Search

Introduction. The traditional surveillance system for influenza and ARVI provides a general description of epidemics, but does not provide information on the age-related characteristics of the etiology and clinical peculiarities of severe acute respiratory diseases (SARI) in hospitalized patients. Aim. To monitor the etiology of SARI in hospitalized children and adults, assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on this process. Materials and methods. Standardized clinical and laboratory monitoring of SARI among 18,458 hospitalized patients was carried out in hospitals in three cities of Russia with weekly PCR detection of 11 types of pathogens. Results. According to the investigation of hospitalized patients with SARI for the period from 2018 to 2023, the viral etiology of respiratory diseases was deciphered in 58.3% of cases. Weekly monitoring showed a change in the etiological mosaic of SARI pathogens during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic with a sharp decrease in the frequency of detection of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) during the 2020–2021 season against the background of a significant increase of metapneumovirus and rhinovirus infections in children. During the 2022-2023 season an increase in the proportion of RSV infection in children under 6 years of age (up to 36.2%) was noted against the background of a significant decrease in the frequency of SARS-CoV-2. In the intensive care units (ICU), RSV infection was most often in children during the post-pandemic period (up to 30.1–53.6% of positive cases, p 0.001); in adults, SARS-CoV-2 was mostly detected (76,5–100% of cases, p 0.001). Conclusion. Hospital surveillance data significantly complements the epidemiological information obtained in the traditional surveillance system. Monitoring of infections has shown a continuously changing etiological infrastructure of SARI, with the disappearance of influenza and RSV during the COVID-19 pandemic and their return to circulation in the post-pandemic period.

Despite all the advances in pharmacology, many types of oncological diseases remain incurable. To that end, the demand for the development of new effective methods with high safety still exists. Based on mechanisms that differ from the action of current anticancer drugs, oncolytic viruses expand the possibilities of treating tumors of various localizations. In this review, recent scientific data on the general characteristics of oncolytic viruses are systematized. The factors providing the selectivity and the reasons limiting the efficacy of virotherapy are discussed. The influence of oncolytic viruses on antitumor immunity is considered. The mechanisms of action and the most prospective directions for the use of adenoviruses, herpesviruses, reoviruses and measles virus are analyzed.

Live genetic engineering anthrax vaccines on the platform of avirulent and probiotic micro-ogranisms are a safe and adequate alternative to preparations based on attenuated Bacillus anthracis strains. Mucosal application results in a direct contact of the vaccine preparations with mucous membranes in those organs and tissues of the macro-organisms, that are exposed to the pathogen in the first place, resulting in a development of local and systemic immune response. Live recombinant anthrax vaccines could be used both separately as well as in a prime-boost immunization scheme. The review focuses on immunogenic and protective properties of experimental live genetic engineering preparations, created based on members ofgeni of Salmonella, Lactobacillus and adenoviruses.

On the territory of the Russian Federation in the overall structure of acute intestinal infections the proportion of viral diarrhea among children varies from 24 to 78% of cases depending on the season. The acute viral intestinal infections etiological confirmation is performed mainly among patients of infectious hospitals. The prevalence of viral acute intestinal infections in non-infectious hospitals, including infections associated with medical care, remains unclear. Currently estimation of viral component in the acute intestinal infections overall structure mainly consists in determination of rotavirus infection prevalence excluding other pathogens. As the part of viral etiology hospital infections epidemiological surveillance in non-infections children’s hospital the study of acute viral intestinal infections etiological structure and molecular genetics characterization of identified enteric viruses is conducted. The syndrome diagnosis of acute intestinal infections cases was introduced — an identification and evaluation of patients with signs of dysfunction of the gastrointestinal tract, that is not related to the underlying disease. A set of laboratory methods included identification of various intestinal pathogens DNA (RNA) by PCR-RT method; genotyping of enteric viruses using sequencing; nucleotide sequence analysis of cDNA fragments using the BLAST software package for identification of closely related strains and an online service for automatic genotyping of noroviruses by Norovirus Genotyping Tool Version 1.0. Alignment of nucleotide sequences and phylogenetic analysis was performed using the software MEGA 5.0. The obtained sequence fragments of the genome was downloaded in GenBank international database. The use of molecular genetics research methods allowed to differentiate viral pathogens of acute intestinal infections and to establish the fact of nosocomial transmission. The proportion of viral etiology acute intestinal infections in patients with clinical signs of intestinal infection, and contact persons was 43.8%. The etiological structure of intestinal virus infections was presented by noroviruses (73.2%) genotypes GII.1, GII.3, GII.4 Sydney 2012, rotaviruses (23.2%) genotypes G4P[8] and G1-IP[8], and adenovirus (1.8%) of the group F and astroviruses (1.8%) genotypes 1 and 2. Among the hospitalized children were 9 cases of viral etiology acute intestinal infections importation, and 66 of cases were of nosocomial origin. Examination of the environment revealed the presence of contamination by enteric viruses in 47.8% of cases.

Due to the development of organ transplantation and its accompanying immunosuppression, recent years have been marked by the higher incidence of opportunistic viral infections that are of considerable importance among posttransplantation complications. A variety of viral infections, the possibility of their concomitant or subtle course, and the ability to cause life-threatening complications in recipients make relevant the description of existing diagnostic methods. The article summarizes the data available in the literature on the etiology, clinical symptoms, and morphological manifestations of viral infections, such as polyomaviruses, adenoviruses, herpesviruses, including HSV-1, HSV-2, cytomegalovirus (CMV), and Epstein-Barr virus. It describes the principles of differential diagnosis of kidney transplant damage caused by these viruses and that with acute cellular and humoral rejection, which plays an important role due to opposite approaches to treating these diseases.