophytic strains, and thus hope to draw conclusions about which features are important for infecting humans or animals.
No such feature was found, although pathogenic strains tended to be more variable or extreme in some characteristics. The main conclusion is therefore that for the series of features examined here, there is no difference between a strain infecting a human or animal, and a strain feeding on dead plant matter.
‘Fungal soup’: Report of two cases of tumour-like blocked
pulmonary cavities with liquid content infected with aspergilli,
a rare form of pulmonary aspergillosis
Two very unusual cases where the patient is immunocompetant, has no pre existing lung disease and presented with no chronic respiratory symptoms.
On CXR there were no pre-existing cavities or air crescent's (signs of aspergilloma) and there was no allergic reaction typical of ABPA.
There were well defined opacities on CXR and the lesions were found to be filled with a fluid infected with aspergillus, but with no invasion of neighbouring tissues.
Treatment with antifungals was ineffective and resolution was achieved by surgical removal.
Is there a serious risk of resistance development to azoles
among fungi due to the widespread use and long-term
application of azole antifungals in medicine?
Antifungals are increasingly used for long periods of time, so this paper asks if the development of resistance to azole antifungals is likely to follow the bacterial/antibacterial model of widespread dissemination of resistance.
Fortunaltely although some mechanisms of resistance similar to bacteria do exist in fungi, there is very limited ability to spread the resistance and epidemiological studies suggest resistance is quite rare.
 Hissing Cockroaches Are Popular, But They Also Host Potent Mold Allergens
Researchers have identified 14 different types of mold on and around this species of cockroach, including several molds associated with allergies and others that can cause secondary infections if they enter the lungs or an open wound.
Diagnosis
Assessment of the lightcycler PCR assay for diagnosis of invasive
aspergillosis in paediatric patients with onco-haematological diseases
The concordance between positivity of LightCycler PCR assay and the
diagnosis of IA was 79%. The single positivity of LightCycler PCR assay showed a good
sensitivity for the diagnosis of IA in paediatric patients. The high negative predictive value makes
LightCycler PCR a promising tool in addition to GM testing to design a strategy of preemptive
antifungal therapy, although further validation studies are needed.
Medical
Images
 A chest X-ray and brief history of a patient with chronic cavitary pulmonary aspergillosis which progressed from long-term ABPA can be seen in the CCPA section of the medical images.
Treatment
The article describing Chronic invasive Aspergillus sinusitis has been completely renewed and updated by Professor Denning
Air Quality
In the light of recent cases of nosocomial infection by aspergillus in a hospital where there were extensive building works nearby, we have been sent an article by Professor Malcolm Richardson addressing the questions of what precautions should be taken. The article is entitled 'The utility of intensified environmental surveillance for pathogenic moulds in a stem cell transplantation ward during construction work to monitor the efficacy of HEPA filtration'
Searching the website
We now have a dedicated Google Search Appliance for this website. This means you can search the Aspergillus website using Google and it will include nearly all documents on the website (pdf, doc, ppt, html, php etc). and will include parts of the secure sections and eventually index images - a big improvement on earlier search facilites. Try it out here.
HonCode
 Health on the Net Foundation (HonCode) are the formost accrediation service for health-oriented websites. The Aspergillus website has been accredited since 1999 and this has once again been reaffirmed after the latest review in August 2007
RSS
Download our updates and articles automatically every time we add to those pages- no need to wait for the next newsletter. Use RSS.
What is RSS and how do I use it? Get help here.
Thanks for reading!
Visit our website again soon.
The Aspergillus Team. |
