Last data update: May 06, 2024. (Total: 46732 publications since 2009)
Records 1-3 (of 3 Records) |
Query Trace: Temfack E[original query] |
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Closing the gap in our understanding of infectious diseases
Kalinda C , Temfack E . BMC Infect Dis 2023 23 (1) 412 Systematic reviews (SR) and meta-analyses (MA) have become important in addressing specific questions of clinical importance and presenting evidence from an in-depth analysis of literature and aiding clinical decision-making. The "Systematic Reviews on infectious diseases" collection will address several important questions by summarizing large bodies of evidence in a reproducible and concise approach to advance our knowledge and understanding of infectious diseases. |
Leave no one behind: response to new evidence and guidelines for the management of cryptococcal meningitis in low-income and middle-income countries
Loyse A , Burry J , Cohn J , Ford N , Chiller T , Ribeiro I , Koulla-Shiro S , Mghamba J , Ramadhani A , Nyirenda R , Aliyu SH , Wilson D , Le T , Oladele R , Lesikari S , Muzoora C , Kalata N , Temfack E , Mapoure Y , Sini V , Chanda D , Shimwela M , Lakhi S , Ngoma J , Gondwe-Chunda L , Perfect C , Shroufi A , Andrieux-Meyer I , Chan A , Schutz C , Hosseinipour M , Van der Horst C , Klausner JD , Boulware DR , Heyderman R , Lalloo D , Day J , Jarvis JN , Rodrigues M , Jaffar S , Denning D , Migone C , Doherty M , Lortholary O , Dromer F , Stack M , Molloy SF , Bicanic T , van Oosterhout J , Mwaba P , Kanyama C , Kouanfack C , Mfinanga S , Govender N , Harrison TS . Lancet Infect Dis 2018 19 (4) e143-e147 In 2018, WHO issued guidelines for the diagnosis, prevention, and management of HIV-related cryptococcal disease. Two strategies are recommended to reduce the high mortality associated with HIV-related cryptococcal meningitis in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs): optimised combination therapies for confirmed meningitis cases and cryptococcal antigen screening programmes for ambulatory people living with HIV who access care. WHO's preferred therapy for the treatment of HIV-related cryptococcal meningitis in LMICs is 1 week of amphotericin B plus flucytosine, and the alternative therapy is 2 weeks of fluconazole plus flucytosine. In the ACTA trial, 1-week (short course) amphotericin B plus flucytosine resulted in a 10-week mortality of 24% (95% CI -16 to 32) and 2 weeks of fluconazole and flucytosine resulted in a 10-week mortality of 35% (95% CI -29 to 41). However, with widely used fluconazole monotherapy, mortality because of HIV-related cryptococcal meningitis is approximately 70% in many African LMIC settings. Therefore, the potential to transform the management of HIV-related cryptococcal meningitis in resource-limited settings is substantial. Sustainable access to essential medicines, including flucytosine and amphotericin B, in LMICs is paramount and the focus of this Personal View. |
Cryptococcal meningitis: A neglected NTD?
Molloy SF , Chiller T , Greene GS , Burry J , Govender NP , Kanyama C , Mfinanga S , Lesikari S , Mapoure YN , Kouanfack C , Sini V , Temfack E , Boulware DR , Dromer F , Denning DW , Day J , Stone NRH , Bicanic T , Jarvis JN , Lortholary O , Harrison TS , Jaffar S , Loyse A . PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2017 11 (6) e0005575 Although HIV/AIDS has been anything but neglected over the last decade, opportunistic infections (OIs) are increasingly overlooked as large-scale donors shift their focus from acute care to prevention and earlier antiretroviral treatment (ART) initiation. Of these OIs, cryptococcal meningitis, a deadly invasive fungal infection, continues to affect hundreds of thousands of HIV patients with advanced disease each year and is responsible for an estimated 15%–20% of all AIDS-related deaths [1, 2]. Yet cryptococcal meningitis ranks amongst the most poorly funded “neglected” diseases in the world, receiving 0.2% of available relevant research and development (R&D) funding, according to Policy Cures’ 2016 Global Funding of Innovation for Neglected Diseases (G-Finder) Report [3, 4]. | Although cryptococcal meningitis is not formally recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) or PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases (PLOS NTDs) as a neglected tropical disease (NTD), it is listed in the G-Finder report, as it disproportionately affects people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), with market failure evident for existing essential antifungal medicines and an urgent need for new, effective, and less toxic medicines. PLOS NTDs defines NTDs as a “group of poverty-promoting chronic infectious diseases, which primarily occur in rural areas and poor urban areas of LMICs” [5] and according to the WHO, NTDs are “a proxy for poverty and disadvantage”, have “an important impact on morbidity and mortality”, and are relatively “neglected by research” [6]. Although the greatest burden of cryptococcal disease is undoubtedly related to HIV, we demonstrate herein that cryptococcal meningitis meets both the WHO and PLOS NTDs definitions of an NTD, as the disease (1) disproportionately affects populations in poverty and causes substantial morbidity and mortality, (2) primarily affects populations living in tropical and subtropical areas, (3) is immediately amenable to broad control, elimination, or eradication, and (4) is neglected by research [7]. |
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