Immunocompromised patients, including HSCT recipients, may have a poor prognosis after contracting COVID-19 due to the absence of a pathogen-specific adaptive immune response. One of the possible options for severe COVID-19 treatment may be the transfusion of hyperimmune SARS-CoV-2 convalescent plasma. A 9-month-old girl with juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia received an HSCT from a haploidentical donor. On day +99, during routine virologic monitoring, SARS-CoV-2 was detected without any clinical symptoms. On day +144, the child developed a polysegmental bilateral viral pneumonia with 60 % damage to the lung tissue and confirm a positive SARS-Cov-2 results in throat swab. The patient was treated with tocilizumab and three doses of fresh frozen plasma obtained from a SARS-CoV-2 convalescent patient. Therapy with tocilizumab and three doses of fresh frozen plasma was well tolerated. In spite of full resolution of the lung lesions, complete elimination of SARS-CoV-2 has not been achieved 4 months after the first detection, which is due to persistence of secondary immunodeficiency after HSCT and the lack of reconstitution of the adaptive immune response. This case represents a demonstration of an atypical course of COVID-19 and the delayed development of lung lesions, which was most likely associated with the features of the patient's immune status after HSCT. SARS-CoV-2 convalescent plasma in combination with other therapeutic approaches is one of the possible curative options for this clinical situation.

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The range of Tyto alba overlaps with that of Asio otus in a large part of the Holarctic. Both species are adapted to open-area hunting and prey upon similar species. In contrast to A. otus, data about the diet of T. alba on Crimea and surroundings are extremely scarce. Our study aimed to describe the prey spectrum of T. alba and evaluate at what extant its diet overlaps to that of A. otus. We evaluated diets based on 48 pellets of T. alba and 88 of A. otus collected from January to March 2018 in the Western part of the Crimea Peninsula. Simultaneously, we assessed the availability of small mammal prey by installing 150 spring-loaded bar mousetraps around the collection sites. Small mammals were the main prey in the diet of T. alba and A. otus (99.2% and 100% of all individuals in pellets). The most consumed species of both species was Microtus socialis (52.3% and 74.4% of all individuals). The second most consumed species of T. alba was Crocidura leucodon, an endangered species in Crimea. The diet of T. alba was more diverse than that of A. otus (Shannon diversity Index: 1.1 and 0.76, Simpson Index: 0.51 and 0.31, respectively). However, their diets overlapped widely (Pianka's index = 0.94). The frequency of mammalian prey in traps correlated moderately with that in A. otus pellets (r s = 0.5, p < 0.2), and it deviated from the frequency of mammalian prey in T. alba pellets (r s =-0.05, p < 0.9). The presence of the endangered C. leucodon in the diet of T. alba reinforce the utility of this predator species as a tool to detect threatened or rare small mammals that are not caught by traps and to increase information about their geographical distribution.

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Aim. Analysis of epidemic manifestations of natural-foci infections (NFI), clarification of spectrum of their causative agents, determination of epizootic activity of natural foci in the Crimea Federal District (KFD). Materials and methods. Epizootologic examination of 10 administrative districts of KDF was carried out. 291 pools (2705 specimens) of ixodes ticks and 283 samples of organs of small mammals were studied by PCR method for the presence of DNA/RNA of causative agents of a number of NFI. Results. Morbidity by NFI in KFD was registered by 6 nosologies: Lyme borreliosis, Marseilles fever, leptospirosis, tularemia, intestine yersiniosis and tick-borne viral encephalitis, wherein, transmissive infections made up 91.6%. Circulation of causative agents of Crimea hemorrhagic fever, Q fever, group of tick-borne spotted fever, Lyme borreliosis, human granulocytic anaplasmosis, human monocytic ehrlichiosis, hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, West Nile fever, tularemia and leptospirosis was established. Conclusion. Due to activity of natural foci of NFI further monitoring of epidemiologic and epizootologic manifestations of these infections in the Crimea, including using genetic methods of analysis, is necessary for ensuring sanitary-epidemiologic welfare of KFD population.