36^th Euro Global Summit and Expo on Vaccines & Vaccination June 03-04, 2019 London, UK

Biography:

Dr. Andrea Fritzer is currently Senior Scientist at Valneva Austria GmbH, which is a fully integrated, commercial stage biotech company, focused on developing innovative and life-saving vaccines. Andrea has gained in her 13 years working in the field of biotechnology and vaccine research, a broad and solid background in molecular biology, bacteriology, virology and immunology. Additionally, she has worked in the field of therapeutic monoclonal antibody discovery and antibody engineering. Her primary function at Valneva is to coordinate various projects advancing them from preclinical development into clinical studies with focus not only on in vitro assay development but also on the initiation and continuation of research collaborations. Valneva’s chikungunya vaccine VLA1553 is currently her main project where she is supporting the progress of VLA1553 to enter the next clinical phase.

Abstract:

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-borne virus resulting in many patients in chronic and incapacitating arthralgia affecting all gender and age groups. CHIKV was typically transmitted by Aedes aegypti mosquitos however, an adaptation enabled unusually efficient transmission by Aedes albopictus mosquitos. Thus, the virus re-emerged in 2004 and rapidly spread over Africa, Asia, the Americas and locally also in Europe since then. CHIKV is regarded as one of the most-likely re-emerged viruses to spread globally. Morbidity due to this virus is considered a serious threat to global public health raising an urgent demand for efficient prophylaxis. However, at present there is no treatment or vaccine available. Facing the unmet medical need for a prophylactic intervention, we initiated a program to develop a vaccine candidate (VLA1553) against CHIKV infections.

Valneva’s live-attenuated CHIKV vaccine candidate, VLA1553, is based on the La Reunion strain of the East Central South African genotype. The Vero cell based vaccine is characterized by a 60 amino acid deletion in the nsP3 viral replicase complex gene leading to attenuation of the virus in vivo.

The safety, immunogenicity as well as protective efficacy of the vaccine candidate was evaluated in mice and non-human primates. We demonstrate, that our vaccine candidate is highly attenuated in animal models and causes no clinical manifestations typically associated with wild-type CHIKV infections in addition to strongly reduced viremia and cytokine levels. Moreover, VLA1553 is highly immunogenic and induces a strong and long-lasting neutralizing antibody response in animal models. In addition, cross-neutralizing antibodies against a Caribbean CHIKV strain are induced. VLA1553 protects against a high dose wild-type CHIKV challenge after a single immunization and no anamnestic response was observed after challenge.

Due to its safe and immunogenic potential we entered into a blinded, randomized phase 1 first-in-human clinical study investigating the safety and immunogenicity of three dose levels administered intramuscularly in a CHIKV-naïve population as a single-shot immunization designed to elicit long-term immunological memory (NCT:NCT03382964).

Recent Publications

1. Hallengärd D, Kakoulidou M, Lulla A, Kümmerer BM, Johansson DX, Mutso M, Lulla V, Fazakerley JK, Roques P, Le Grand R, Merits A, Liljeström P  (2014) Novel attenuated Chikungunya vaccine candidates elicit protective immunity in C57BL/6 mice. J Virol 88:2858-2866.
    
2. Roques P, Ljungberg K, Kümmerer BM, Gosse L, Dereuddre-Bosquet N, Tchitchek N, Hallengärd D, Garcia-Arriaza J, Meinke A, Esteban M, Merits A, Le Grand R, Liljeström P (2017) Attenuated and vectored vaccines protect nonhuman primates against Chikungunya virus. J Clin Invest Insight 2:e83527.

Biography:

Anthony S Gilbert has obtained his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He is a Member of the Institute of Clinical Research. He has served as an expert Member and Vice Chair of a National Research Ethics Service (NRES) committee, having been appointed by the Health Research Authority in the U.K. As a Principal Investigator, he has supervised and conducted viral challenge studies in order to further the quest to bring safer and more effective vaccines and antivirals to the global community. His research has been published in several medical and scientific journals, including Nature Medicine.

Abstract:

Since the beginning of the millennium, Human Viral Challenge Studies have successfully been conducted at hVIVO to develop a series of well-characterised virus stocks, whilst demonstrating that the Human Viral Challenge Model (HVCM) could be effective in offering a faster and cost-effective route to market for their therapeutics.

