No abstract

We report on an elderly male patient with headache and right-side weakness. Imaging studies revealed multiple space-occupying lesions in the parietal and occipital cerebral regions. Biopsy revealed broad aseptate ribbon-like structures branching at right angles, suggestive of mucormycosis. Improvement was observed after medical therapy with 20 weeks of liposomal amphotericin B (5 mg/kg/day) combined with posaconazole, followed by posaconazole (400 mg twice a day) alone for 1 month. The patient recovered without neurological deficits; however, multidrug-resistant bacteraemia and hospital-acquired pneumonia occurred, resulting in death.Nevertheless, our report shows that this lethal fungal infection can sometimes show favourable progress with drug therapy alone.

Mycotic tuberculous aneurysm is extremely rare. The aorta is the main affected artery however; iliac and less commonly femoral arteries can also be affected. In 75% of the cases a contagious focus leads to infection through erosion of the vessel wall; on the other hand direct seeding of the blood vessel wall via the vasa vasorum may occur in 25%. In a large number of patients it may be a manifestation of miliary tuberculosis. In this case report we describe an immunocompetent patient who presented with bilateral superficial femoral artery aneurysms, followed by bilateral testicular swellings and inferior mesenteric artery aneurysm, as a presentation of military tuberculosis. Early diagnosis of such patients is essential for initiation of both medical and surgical treatment in order to avoid catastrophic outcome of rupture and bleeding.

Objectives: To calculate the seroprevalence of asymptomatic healthcare workers (HCWs) in our institution. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study among asymptomatic HCWs in a large hospital during the peak of the pandemic (from July to August 2020 and followed them up until February 2021) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We collected the data in a Microsoft Word document after collecting a single serum sample for detection of antibodies from each participant then we compared the results statically in Microsoft Excel tables. Results: We enrolled 188 participants and measured their IgG antibodies from venous blood samples using CLIA. Six (3.2%) had positive antibodies despite being asymptomatic. Most of these were from non-COVID-19 working areas (4 out of 6), but all had an exposure with a positive COVID-19 patient at some point in the preceding 2 months. Conclusions: Our results are consistent with similar local studies showing low seroprevalence among HCWs while most positive cases are from non-COVID-19 areas. Despite this low seroprevalence, HCWs are still considered a high-risk group; hence, there is a need to encourage strict implementation and adherence to infection control measures and vaccination among HCWs, especially when these measures are relaxed on the national level.

Renal allograft aspergillus is a rare entity with a high mortality due to life-threatening complications. We report a case of renal aspergilloma causing obstructive uropathy after two months of transplantation in a 64 -year- old patient who was managed successfully with antifungal therapy without surgical intervention.