As the lives of people living with HIV (PLWH) become increasingly normalized, more focus is being given to the associated comorbidities of HIV, including those related to mental health such as ...depression. This study aims to evaluate the correlation between depressive symptoms and HIV outcomes in Vietnam through the measurement of CD4 cell count. A mixed design was utilized, in which both a longitudinal assessment of CD4 cell counts and a cross-sectional survey of depressive symptoms were conducted on 481 patients in the Bach Mai and Ha Dong HIV clinics (Hanoi, Vietnam). CD4 cell count data was extracted from the medical records of participants, and depressive symptoms were screened using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). The results illustrate that the presence of moderately severe to severe depressive symptoms is associated with lower CD4 cell counts, indicating poorer HIV outcomes resulting from comorbid depression. This correlation was especially noticeable in the PHQ-9 items for psychomotor agitation/retardation (p < 0.05) and suicidal ideation (p < 0.05). Future policy and treatment options for HIV in Vietnam should consider the presence of comorbid mental health conditions in order to provide more suitable and effective treatment in the goal of providing a higher quality of life for PLWH.
Central nervous system infections (CNSI) are a leading cause of death and long-term disability in children. Using ICD-10 data from 2005 to 2015 from three central hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City ...(HCMC), Vietnam, we exploited generalized additive mixed models (GAMM) to examine the spatial-temporal distribution and spatial and climatic risk factors of paediatric CNSI, excluding tuberculous meningitis, in this setting. From 2005 to 2015, there were 9469 cases of paediatric CNSI; 33% were ⩽1 year old at admission and were mainly diagnosed with presumed bacterial CNSI (BI) (79%), the remainder were >1 year old and mainly diagnosed with presumed non-bacterial CNSI (non-BI) (59%). The urban districts of HCMC in proximity to the hospitals as well as some outer districts had the highest incidences of BI and non-BI; BI incidence was higher in the dry season. Monthly BI incidence exhibited a significant decreasing trend over the study. Both BI and non-BI were significantly associated with lags in monthly average temperature, rainfall, and river water level. Our findings add new insights into this important group of infections in Vietnam, and highlight where resources for the prevention and control of paediatric CNSI should be allocated.
Adjunctive treatment to improve outcome from bacterial meningitis has centered on dexamethasone. Among Vietnamese patients with bacterial meningitis, cerebrospinal flu id (CSF) opening pressure and ...CSF:plasma glucose ratios were significantly improved and levels of CSF cytokines interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, and IL-10 and were all statistically significantly lower after treatment in patients who were randomized to dexamethasone, compared with levels in patients who received placebo.
Wilson disease (WD) is an autosomal recessive disorder of copper metabolism. The gene responsible for WD was discovered in 1993 and is located on chromosome 13 at 13q14.3. It encodes a ...copper-specific transporting P-type ATPase. Early diagnosis can improve treatment outcome and decrease the rate of disability or even mortality. We used Sanger sequencing to identify mutation hot spots in 55 northern Vietnamese with a clinical diagnosis of WD. Mutations were screened and detected by direct DNA sequencing. A total of 26 different
ATP7B
gene mutations were identified, including seven novel mutations (five nonsense and two missense mutations). The most frequent mutations were p.Ser105Ter (24.55%), p.Arg778Leu (5.45%) and p.Thr850Ile (4.55%). Mutation detection rate in exon 2 was 34.55% and ranked first, followed by exon 8 with 16.36%, and exon 18 with 10.91% each, thus, exons 2, 8 and 18 are the mutation hot spots for northern Vietnamese WD patients. These findings were different from previous studies in Asia. Our research established a suitable strategy for
ATP7B
gene testing in northern Vietnamese WD patients.
