Trichodysplasia spinulosa (TS) is a rare entity, characterized by a follicular digitate keratosis predominantly affecting the face and variable degrees of hair loss, most severely facial hair, that occurs in immunosuppressed individuals, and is considered to be a viral infection caused by a human polyomavirus, the "TS-associated polyomavirus." Histologically it is characterized by hair follicles with excessive inner root-sheath differentiation and intraepithelial viral inclusions. Correlation of these findings with clinical features is required for diagnosis. Treatment with antiviral agents appears to be the most effective. We report the occurrence of TS in a 20-month-old girl with multivisceral transplantation due to short-bowel syndrome secondary to intestinal atresia and gastroschisis. The patient was treated with cidofovir 1% cream, with significant improvement and without any adverse effects. We describe the youngest patient, to our knowledge, with TS.

African tick-bite fever (ATBF), a tickborne disease endemic in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa and the West Indies caused by Rickettsia africae, has been recognized as an emerging health problem in recent years. ATBF has been reported as the second most commonly documented etiology of fever, after malaria, in travelers who return ill from sub-Saharan Africa. Most cases reported in the literature occurred in middle-aged adults, so the incidence of ATBF in children is unclear. We report a cluster of three cases of ATBF that occurred in children ages 7 to 16 years after returning from a game-hunting safari in South Africa.

Background Currently, screening for anal high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) relies on anal cytology and high-resolution anoscopy (HRA). Since this approach has limited sensitivity and specificity for detecting anal HSIL, there is increasing interest in the role of biomarkers for predicting anal HSIL. The aim of this study is to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of HPV E6/E7-mRNA expression for the detection of anal HSIL in MSM HIV-infected patients, in comparison to DNA-HR-HPV and anal cytology. Methods: This cross-sectional screening study included 101 MSM followed at the HIV-unit of La Paz University Hospital. Intra-anal swabs from patients participating in a screening program including cytology, HRA and histology were analysed. HR-HPV-DNA detection was performed by means of the CLART HPV2 assay (GENOMICA SAU.). E6/E7-mRNA detection of HR-HPV types 16, 18, 31, 33 and 45 was performed using the NucliSENS-EasyQ assay (BioMérieux, Marcy l’Etoile, France). Results: HR-HPV DNA and HPV E6/E7 mRNA were detected in 82% and 57% of the anal smears, respectively. Anal cytology screening was abnormal in 70.3%. For the detection of HSIL sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) were 71.7%, 55.6%, 57.9%, and 69.8% for E6/E7-mRNA testing, respectively, compared with 97.9%, 31.5%, 55.4% and 94.4%, respectively, for HR-HPV DNA testing and 83%, 40.7%, 54.9%, 73.3%, respectively, for cytology testing. Conclusions: In comparison with the other tests, the NucliSENS EasyQ HPV assay yielded a lower clinical sensitivity but a higher clinical specificity and PPV for the detection of anal HSIL in MSM HIV-infected patients.