

Japanese encephalitis virus is an RNA flavivirus that causes virus encephalitis across Asia, the western Pacific region and parts of Australia.
It is transmitted in an enzootic cycle and the virus is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected Culex tritaeniorhynchus mosquitoes.
There is no specific antiviral treatment for Japanese encephalitis virus and management is mainly symptomatic treatment and supportive care.
Personal protection from mosquito bites in endemic areas and obtaining vaccination are the primary strategies to control Japanese encephalitis virus infection due to lack of specific antiviral therapy, high case fatality, and substantial morbidity.
The diagnosis and treatment of multidrug-resistant (MDR) gram-negative bacteria in critically ill patients present many clinical challenges. Selection of appropriate antibiotic therapy in a timely manner requires patients’ comprehensive medical history, updated local knowledge of microbiological epidemiology, efficient use of diagnostic tools, and balancing of information from clinical trial data, real-world evidence (RWE), and guidelines.
In a symposium Pfizer organized in conjunction with the Asia Pacific Intensive Care Symposium (APICS), Professor David Paterson from the National University of Singapore discussed the importance of RWE in the antibiotic armamentarium, using ceftazidime-avibactam (CAZ-AVI, Zavicefta®) as an example. Dr Asok Kurup, Consultant Infectious Diseases Physician at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre, Singapore, explained how rapid diagnostics can guide treatment choices to improve patient outcomes in MDR gram-negative infections.