This case report highlights that in an older child even longstanding extensive basidiobolomycosis can be safely treated with itraconazole. Surgery is not usually necessary in these patients.

Background: Scrub typhus (ST) is a common Rickettsial infection which has been increasingly reported from the various states of southern part of India. Aims and Objective: With very few reports from Central Kerala, we aimed to study the seroprevalence of scrub typhus and its clinical profile. Materials and Methods: Patients presenting with acute undifferentiated febrile illness and other symptoms and signs of Rickettsial infections during a period of two years were included in this prospective study. Serodiagnosis of ST was based on a positive Scrub typhus IgM Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and/or agglutination for OXK in Weil Felix test. The cut-off for ELISA was calculated. The clinical and laboratory details of the positive patients were obtained and bivariate analysis was performed. Results: The cut-off for ST IgM ELISA was calculated and found to be 0.38. Of the 636 samples screened, 34 (5.3%) were positive for ST IgM ELISA. Out of the 34 positive samples, only 5 (0.8%) were positive by Weil Felix test. Most of the ST patients presented during the months of May to January. Rashes were observed in 8.8% of the ST patients and none had signs of eschar. The commonest clinical features included fever, myalgia (52.9%), nausea & vomiting (32.4%), headache (29.4%) and hepatosplenomegaly (29.4%). The commonest abnormal laboratory finding and complication observed were elevated serum transaminases (52.9%) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (17.6%) respectively. Conclusion: The seroprevalence of ST in Central Kerala was 5.3% using Weil Felix test and ST IgM ELISA.

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Background: Procalcitonin (PCT) was found to be a valuable and reliable biomarker for sepsis, especially in critical care patients for whom early recognition and prompt treatment could reduce mortality. Aims and Objectives: This study was aimed at correlating the levels of PCT as diagnostic marker for sepsis in relation to the culture positivity of various samples from blood, respiratory, urine, and exudates from patients admitted in a tertiary care hospital. Materials and Methods: Results of PCT level along with bacterial culture results of blood, respiratory, urine, and exudates were analyzed from 780 patients for a period of 1 year. Results: High PCT values ranging from 0.52 to 200 ng/ml were found in 331 patients admitted with suspected sepsis. Out of 135 cases of sepsis, 85 had blood culture positivity alone and 50 had culture positivity in blood and in other sites with the same organism. Among the 85 cases of bloodstream infections, in which no localized infections were identified, the median PCT was 33 for Gram-negative bacteremia, which was significantly higher as compared with a median of 16 for Gram-positive cocci. In UTI with bacteremia, the median PCT was 45.34 and in UTI without bacteremia, it was 5. Conclusion: From this study, we concluded that PCT values may be useful to distinguish Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteremia, and furthermore, a high PCT value for patients with UTI may be helpful in predicting bacteremia.

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