The Human Viral Challenge Model enables global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as leading academic groups and government institutions, to undertake scientific research, accelerate the drug development timeline and reduce the cost of bringing vaccines, antiviral drugs and diagnostics to market. The HVCM also enables fundamental research into the human response to infection and crucial research into modes of infection and transmission between individuals in the community.

The HVCM has become widely accepted as an alternative to traditional early stage field trials to show the efficacy of vaccine and antiviral therapeutics in Influenza, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and Human Rhinovirus (HRV). By monitoring the entire disease lifecycle as subjects move from healthy to sick and recover back to healthy again, we can obtain high quality, longitudinal data from the before, during and after phases of disease. The model can be used to study the efficacy of new therapies and also to study the target disease itself. Such studies provide key outcomes about promising investigational medicinal products, their mechanism of action, and their most appropriate dose and dosage regimen, which can then be applied to design further Phase IIb and Phase III studies.

Recent Publications

1. Wilkinson, Tom M (2012) Preexisting influenza-specific CD4+ T cells correlate with disease protection against influenza challenge in human. Nature Medicine 18:274–280.

2. DeVincenzo, John P. (2014) Oral GS-5806 Activity in a Respiratory Syncytial Virus Challenge Study. N Engl J Med 371:711-722.

3. DeVincenzo, John P. (2015) Activity of Oral ALS-008176 in a Respiratory Syncytial Virus Challenge Study. N Engl J Med 373:2048-2058.

4. Lambkin-Williams, Rob (2016) An Intranasal Proteosome-Adjuvanted Trivalent Influenza Vaccine Is Safe, Immunogenic & Efficacious in the Human Viral Influenza Challenge Model. Serum IgG & Mucosal IgA Are Important Correlates of Protection against Illness Associated with Infection. Pone 11(12):e016308.

5. Lambkin-Williams, Rob (2018) The human viral challenge model: accelerating the evaluation of respiratory antivirals, vaccines and novel diagnostics. Respir Res. 1:123.

Biography:

Konstantin Chumakov works on creation of new methods for development and evaluation of vaccines against viral diseases. His main focus is on studying poliovirus and poliovirus vaccines. It includes application of cutting-edge molecular approaches for monitoring genetic stability and molecular consistency of viral vaccines, as well as on new immunochemical methods for characterization of vaccines and their potency and efficacy.  The approaches include next-generation (deep) sequencing for assessing molecular consistency of viral vaccines as well as metagenomic surveillance, development of human monoclonal antibodies and their use for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes.

Abstract:

Statement of the Problem: Two vaccines against poliomyelitis – Inactivated Polio Vaccines (IPV) and live Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) are among the most successful vaccines ever. They define paradigms for vaccine protection against viral diseases, and brought about virtual elimination of the disease in most of the world. Nevertheless, some questions about the correlates of their efficacy remain. Polio eradication will lead to discontinuation of OPV use and its replacement with IPV. To ensure IPV supply for resource-limited countries a new generation of IPV based on attenuated Sabin strains (sIPV) was developed. This raised important questions about determining its efficacy and potency. How can these new vaccines be compared to the conventional IPV (cIPV) made from immunochemically different strains? Can we use the same benchmarks for potency and protectiveness for both types of IPV? These questions prompted us to undertake the study. 

Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: We assembled a panel of wild and vaccine-derived polioviruses and used it to determine titers neutralizing antibodies in sera from healthy previously immunized subjects, as well as in immunized animals. In addition, we have used a transgenic mouse model to determine the minimal level of antibodies needed for protection. Findings: antibodies against poliovirus present in sera of experimental animals as well as healthy vaccinated subjects exhibited a significant strain bias when tested in neutralization reaction. Maximum neutralization titers were observed when neutralization tests were performed against the strain used for vaccine manufacture, while titers against heterologous strains tended to be lower. In some extreme cases the difference in titers was more than 10-fold. As a result, while the level of seroprotection in a group of vaccine recipients was sufficiently high when measured against the homologous strain, it was significantly lower when heterologous strains were used. A booster dose of IPV increased all titers, and the seroprotection level was acceptable even when measured against heterologous strains. We will also present experiments to identify the minimal protective level of neutralizing antibodies by passively immunizing transgenic mice expressing the human poliovirus receptor.

