NPunto

6

Authors: García Molina, Cristian

Background: The 11th of March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the global pandemic by COVID-19 and it has become a serious threat to global public health. A variety of skin manifestations have been observed in patients with COVID-19 infection. Methodology: The aim of the present work is to provide a general description of skin manifestations in patients with COVID-19. A bibliographic review was carried out in the Medline database through Pubmed. Articles published from January 2020 to July 2020 were selected. Articles that were not available in full text or the language was other than Spanish or English were excluded. Results: There are five main skin manifestations associated to COVID-19: erythema of acral areas with some vesicles or pustules (pseudo-chilblain), vesicular eruptions, urticarial lesions, maculopapular eruptions and livedo reticularis. Conclusions: The knowledge of skin manifestations related to COVID-19 can facilitate doctors the diagnosis and detection of this infection.

18

Authors: Corte García, Paula

Listeria is a food-borne infection caused by Listeria Monocytogenes bacterium. Listeria Monocytogenes is a facultative anaerobic bacterium capable of surviving in the presence or absence of oxygen. Its optimal growth temperature varies between 30-37ºC and can withstand a wide PH range. Its ability to grow at low temperatures allows multiplication at 4ºC and greatly increases its ability to survive in salty environments and in food preservation process such as smoked foods. This bacterium can be found in soil, vegetation and some animals. The main source of contamination is to eat poisoned food. Listeriosis can cause fever and mild gastrointestinal symptoms similar to vomiting and diarrhoea when affecting healthy adults. It varies depending on the host. When it comes to seniors and children, it could lead to more severe consequences suchlike septicemia and meningoencephalitis. During pregnancy, whereas maternal illness resembles mild flu-like symptoms, foetal and neonatal infections are severe and frequently fatal. Listeria can cause miscarriages, preterm labour due to chorioamnionitis, stillbirth, neurological alterations, sepsis and meningitis. This infection is usually diagnosed when a bacterial culture grows Listeria monocytogenes from body tissue or fluid, such as blood, spinal fluid or amniotic fluid. Antibiotics have been used most extensively in the treatment of Listeriosis to prevent the aftermath of the infection. Beta-lactams specifically or combined with others as Gentamicin. To help prevent Listeria is essential to provide accurate information from the Community Service. To make sure women know it is important to take special precautions in pregnancy regarding diets and habits in order to reduce the risk of food poisoning. Remember to avoid certain foods; all raw and undercooked meat, seafood and poultry, unpasteurized milk and foods made with unpasteurized milk and smoked products. Encourage proper hand washing during and after handling food. In addition, to make sure always to clean and disinfect cutting boards, countertops and utensils where bacteria can linger.

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Authors: Diz Mellado, Olga María

Microbiology has been for many years a very manual discipline, based on cultures, performing biochemical tests, or observing physical and staining characteristics. The diagnosis of infectious diseases has changed dramatically in recent years due to advances in diagnostic techniques based on molecular biology. These techniques make it possible to establish the early and reliable diagnosis, while allowing the monitoring of the disease, establishing its prognosis and increasing survival. Among molecular biology techniques, there are many variants to amplify, detect and sequence nucleic acids (DNA or RNA based on clinical suspicion). The basic technique is the polymerase chain reaction and different modifications have been developed on this to improve the diagnostic and interpretation process, including real-time PCR or quantitative PCR, RT-PCR, microarrays and sequencing. Different techniques that allow the analysis of different samples for one or multiple microorganisms (through the use of panels) are detailed in this work.