{"title":"The wondrous world of biology","authors":"P. Moore","doi":"10.4102/sajid.v37i2.372","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4102/sajid.v37i2.372","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44007,"journal":{"name":"Southern African Journal of Infectious Diseases","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46768506","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Infectious diseases as ‘a colourful universe of possibilities’","authors":"N. Govender","doi":"10.4102/sajid.v37i2.407","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4102/sajid.v37i2.407","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44007,"journal":{"name":"Southern African Journal of Infectious Diseases","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43040344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The times they are a changing","authors":"L. Devenish","doi":"10.4102/sajid.v37i2.376","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4102/sajid.v37i2.376","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44007,"journal":{"name":"Southern African Journal of Infectious Diseases","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47449626","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Endless forms most beautiful","authors":"J. Nel","doi":"10.4102/sajid.v37i2.388","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4102/sajid.v37i2.388","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44007,"journal":{"name":"Southern African Journal of Infectious Diseases","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41736837","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A passion for paediatrics and infection control","authors":"A. Dramowski","doi":"10.4102/sajid.v37i2.380","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4102/sajid.v37i2.380","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44007,"journal":{"name":"Southern African Journal of Infectious Diseases","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47253049","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hope and challenges working at the frontiers of medical knowledge","authors":"G. Meintjes","doi":"10.4102/sajid.v37i2.405","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4102/sajid.v37i2.405","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44007,"journal":{"name":"Southern African Journal of Infectious Diseases","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44243613","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alon H Shulman, Barry Jacobson, Bradley M Segal, Amber Khan, Jessica Trusler, Lindsay Earlam, Guy Shemesh
{"title":"D-dimers in omicron versus delta: A retrospective analysis.","authors":"Alon H Shulman, Barry Jacobson, Bradley M Segal, Amber Khan, Jessica Trusler, Lindsay Earlam, Guy Shemesh","doi":"10.4102/sajid.v37i1.484","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4102/sajid.v37i1.484","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Infection with SARS-CoV-2 has shown to cause an increase in D-dimers, which correlate with severity and prognosis for in-hospital mortality. The B.1.617.2 (delta) variant is known to cause a raised D-dimer level, with data on D-dimers in the B.1.1.529 (omicron) variant being scarce.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>To determine the effect of age, gender and SARS-CoV-2 variant on the D-dimer in South Africans admitted to tertiary medical centres from May 2021 to December 2021.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>The study was performed retrospectively on 16 010 adult patients with a SARS-CoV-2 infection. Age, gender, SARS-CoV-2 PCR and D-dimer levels on admission were collected from two national laboratories. Admissions from 01 May 2021 to 31 October 2021 were classified as B.1.617.2, whereas admissions from 01 November 2021 to 23 December 2021 were classified as B.1.1.529 infections.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Omicron infections had a median D-dimer level of 0.54 µg/mL (95% CI: 0.32, 1.08, <i>p</i> < 0.001). Multivariable regression analysis showed that infection with omicron had a 34.30% (95% CI: 28.97, 39.23) reduction in D-dimer values, compared with delta infections. Middle aged, aged and aged over 80 years had D-dimer results greater than the adult baseline (42.6%, 95% CI: 38.0, 47.3, 124.6%, 95% CI: 116.0, 133.7 and 216.1%, 95% CI: 199.5, 233.3). Males on average had a 7.1% (95% CI: 4.6, 9.6) lower D-dimer level than females.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Infection with the B.1.1.529 variant, compared with B.1.617.2 variant, had significantly lower D-dimer levels, with age being a more significant predictor of D-dimer levels, than gender and SARS-CoV-2 variant of infection.</p><p><strong>Contribution: </strong>This study provides novel insight into the hypercoagulable impact of various SARS-CoV-2 variants, which can guide the management of patients.</p>","PeriodicalId":44007,"journal":{"name":"Southern African Journal of Infectious Diseases","volume":"37 1","pages":"484"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9724093/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10379738","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}