Conclusion & Significance: The results demonstrate that strains of type 1 poliovirus have different ability to be neutralized by vaccine-induced antibodies. This suggests that while people with minimal levels of neutralizing antibodies can be protected against viruses that are immunologically similar to the strains used in vaccine manufacture, they may have undetectable levels of neutralizing antibodies against other strains and thus not be fully protected. Therefore to ensure protection against a wide range of viruses, clinical trials must include measuring seroconversion using both homologous and heterologous strains. The same applies to performing pre-clinical evaluation and measuring potency of IPV, as well as to performing seproprevalence studies. The results also suggest that to ensure robust protection against all strains the level of neutralizing anti-poliovirus antibodies must be maintained at a level higher than the commonly accepted minimum of 1:8.

Biography:

Lopa Banerjee is currently a 22-year-old fourth year medical student at Cardiff University School of Medicine. In 2018, she completed an intercalated BSc in Clinical Epidemiology at Cardiff University, achieving first class honours and being awarded the ‘Deans List Award’. She has been involved with a range of research projects at university including studies on sepsis and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). She has also been President of Cardiff Students for Global Health, the global health society at Cardiff University and was a Co-Chair for the Organising Committee for the Students for Global Health National Conference on Sexual Health and HIV in 2018, which involved being the lead organiser for a 2 day national student conference.

Abstract:

Introduction: Clinical research requiring participation of children and adolescents, including vaccine research, may be controversial and require greater ethical, legal, and cultural considerations than research involving adults. The aim of this review is to identify the factors (i.e. motivators, barriers, and solutions), which affect the participation (i.e. recruitment and retention) of children and adolescents in vaccine research.

Methods: A systematic review was completed using a search strategy, eligibility criteria, and proforma in a pre-defined protocol submitted to PROSPERO (131360). Papers published up to April 2019, on factors that affect the participation of participants aged 18 years and younger were searched for using seven online databases and hand-searching. Data were extracted using the pre-defined proforma, analysed thematically, and summarised using narrative synthesis.

Results: Of 1216 citations found, 304 full-text articles were reviewed, and 77 papers were included, covering 19 vaccine types from 28 countries. Based on the most frequently occurring reasons, participants and their parents were primarily motivated by their level of understanding, perceived personal benefit, altruism, access to better healthcare, and trust in researchers and healthcare professionals. Barriers included misunderstanding information about the trial, risks of side-effects, mistrust of researchers, conflict between stakeholders (i.e. parents, children and researchers), and fears about trial procedures. Suggested solutions were better education of participants and parents, clear consent and assent processes, and community support.

Conclusion: Many factors that affected participation were identified, with overlap between motivators, barriers and solutions. Literature quantity varied by country and vaccine type, and areas identified for further research were those in which evidence was contradictory or lacking. Utilising age-appropriate consent/assent processes, gaining the support of the entire community, and more effectively delivering information about research and vaccines, both generally, and specifically regarding randomisation, blinding and dispelling therapeutic misconceptions, could improve the participation of children and adolescents in vaccine research.

Keywords – Paediatric Research, Research Participation, Vaccine, Vaccine Research

Biography:

Prof. Dr. Mazhar I. Khan’s research involved molecular epidemiology and pathogenesis of influenza virus infection. Currently, in his laboratory in developing and testing nanoparticle based avian influenza (bird flu) and infectious bronchitis virus vaccines. He has long-term experience in development and application of DNA probe, PCR, multiplex PCR, real-time PCR and loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) methods for rapid detection of viral pathogens in clinical samples. Have made significant contributions in the diagnostic field using DNA techniques in identification of several pathogens of avian, animal and human diseases since 1985. Have mentor visiting international scientists form Asia, Europe and South America. He has an extensive knowledge on pathogenicity studies in embryos infected with infectious bronchitis virus, a coronavirus, which causes stunting and embryo deformity before hatching. As a virologist, have extensive knowledge and research involved in the development of diagnostic tests and vaccines for the control of avian viral diseases.

