A Prospective Study in Mogadishu, Somalia: Adenovirus, Herpesvirus, and Measles-related Ocular Infections and Complications

Corneal opacity is the 5th leading cause of blindness and visual impairment globally, affecting ~6 million of the world population. In addition, it is responsible for 1.5–2.0 million new cases of monocular blindness per year, highlighting an ongoing uncurbed burden on human health. Among all aetiologies such as infection, trauma, inflammation, degeneration and nutritional deficiency, infectious keratitis (IK) represents the leading cause of corneal blindness in both developed and developing coun...

Background: Epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC) is a highly contagious infection of the ocular surface.316 cases were diagnosed in Germany in the first 8 months of 2010, corresponding to a 300% increase above the typical figures for recent years.This outbreak motivates us to present the current recommendations concerning EKC.Methods: Selective literature review.Results: EKC is an adenoviral infection that typically starts with a unilateral foreign body sensation and then develops, within a few h...

Viral anterior uveitis (VAU) needs to be suspected in anterior uveitis (AU) associated with elevated intraocular pressure, corneal involvement, and iris atrophic changes. Common etiologies of VAU include herpes simplex, varicella-zoster, cytomegalovirus, and rubella virus. Clinical presentations can vary from granulomatous AU with corneal involvement, Posner-Schlossman syndrome, Fuchs uveitis syndrome, and endothelitis. Due to overlapping clinical manifestations between the different viruses, di...

OBJECTIVES: Viral conjunctivitis is a common, highly contagious disease that is often caused by an adenovirus.The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of adenoviral conjunctivitis by analyzing data from a prospective clinical study of 122 consecutively enrolled patients who were treated at the Clinical Hospital of the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) after a clinical diagnosis of infectious conjunctivitis between November 2011 and June 2012.METHODS: Polymerase chain reaction wa...

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the clinical and corneal microbial profile of infectious keratitis in a high human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevalence setting in rural South Africa. Data in this cross-sectional study were collected from patients presenting with symptoms of infectious keratitis (n = 46) at the ophthalmology outpatient department of three hospitals in rural South Africa. Corneal swabs were tested for herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and 2 (HSV-2), varicel...

To evaluate clinical features, complications, visual outcomes and treatment modalities in patients clinically diagnosed with herpetic anterior uveitis (AU).We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 67 patients seen at the Umraniye Training and Research Hospital, Ophthalmology Clinic, Uveitis and Cornea Department from January 2009 to June 2013.Thirty-seven patients (55.2%) were female and 30 (44.7%) patients were male. The average follow-up period was 12.9 ± 10.6 months (range: 1-45 mon...

It has been approximately 70 years since the discovery of the Zika virus (ZIKV). It had been established that the virus causes mild infections and is confined to Africa and Asia; however, major changes in the clinical and epidemiologic patterns of ZIKV infection have occurred in recent years. The virus has attracted intense interest because of the possible association of several autoimmune and neurodevelopmental disorders.We present a summary of the articles that attempt to explain the ZIKV unkn...

Liver cancer is the second-most common form of cancer among men in Somalia.However, data on the epidemiology of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections are limited.This study aimed to examine the basic epidemiological characteristics of HCV infections, in Mogadishu, Somalia.In this study, anti-HCV seropositivity was investigated in participants who applied to a tertiary care hospital in Mogadishu between 2015 and 2019 using an Architect anti-HCV immunoassay.HCV genotype determinations were performed ...

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) remains a major global public health problem. This study aimed to obtain current epidemiological data on the Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections in Mogadishu, Somalia.This study included 92,270 anti-HIV test results reported for 82,954 different individuals between 2015 and 2019. HIV tests were performed using the Architect HIV Ag/Ab Combo assay and retested with the Elecsys HIV combi PT assay.HIV seropositivity was found to be 0.32% (269/82,95...