Disseminated Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) disease (BCGosis) is a classical feature of children with primary immunodeficiency disorders (PIDs). A 15-year retrospective review was conducted in KK Women's and Children's Hospital in Singapore, from January 2003 to October 2017. Ten patients were identified, mostly male (60.0%). The median age at presentation of systemic signs and symptoms, was 4.0 (0.5 - 27.9) months. All the patients had underlying PIDs - five with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID), three with Mendelian Susceptibility to Mycobacterial Diseases (MSMD), one with Anhidrotic Ectodermal Dysplasia with Primary Immunodeficiency (EDA-ID), and one with STAT-1 gain-of function mutation. Definitive BCGosis was confirmed in all patients by identification of Mycobacterium bovis subsbp BCG from microbiological cultures. The susceptibility profiles of Mycobacterium bovis subsbp BCG are as follows: Rifampicin (88.8%), Isoniazid (44.47%), Ethambutol (100.0%), Streptomycin (100.0%), Kanamycin (100.0%), Ethionamide (25.0%), and Ofloxacin (100.0%). Four patients (40.0%) received a three-drug regimen. Five patients (50.0%) underwent haematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT), of which 3 (60%) have recovered. Overall mortality was 50.0%. Disseminated BCG disease (BCGosis) should prompt immunology evaluation to determine the diagnosis of the immune defect. A three-drug regimen is adequate for treatment if the patient undergoes early HSCT.

Objectives. Elizabethkingia meningoseptica is a multi-drug-resistant organism that is associated with high mortality and morbidity in newborn and immunocompromised patients. This study aimed to identify the best antimicrobial therapy for treating this infection. Methods. A retrospective descriptive study was conducted from 2010 to 2017 in a tertiary paediatric hospital in Singapore. Paediatric patients aged 0 to 18 years old with a positive culture for E. meningoseptica from any sterile site were identified from the hospital laboratory database. The data collected included clinical characteristics, antimicrobial susceptibility and treatment, and clinical outcomes. Results. Thirteen cases were identified in this study. Combination therapy with piperacillin/tazobactam and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole or a fluoroquinolone resulted in a cure rate of 81.8 %. The mortality rate was 15.4 % and neurological morbidity in patients with bacteraemia and meningitis remained high (75 %). Conclusions. Treatment with combination therapy of piperacillin/tazobactam and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole or a fluroquinolone was effective in this study, with low mortality rates being observed.

Enhancements in the diagnostic capabilities using host biomarkers are currently much needed where sensitivity and specificity issues plague the diagnosis of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) in pediatrics clinical samples. We investigated miRNome profiles of HFMD saliva samples against healthy children and developed miRNA-based diagnosis models. Our 6-miRNA scoring model predicted HFMD with an overall accuracy of 85.11% in the training set and 92.86% in the blinded test set of Singapore cohort. Blinded evaluation of the model in Taiwan HFMD cases resulted in 77.08% accuracy with the 6-miRNA model and 68.75% with the 4-miRNA model. The strongest predictor of HFMD in all of the panels, hsa-miR-221 was found to be consistently and significantly downregulated in all of our HFMD cohorts. This is the first study to prove that HFMD infection could be diagnosed by circulating miRNAs in patient's saliva. Moreover, this study also serves as a stepping stone towards the future development of other infectious disease diagnosis workflows using novel biomarkers.