Background: We determined the occurrence frequency of Clinical signs, subclinical characteristics on positive anti-IgG Toxocara ELISA cases, and clinical response results after 1 month of albendazole-specific treatment.  Methods: A number of 103 clinically treated patients were studied between 2018 and 2019 in two hospitals. Relevant data are collected from examination and medical records such as age, sex, job, resident, clinical and sub-clinical signs. Sera samples were subjected to anti-IgG Toxocara antigen using ELISA.  Results: The median age of the patient was 43.6 ± 14.4 years. The most common symptom groups were the skin and mucosa (88.3%), followed by neurological symptoms (44%). There are 76.7% of patients with risk factors for contact with pet dogs and cats. The majority of eosinophils in the normal range (< 8%) accounted for 85.4%, the major results of the OD value of ELISA were in the group (≥ 0.3-< 1.5) accounted for 75.7%. The skin and mucosa lesions in toxocariasis patients related to IgE values were statistically significant (P <0.05). The effectiveness of anthelmintic treatment is low with nearly half of patients having no clinical symptoms after 1 month of post-treatment. It is statistically significant between exposure to dogs/cats and treatment outcomes on clinical symptoms (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Toxocara infections in Vietnamese people often have skin allergies and liver damage, rarely with severe neurological symptoms. The efficacy of albendazole treatment after one month is not clear. In the near future, research with a confirmatory test other than Anti-IgG Toxocara ELISA is needed to screen for in-hospital diagnosis.

Introduction: Rickettsioses are diseases caused by intracellular Gram-negative bacteria of the Rickettsiaceae family and transmitted through the bite of infected ticks or mites. Aim of Study: To investigate the clinical and subclinical characteristics and prognostic severe factors of the disease caused by Rickettsiaceae. Methods: A prospective, descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Department of Infectious Diseases of two military hospitals in Northern Vietnam from May 2013 to June 2019, in which 88 adult febrile patients caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi (50 patients) or Rickettsia spp. (38 patients) were enrolled. We recorded information regarding epidemiological characteristics (age, geography, residence, occupation), medical history, clinical and subclinical findings, life-threatening complications during treatment, outcomes and some factors predicting serious life-threatening complications in a case record form. Results: Scrub typhus (ST) patients had eschar (70%), skin-conjunctiva congestion (60%) and lymphadenopathy (44%). Rickettsia patients had a higher rate of maculopapular rash (39.5%), no ulcers and no lymphadenopathy detected. The majority of patients had elevated PCT >0.05 ng/µL and increase in liver enzymes and thrombocytopenia. Major prognostic factors for severe complications included diffuse infiltrates on lung X-ray (OR: 19.5; p = 0.014), coarse crackles (OR: 18; p = 0.016), respiratory rate ≥25 cycles/minute (OR: 18; p = 0.016), shortness of breath (OR: 7.44; p = 0.003), pleural fluid (OR: 4.3; p = 0.035) and increase in AST ≥ 200 UI/l (OR: 4.42; p = 0.012). The PCT value is able to distinguish between the two groups with quite high reliability (the area under the ROC curve is 0.75). Conclusion: Eschar and peripheral lymphadenopathy were two valuable clinical symptoms for the diagnosis of scrub typhus and distinguishing 2 groups of diseases. Respiratory distress, increase in AST ≥ 200 UI/l and level of PCT were used as major prognostic factors in patients with Rickettsiaceae.

Infections with the zoonotic liver flukes Fasciola gigantica and Fasciola hepatica may result in severe disease in humans. In Vietnam, an emergence of fascioliasis cases has been observed from the late 1990s onwards. Various diagnostic tools are used in the country, but the agreement between these tools has not been critically evaluated. We aimed to describe the clinical presentation and diagnostic outcomes in fascioliasis patients in Vietnam. A retrospective, cross-sectional study was conducted on the medical records of a group of 145 patients diagnosed with fascioliasis at a tertiary referral hospital in Hanoi. Based on the review, sociodemographic background and clinical presentation were recorded. These patients all received standard routine serologic tests, including internal antibody (Ab)-ELISA, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and commercial coproantigen (cAg)-ELISA. The majority of cases were between 30 and 59 years old (68.3%), and about half of them were male (51.0%). Upper quadrant and epigastric pain were the most commonly reported symptoms (61.4% and 35.2%, respectively). All but one patient had liver lesions upon ultrasound examination (99.3%), and eosinophilia was present in most of the patients (89.7%). A high number of patients were positive in the in-house and the commercial Ab-ELISA (95.9% and 87.4%, respectively), yet only a slight agreement was observed between the two tests (kappa coefficient, 0.06). A further 47.4% of cases were positive for the commercial cAg-ELISA, whereas stool microscopy indicated the presence of Fasciola spp. eggs in 25.7% of patients. The current study emphasizes the challenges related to the diagnosis of human fascioliasis in Vietnam.

Measles outbreaks still represents a serious public health problem in developingcountries. There are few reports of measles in pregnant women in the contemporaryliterature. The study aimed to describe clinical features subclinical findings andcomplications of hospitalized measles pregnancy women in Vietnam, in comparisonwith non-pregnancy women.All pregnant women hospitalized with measles at the National Hospital forTropical Diseases, Ha Noi, Northern Vietnam from July 2015 to June 2020 wereincluded. Demographic, clinical manifestations, laboratory findings, andcomplications data were analyzed.Of 98 hospitalized women, the mean time before the rash eruption and that ofsymptoms before hospital admission in the group of pregnant women were 3.5 and4.0 days, which were lower than those of the non-pregnant women group with 4.1and 4.8 days (p = 0.009 and p = 0.004, respectively). Measles rash in the pregnantwomen group was higher than that of the non-pregnant group with (87.8% vs.81.6%; p>0.05). The data of Koplic spot in pregnant women with measles was 34.7%and that of cough symptom was 85.7%. Corresponding in non-pregnant femalepatients were 28.6% and 83.7%, respectively (p < 0.05). The mean CRP value in thepregnant group was higher than that of the non-pregnant group (54.1 mg/L versus26.9 mg/L, p < 0.05). The percentage of pregnant women infected with measles withrespiratory complications was higher than that of no-pregnancy women (65.3% vs.44.9%, p = 0.042). The CRP value ≥ 94.5 mg/l was associated with pneumonia inpregnant women infected with measles (p<0.05; OR 31.2, 95% CI: 2.9 – 337.4).Pneumonitis was the most common complication in pregnant women withmeasles when compared to non-pregnant women. The level of CRP in combinationwith other subclinical findings was also a vital marker in predicting complications ofpregnancy with measles disease