Child maltreatment remains a major health threat globally that requires the understanding of socioeconomic and cultural contexts to craft effective interventions. However, little is known about ...research agendas globally and the development of knowledge-producing networks in this field of study. This study aims to explore the bibliometric overview on child maltreatment publications to understand their growth from 1916 to 2018. Data from the Web of Science Core Collection were collected in May 2018. Only research articles and reviews written in the English language were included, with no restrictions by publication date. We analyzed publication years, number of papers, journals, authors, keywords and countries, and presented the countries collaboration and co-occurrence keywords analysis. From 1916 to 2018, 47,090 papers (53.0% in 2010⁻2018) were published in 9442 journals. Child Abuse & Neglect (2576 papers; 5.5%); Children and Youth Services Review (1130 papers; 2.4%) and Pediatrics (793 papers, 1.7%) published the most papers. The most common research areas were Psychology (16,049 papers, 34.1%), Family Studies (8225 papers, 17.5%), and Social Work (7367 papers, 15.6%). Among 192 countries with research publications, the most prolific countries were the United States (26,367 papers), England (4676 papers), Canada (3282 papers) and Australia (2664 papers). We identified 17 authors who had more than 60 scientific items. The most cited papers (with at least 600 citations) were published in 29 journals, headed by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) (7 papers) and the Lancet (5 papers). This overview of global research in child maltreatment indicated an increasing trend in this topic, with the world's leading centers located in the Western countries led by the United States. We called for interdisciplinary research approaches to evaluating and intervening on child maltreatment, with a focus on low-middle income countries (LMICs) settings and specific contexts.
A large measles virus outbreak occurred across Vietnam in 2014. We identified and obtained complete measles virus genomes in stool samples collected from two diarrheal pediatric patients in Dong Thap ...Province. These are the first complete genome sequences of circulating measles viruses in Vietnam during the 2014 measles outbreak.
In the fight against COVID-19, vaccination is vital in achieving herd immunity. Many Asian countries are starting to vaccinate frontline workers; however, expedited vaccine development has led to ...hesitancy among the general population. We evaluated the willingness of healthcare workers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
From 12 to 21 December 2020, we recruited 1720 healthcare workers from 6 countries: China, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and Bhutan. The self-administrated survey collected information on willingness to vaccinate, perception of COVID-19, vaccine concerns, COVID-19 risk profile, stigma, pro-socialness scale, and trust in health authorities.
More than 95% of the healthcare workers surveyed were willing to vaccinate. These respondents were more likely to perceive the pandemic as severe, consider the vaccine safe, have less financial concerns, less stigmatization regarding the vaccine, higher pro-socialness mindset and trust in health authorities. A high perceived pandemic risk index, low vaccine harm index and high pro-socialness index were independent predictors in multivariable analysis.
The majority of healthcare workers in Asia are willing to receive COVID-19 vaccination. Perceived COVID-19 susceptibility, low potential risk of vaccine harm and pro-socialness are the main drivers. These findings may help formulate vaccination strategies in other countries.
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•A semi-nested, heptaplex RT-PCR assay for SARS-CoV-2 detection has been developed.•The complex melting spectrum was interpreted by an artificial intelligence algorithm.•The developed ...assay enables 96-sample pooled testing for increase of testing capacity.•About 8,000 pre-amplified samples could be screened in one realtime PCR run.
Asymptomatic transmission was found to be the Achilles’ heel of the symptom-based screening strategy, necessitating the implementation of mass testing to efficiently contain the transmission of COVID-19 pandemic. However, the global shortage of molecular reagents and the low throughput of available realtime PCR facilities were major limiting factors.
A novel semi-nested and heptaplex (7-plex) RT-PCR assay with melting analysis for detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA has been established for either individual testing or 96-sample pooled testing. The complex melting spectrum collected from the heptaplex RT-PCR amplicons was interpreted with the support of an artificial intelligence algorithm for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA. The analytical and clinical performance of the semi-nested RT-PCR assay was evaluated using RNAs synthesized in-vitro and those isolated from nasopharyngeal samples.
The LOD of the assay for individual testing was estimated to be 7.2 copies/reaction. Clinical performance evaluation indicated a sensitivity of 100% (95% CI: 97.83–100) and a specificity of 99.87% (95% CI: 99.55–99.98). More importantly, the assay supports a breakthrough sample pooling method, which makes possible parallel screening of up to 96 samples in one real-time PCR well without loss of sensitivity. As a result, up to 8,820 individual pre-amplified samples could be screened for SARS-CoV-2 within each 96-well plate of realtime PCR using the pooled testing procedure.
The novel semi-nested RT-PCR assay provides a solution for highly multiplex (7-plex) detection of SARS-CoV-2 and enables 96-sample pooled detection for increase of testing capacity.
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