Abstract:

Subunit or DNA vaccines are generally less immunogenic than whole organism vaccines.  One approach to reduce this deficiency is the development of repetitive antigen displays.  One of the most successful repetitive antigen displays is our Self-Assembling Protein Nanoparticle (SAPN) technology.  Based of coiled-coil oligomerization domains our SAPNs can self-assemble into spherical particles that mimic the size and shape of small viruses, decorated on their surface with antigens. We have used SAPNs to develop avian influenza (AI) and infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) vaccines by displaying the two conserved and antigens of these viruses. In case of AI, these M2e and Helix C in their native tetrameric and trimeric oligomerization states, respectively, while B cell epitopes derived from the second heptad repeat (HR2) region of the IBV spike protein are repetitively presented in their native trimeric conformation. In addition, flagellin been co-assembled into the SAPN to achieve a self-adjuvanting effect. Specific Pathogen-Free Chickens vaccinated with such self-adjuvanted SAPNs induce significantly higher levels of antibodies than unadjuvanted SAPNs. Antibodies from chickens vaccinated with the self-adjuvanted SAPNs are cross neutralizing towards group 1 influenza strains in in vitro experiments. Immunization with self-adjuvanted SAPNs provides full protection against lethal human influenza challenge in mice, while, chickens were partially protected against a lethal pathogenic avian influenza. The IBV-SAPN vaccine fully protected chickens against pathogenic IBV. Thus, we have generated self-adjuvanted SAPNs with a great potential as universal human and avian influenza as well as IBV vaccines. Future studies are in progress to improve those SAPN-vaccines and test for cross-protection against various sub or serotypes of influenza and IBV.

Recent Publications

1. Babapoor, S., D. O. Almeida, J. J. Fabis, Z. H. Helal, X. Wang, T. Girshick and M. I. Khan. Protective Effect of In ovo Vaccination with IBV-Spike-Recombinant DNA and Chicken Interferon as an Adjuvant. Int. J. Poult. Sci 8 (11): 1034-1041, 2009.

2.  Karch, C., P., J. Li^,  C. Kulangara, S.M. Paulillo, S.K. Raman, S. Emadi, A. Tan, Z.H. Helal, Q. Fan, M. I. Khan, P. Burkhard, Vaccination with self-adjuvanted protein nanoparticles provides protection against lethal influenza challenge. Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and medicine.13: (1), 241-251. 2017.

3. Ebrahimi-Nik H., M. R. Bassmi, M. Mohri, M Rad and M. I. Khan. Bacterial ghost of avian pathogenic E. coil (APEC) serotype o78:K80 as a homologous vaccine against avian colibacillosis. PLOS One, doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0194888. March 22, 2018.

4. Li^, Jianping. Z. Helal^, B. Ladman,C. Karch, J. Gelb, Jr, P. Burkhard and M. I. Khan^..Nanoparticle vaccine for avian influenza virus: a challenge study against highly pathogenic   H5N2 subtype. Virology and antiviral research. Vol. 7: 1-5. 2018.2018.

5. Li^, Jianping, Z. Helal, C. Karch, T. Girshick, A. Garmendia,  N. Mishra, P. Burkhard and M. I. Khan. A self-adjuvanted nanoparticle based vaccine against infectious bronchitis virus. PLOS One, in press, September 6, 2018.

Biography:

Natasha is a Product Manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific managing the insect and CHO protein expression product portfolios. Prior to joining Thermo Fisher, Natasha has completed postdoctoral research training in early-stage drug discovery at the California Institute for Biomedical Research in La Jolla, CA, USA and received a PhD in Cell & Molecular Biology from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA, USA.

