Viral Respiratory Tract Infections (RTIs): superinfections

The Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA) is delighted to invite you to its next free webinar.

Superinfection of viral respiratory infection has been one of the hottest topics during the first waves of COVID-19: although it was rapidly demonstrated that coinfections were rare during the first days, fungal or bacterial superinfections was a major cause of death for intensive care unit patients on various immunosuppressive treatments (dexamethasone, IL6-inhibitors, etc.), who required prolonged mechanical ventilation. More recently, the burden of Group A streptococci superinfections have dramatically increased, in children and in adults, for reasons that still remain unclear.

ISAC and APUA invited three worldwide experts in the field of superinfections, to share with us the main features of these hot topics. 

Speakers

Prof. Nina van Sorge is Professor of Translational Microbiology and Head of the Netherlands Reference Laboratory for Bacterial Meningitis.
Nina van Sorge studied Pharmacy at Utrecht University and she performed her PhD research at the University Medical Center Utrecht on the topic of autoantibodies in the pathogenesis of Guillain-Barre syndrome.
After a short-term overseas fellowship and a mini-postdoc studying bacteria-lectin interactions at Utrecht University, she took up a second post-doc position in the lab of Prof. V. Nizet at UCSD to expand her knowledge in bacterial pathogenesis research. She returned to the UMC Utrecht on a MCSA Fellowship in 2012 and started her own research group in 2014 on the topic of bacterial glycobiology. In 2020, she moved her research group to Amsterdam UMC studying bacterial pathogenesis with a special focus on bacterial glycosylation in this process.

Prof. Anuradha Chowdhary is a Professor of Medical Mycology in the Department of Medical Mycology at Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute, University of Delhi, India. Prof. Chowdhary is a member of the ISAC Executive Committee. Her research focus on antifungal resistance, molecular typing and epidemiology of emerging pathogenic fungi. Prof. Chowdhary’s latest research concerns the understanding of the emergence of multidrug resistant strains of Candida auris. This yeast which has globally emerged as a nosocomial pathogen is a serious therapeutic challenge and similar geographical clonal strains of C. auris are emerging in other countries. Her research has additionally yielded important insights into the ecological niches of Cryptococcus and the mechanism and spread of multi azole resistant Aspergillus fumigatus.

Prof. Alex Soriano is a Consultant of Infectious Diseases in the Infectious Diseases Department of the Clinical and Provincial Hospital of Barcelona, Spain, since 2001. He studied medicine at the University of Barcelona from where he also received his Ph.D. in Medicine. His main research interest is in severe infections caused by Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, as well as the diagnosis and treatment of foreign-body infections, with a particular interest in prosthetic joint infections. In recent years, Alex has studied the effectiveness of combination therapy versus monotherapy, using a third-generation cephalosporin in bacteraemic Pneumococcal pneumonia. He has suggested that therapy with a cephalosporin plus a macrolide or a fluoroquinolone is associated with a lower mortality rate compared with β-lactams. Alex has also been involved in utilising new antibiotics against Gram-positive bacteria and in the use of antibiotics against erythromycin-susceptible and -resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae. He has authored several book chapters and over 300 peer-reviewed publications and is currently the Vice President of the European Bone and Joint Infection Society (EBJIS) and Co-editor in Chief of Infectious Diseases and Therapy.

Prof. Souha Kanj is a tenured Professor of Medicine at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, Lebanon, and Consulting Professor at the Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA. She is currently President-Elect of ISAC, Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Chair of the Infection Control and Prevention Program, Co- Chair of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program and Associate Dean for Global Affairs at the American University of Beirut Medical Center. Prof. Kanj has published more than 230 papers in national and international journals such as Mycoses, Infection, Lancet Infectious Diseases and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). She has contributed greatly to the work of the World Health Organization (WHO) in various programs, such as the R&D Blueprint Annual Review of Priority Diseases, the Global Infection Prevention and Control Network, and the WHO Priority Pathogens List Project for Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria.