Since December 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has spread from China all over the world and many COVID-19 outbreaks have been reported in long-term care facilities (LCTF). However, data on clinical characteristics and prognostic factors in such settings are scarce. We conducted a retrospective, observational cohort study to assess clinical characteristics and baseline predictors of mortality of COVID-19 patients hospitalized after an outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a LTCF. A total of 50 patients were included. Mean age was 80 years (SD, 12 years), and 24/50 (57.1%) patients were males. The overall in-hospital mortality rate was 32%. At Cox regression analysis, significant predictors of in-hospital mortality were: hypernatremia (HR 9.12), lymphocyte count < 1000 cells/µL (HR 7.45), cardiovascular diseases other than hypertension (HR 6.41), and higher levels of serum interleukin-6 (IL-6, pg/mL) (HR 1.005). Our study shows a high in-hospital mortality rate in a cohort of elderly patients with COVID-19 and hypernatremia, lymphopenia, CVD other than hypertension, and higher IL-6 serum levels were identified as independent predictors of in-hospital mortality. Given the small population size as major limitation of our study, further investigations are necessary to better understand and confirm our findings in elderly patients.

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The epidemiological profile of HCV infection is evolving in Europe, as well as in Italy. We have previously showed genotype distributions and their dynamics in 2,153 HCV RNA positive patients living in Calabria, Southern Italy, over 11 years. In this study, we extend and update this information by evaluating a hospital-based cohort of 945 HCV RNA positive patients attending five hospitals in the Calabria Region from January 2011 to August 2013. We assessed rates of HCV genotypes according to age and gender and the dynamics of HCV genotype distribution over the 3-year period studied. Data showed that genotype 1b is the most prevalent, followed by subtypes 2a/2c and genotype 3. Genotype 4 exhibited an increase between 2011 and 2013. Also, we found a significant decrease in the median age of subjects infected with HCV genotype 3 and 4 during the period studied. Since HCV genotypes are important in epidemiology, pathogenesis and response to antiviral therapy, a continuous epidemiological surveillance is needed.

Twenty-nine staphylococcal isolates from different clinical samples were tested for slime production: phenotypic characterization was carried out using Christensen test (tube test) and Congo red agar plate test (CRA plate test), while the presence and expression of icaA and icaD genes were evaluated by real-time PCR. In 79.3% of studied strains there was a concordance between slime production and presence of icaA and icaD genes, and between lack of slime production and absence of both or only one of the tested genes. In four of five strains where positive phenotype was not associated with the presence of ica genes, gene co-expression (evaluated by mRNA determination) was lacking, while in only a case out of five, there was the presence of transcripts without phenotype. Our study, for the first time, introduces real-time PCR for the detection of both icaA and icaD genes and their mRNA and, furthermore, addresses the relationship between slime phenotype absence and mRNA expression, in clinical isolates of coagulase-negative staphylococci.