Abstract:

Baculovirus-insect cell expression system is one of the major platforms for recombinant protein production and a robust and versatile platform for vaccine production. Currently, eight commercially-available vaccine products and multiple vaccine candidates in development are produced in insect cells. Unlike mammalian expression systems that have long since transitioned to chemically defined culture media, relatively little innovation has taken place in insect expression systems. Insect cells continue to rely on undefined, yeastolate-containing culture media that can exhibit significant lot-to-lot performance variability and, therefore, negatively impact productivity. Here, we describe the ExpiSf™ Expression System, the first chemically defined insect expression system that enables high-yield production of proteins and viral particles with consistent performance run after run using a fast, streamlined workflow. This multi-component, optimized system delivers scalable yields from shake flask to bioreactor scale, thus facilitating vaccine development. The superior performance of ExpiSf provides researchers with the simplicity of obtaining high-titer recombinant baculovirus in one simple step and going from transfection to product harvest in 6-10 days

Biography:

Wenping Gong has his expertise in evaluation and passion in developing the novel tuberculosis vaccine (TB). His research focuses on the screening of specific epitopes and the construction of novel epitope vaccines. He has participated in many international academic conferences and delivered speeches. So far, he has published ten SCI papers in international academic journals. His work shed light on the prevention and treatment of the spread of TB, and opened new ideas for the development of new TB vaccines.

Abstract:

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause from a single infectious agent and one of the top 10 causes of death. Mycobacterium vaccae vaccine is the first preventive TB vaccine in phase III trials besides BCG. However, the differentially expressed (DE) genes of host infected with M. tuberculosis before and after M. vaccae vaccine treatment is still poorly understood.

Methods: In the present study, the immunotherapeutic efficacy of M. vaccae vaccine were assessed in BALB/c mice by weight measurement, colony formation units counting, organ coefficient evaluation, and histopathology. The total RNA was extracted from isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells from BALB/c mice, and the DE genes were identified by microarray, and GO analysis and pathway analysis were performed.

Results: M. vaccae vaccine had a significant immunotherapeutic effect in mouse model, and 2,326 upregulated and 2,221 downregulated genes were identified to be DE genes in M. vaccae group compared with control group. Additionally, a total of 123 signaling pathways with significant differences were identified, and our speculation suggested that the upregulated and downregulated pathways most related to M. vaccae might be MyD88-dependent TLR signaling pathway and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway.

Conclusion: Immunotherapeutic effect of M. vaccae might be enhanced via upregulating MyD88-dependent TLR signaling pathway and downregulating PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, which improved our understanding of the mechanism of M. vaccae vaccine immunotherapy.

Recent Publications

1. Gordon SV, Parish T. Microbe Profile: Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Humanity's deadly microbial foe. Microbiology (Reading, England) 2018;164(4):437-39 doi: 10.1099/mic.0.000601[published Online First: Epub Date]|.

2. Gong W, Liang Y, Wu X. The current status, challenges, and future developments of new tuberculosis vaccines. Hum Vaccin Immunother 2018;14(7):1697-716 doi: 10.1080/21645515.2018.1458806[published Online First: Epub Date]|.

3. Colditz GA, Brewer TF, Berkey CS, Wilson ME, Burdick E, Fineberg HV, Mosteller F. Efficacy of BCG vaccine in the prevention of tuberculosis. Meta-analysis of the published literature. Jama 1994;271(9):698-702

4. Fine PE. Variation in protection by BCG: implications of and for heterologous immunity. Lancet 1995;346(8986):1339-45

5. WHO. Global tuberculosis report 2017. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2017:1-262.5.

Biography:

Yuan Liu is mainly engaged in the research of rhizospheric electrochemistry and chemical behavior of nutrients and pollutants such as heavy metals, antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes during farmland irrigation with unconventional water resources such as livestock wastewater and reclaimed water.

Abstract:

Misuse of antibiotics has exacerbated the development and spread of antibiotic resistance in microbes in the environment, promulgating calls for nations to adopt mitigation strategies. Farmyard manure (FYM) has a long history in soil fertility management which is being re-evaluated because of a combination of rising mineral fertilizer costs, concerns for sustainable soil management and ecological stability. However, FYM may act as a reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and resistant organisms: the effect of long-term application of FYM on ARGs in soil needs to be established. We studied ARGs in arable soil treated for 175-years with FYM or chemical fertilizer (CF) and native woodland (W). Metagenomic analysis showed that the abundance of fox5, bla_CTX-M-4, vgb, tetG, sul1, vanA and floR genes were significantly lower in FYM than W, and the abundance of fox5, vgb and tetX genes in FYM were also significantly lower than CF. The phylogenetic diversity of individual ARGs was also typically lower in FYM than either CF and W. Despite this, there were no significant differences in the abundance of integrase genes (intI1 and intI2). There were also no significant differences in the abundance of metal resistance genes, except merB associated with Hg-resistance, which was more abundant and had an increased phylogenetic diversity in FYM soils. Overall, FYM did not increase the abundance and diversity of ARGs significantly and there was only limited association between ARGs and metal resistance genes in the soils.

