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In many settings, the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic coincides with other major public health threats, in particular tuberculosis. Using tuberculosis (TB) molecular diagnostic infrastructure, which has substantially expanded worldwide in recent years, for COVID-19 case-finding might be warranted. We analyze the potential of using TB diagnostic and research infrastructures for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) testing. We focused on quality control by adapting the 12 Quality System Essentials framework to the COVID-19 and TB context. We conclude that diagnostic infrastructures for TB can in principle be leveraged to scale-up SARS-CoV-2 testing, in particular in resource-poor settings. TB research infrastructures also can support sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 to study virus evolution and diversity globally. However, fundamental principles of quality management must be followed for both TB and SARS-CoV-2 testing to ensure valid results and to minimize biosafety hazards, and the continuity of TB diagnostic services must be guaranteed at all times.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid2611.202602 | DOI Listing |
Influenza Other Respir Viruses
September 2025
World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Background: Few studies have evaluated COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness (VE) in middle-income countries, particularly in eastern Europe. We aimed to estimate COVID-19 VE against SARS-CoV-2-confirmed hospitalizations and severe outcomes in Kosovo.
Methods: We conducted a test-negative case-control study using data from Kosovo's severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) sentinel surveillance system from January 2022 to June 2024.
Acta Neurol Belg
September 2025
Department of Neurology, Bursa Yuksek Ihtisas Training and Research Hospital, Bursa, Turkey.
Objective: This study aimed to retrospectively evaluate the prevalence of COVID-19 infection among patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), along with the clinical course and factors associated with mortality.
Methods: A total of 1,786 patients diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and registered at our hospital were screened. Among these, 222 had undergone PCR testing for COVID-19, of whom 76 tested negative and 152 tested positive, indicating a COVID-19 prevalence of 8.
Neurocrit Care
September 2025
Department of Paediatrics, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK.
Background: Low cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) has previously been identified as a key prognostic marker after pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI). Cerebrovascular autoregulation supports stabilization of cerebral blood flow within the autoregulation range. Beyond the upper limit of this range, cerebral blood flow increases with increasing CPP, leading to increased risk of intracranial hypertension and blood-brain barrier disruptions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Occup Environ Hyg
September 2025
Department of Environmental Agricultural and Occupational Health, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska.
Powered air-purifying respirators (PAPR) have become an increasingly utilized form of respiratory protection against highly infectious aerosols. In the United States, PAPRs have been used in high-level clinical isolation settings to care for patients infected with viral hemorrhagic fevers and, more recently, during the COVID-19 pandemic. PAPRs have long been used for biocontainment care and experienced increased use during the pandemic because they provide full-face visibility and eye and respiratory protection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Infect Dev Ctries
August 2025
Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ege University, Izmir 35100, Turkey.
Introduction: The aim of this study was to compare the performance of different clinical specimens-nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs collected by healthcare professionals (HCP-NP), self-collected nasal swabs (Sc-N), and saliva samples (S)-in diagnostic tests for investigating severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA and influenza A/B RNA.
Methodology: These clinical samples were collected from 404 symptomatic cases and tested with the SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A/B RNA tests on the cobas 6800 System of Roche Molecular Systems (Roche Molecular Systems, Pleasanton, USA). The SARS-CoV-2 or influenza virus infection status was determined for all patients based on the predefined criteria and corresponding algorithms.