Biography:

Professor Zhongyang Li is mainly engaged in the research on agricultural safety utilization of livestock wastewater and reclaimed water and the amelioration technology of soil polluted with heavy metals, antibiotics in farmland.

Abstract:

One effective approach to treating large amounts of wastewater produced during livestock production is to use it to irrigate crops. However, antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) associated with wastewater may enter the soil and plants. ARGs are spread readily among microbial populations by mobile genetic elements, and may pose threats to human health. Compared with conventional furrow irrigation (CFI), alternate-furrow irrigation (AFI) can reduce water use and still achieve high yields. These different irrigation methods may influence the fate of ARGs in soil, but few reports have studied the combined effects of AFI and livestock wastewater upon the distribution of ARGs in soil. Here, swine wastewater was used to irrigate cultivated peppers, and compared to relatively ARG-free groundwater. AFI was compared to CFI (100%) at three AFI irrigation rates (80%, 65% and 50% of CFI). The results showed that wastewater irrigation resulted in greater accumulation of antibiotics and ARGs in soil than groundwater irrigation. The effect of wastewater was much more pronounced in rhizosphere than in the bulk soils. Compared with CFI, AFI using wastewater reduced the relative abundance of ARGs in rhizosphere, but the concentration of antibiotics was largely unaffected; though antibiotic concentrations in roots were significantly lower, the abundance of ARGs in roots at 50% and 65% rates and in fruits at 50% rate were significantly increased when using wastewater. The soil bacterial communities did not change significantly between the different irrigation rates, but different behaviours were observed between ARGs and antibiotics at different irrigation rates. Antibiotic availability plays an important role in the diffusion of ARGs. In conclusion, AFI with livestock wastewater can reduce the relative abundance of ARGs in rhizosphere, but reducing irrigation amount should be employed carefully for the safe agricultural production.

Biography:

Carmen Mannucci is a Post-doc in Pharmacology at the Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morphofunctional Imaging, University of Messina, Italy. His area of expertise are: Pharmacology, toxicology, pharmacology and toxicology of herbal medicine, food supplements and nutraceuticals.

Abstract:

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is defined as a commonbacterial infection that can lead to significant morbidity such as stricture, fistula, abscess formation, bacteraemia, sepsis, pyelonephritis and kidney dysfunction with a reported mortality rates of 1% in men and 3% in women because of development of pyelonephritis. UTIs are more common in women and the 33% of them requires antimicrobials treatment for at least 1 episode by the age of 24 years. UTIs are the most common infections observed during pregnancy and up to 30% of mothers with not treated asymptomatic bacteriuria may develop acute pyelonephritis which consequently can be associated to adverse maternal and fetal outcomes. All bacteriuria in pregnancy should be treated with antimicrobial treatments being safe for both the mother and the fetus. Approximately one every four women receives prescription of antibiotic treatment during pregnancy. Use of fosfomycin to treat cystitis in pregnancy is generally considered safe and for the fetus and mothers, even thought this opinion is not based on specific studies monitoring the relationship of between urinary infections, consumption of antibiotics and pregnancy outcomes. On this basis we analyzed data from the database of a multicenter study PHYTOVIGGEST, reporting data from 5362 pregnancies, focusing on use of fosfomycin. Principal outcomes of pregnancy in women treated with fosfomycin were taken in consideration. Women who have been treated with urinary antibiotics during the pregnancy were 187 (3.49%). Analysis of different outcomes of pregnancy such as gestational age, neonatal weight and neonatal Apgar index did not show any significant difference. At the same time analysis of data of pregnancy complicancies (such as, urgent cesarean delivery, use of general anesthesia, need to induce labour) did not show any difference in women taking fosfomycin during pregnancy and those not taking it. Our data, confirm the safety use of fosfomycin use in pregnancy.

Recent Publications

1. Lee JH, Lee YM, Cho JH. Risk factors of septic shock in bacteremic acute pyelonephritis patients admitted to an ER. J Infect Chemother 2012;18:130-3.
    
2. Kumar S, Dave A, Wolf B, Lerma EV. Urinary tract infections. Dis Mon. 2015; 61(2):45-59.

3. Foxman B. Epidemiology of urinary tract infections: incidence, morbidity, and economic costs. Dis Mon, 2003; 49(2):53–70.

4. Foxman, B. The epidemiology of urinary tract infection. Nat. Rev. Urol. 2010;7:653–660.

5. Heikkila AM. Antibiotics in pregnancy–a prospective cohort study on the policy of antibiotic prescription. Ann Med 1993; 5:467–71.

6. Smaill FM, Vazquez JC. Antibiotics for asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnancy. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2015 Aug 7; 8:CD000490. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD000490.pub3

Biography:

Gershon Yao Sena Sekley is the Chief Executive Officer of G2 Medical Laboratory, a leading referral laboratory for most clinics and hospitals in Ghana. He helped establish G2 Medical Labs in 1997 with the sole vision of providing quality and accurate diagnosis service for both clients and healthcare professionals. Before then, he worked as a medical laboratory scientist and a senior supervisor in various establishments including The Trust Hospital (1990-1992), Swan Clinic (1992- 1997) and, Mendel Medical Laboratory (1993-1997). During this period, Gershon has contributed to different research studies that involved Sickle cell disease, Prostate Disorder in adults, Sexually Transmitted Infections and Renal Disorders in Diabetic patients. Besides analyzing clinical specimen in the laboratory, he is into health advocacy using the electronic media e.g. radio, television as a platform to educate the nation on topics like, Breast Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Cervical Cancer etc and also educate corporate organizations and churches on healthy life style and if you do not find him in the laboratory working hard to find solutions to serve patients and physicians, he will be found in the Library reading, teaching colleagues and students. Currently he is involved with research and findings in various disciplines in the field of medicine and academia. He would be seen spending time with his family during his leisure time.

Abstract:

Background: Wound infection is a major global health problem because it poses serious complications that result in difficulty in treatment and wounds bacterial contamination are common hospital acquired infections causing more than 80% of mortality. The aim of this study was to identify common bacteria infecting five different types of wounds and their resistance to commonly used antibiotics.

Methodology: Clinical swabs were received from hospitals and/ or clinics and some were obtained directly from patients visiting the G2 Medical Laboratory from 2015 to 2018. Specimens were obtained from wounds including Buruli ulcer, lupus, surgical, diabetes and burns. Conversional method of culturing on CLED, BLOOD AND CHOCLATE AGAR, incubated in an aerobic and anaerobic condition between 18 and 24 hours at 37°C. The microbial were identified through the gram staining and various biochemical reactions. Antibiotics sensitivity test was done for both gram negative and positive microbial.

Results: A total of 10629 specimen were analyzed and different types of bacteria were isolated, Pseudomonas aeruginosa was the most predominant pathogen isolated from all wound type infection: Buruli ulcer =3493 (32.9%); lupus =2180 (20.5%); surgical =2911 (27.4%); diabetes =1503 (14.1%); and burn =609 (5.7%). A total of microbial resistance n=9657. P. aeruginosa showed the highest rate of resistance to the tested antibiotics of n=5396 (55.9%): Gentamicin=963 (17.8%); amikacin=960 (17.8%); cefotaxime=813 (15.1%), ceftriaxone=850 (15.8%); ciprofloxacin=947 (17.6%) and levofloxacin=863 (16.0%) and other multidrug resistance strains identified were Enterobacter spp., n=2105 (21.8%); S. aureus, n=974 (10.1%); Klebsiella spp., n=571 (5.9%); Proteus spp., n=356 (3.7%) and E. coli, n=255 (2.6%).

Conclusion: Among other pathogens, we found P. aeruginosa to be the predominant bacteria in all wound infections and also shows the highest resistance to all tested antibiotics. A fugal elements (Aspergillius there was also isolated but no susceptibility testing was done). This study indicates that wound infections are typically polymicrobial comprising both Gram negative and positive bacterial with increased multidrug resistance to commonly used antibiotics for treatment.