In February 2021, Peru launched a COVID-19 vaccination campaign among healthcare personnel using an inactivated whole-virus vaccine. The manufacturer recommended 2 vaccine doses 21 days apart. We ...evaluated vaccine effectiveness among an existing multiyear influenza vaccine cohort at 2 hospitals in Lima. We analyzed data on 290 participants followed during February-May 2021. Participants completed a baseline questionnaire and provided weekly self-collected nasal swab samples; samples were tested by real-time reverse transcription PCR. Median participant follow-up was 2 (range 1-11) weeks. We performed multivariable logistic regression and adjusted for preselected characteristics. During the study, 25 (9%) participants tested SARS-CoV-2-positive. We estimated adjusted vaccine effectiveness at 95% (95% CI 70%-99%) among fully vaccinated participants and 100% (95% CI 88%-100%) among partially vaccinated participants. These data can inform the use and acceptance of inactivated whole-virus vaccine and support vaccination efforts in the region.
Studies of risk perception and risk communication concerning the nuclear area are quite common in scientific literature. However, though numerous studies on this topic point to the importance of ...scientific and technological knowledge in facilitating the reduction of perceived risks, there are few papers that effectively discuss the role of education in risk communication on the subject, particularly in Brazil. The objective of the present work was to reflect on this problem by analyzing the results obtained from two case studies on the implementation of the Brazilian Multipurpose Reactor, in the city of Iperó, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. As was verified in the investigation, most participants of the study had high perception of risk with respect to the implementation of the reactor. Nevertheless, although important in the project of the reactor implementation, it was verified that the state, municipal and community schools of the city of Iperó had not participated, in the public hearings nor had they discussed the issue inside the school community, until the moment of the research.
Some researchers point out the decline in contemporary cities of the use of public spaces, whether free or restricted access. In this sense, the present essay proposes a reflection on a "public ...sphere of organized presence", according to Habermas classification, as a rescue of the importance of this space for the exercise of citizenship and social-environmental responsibility. The reflection was based on the results obtained from a study in the district of Riacho Grande, São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo, Brazil, in which the environmental perception of the participants of the meetings about the region was known by documentary analysis, direct observation and interviews with questionnaires. It was possible to verify that this public space can facilitate a greater integration between the public administrators and citizens, helping even in the defense to the environment.
The automated collection of non-specific data from livestock, combined with techniques for data mining and time series analyses, facilitates the development of animal health syndromic surveillance ...(AHSyS). An example of AHSyS approach relates to the monitoring of bovine fallen stock. In order to enhance part of the machinery of a complete syndromic surveillance system, the present work developed a novel approach for modelling in near real time multiple mortality patterns at different hierarchical administrative levels. To illustrate its functionality, this system was applied to mortality data in dairy cattle collected across two Spanish regions with distinct demographical, husbandry, and climate conditions.
The process analyzed the patterns of weekly counts of fallen dairy cattle at different hierarchical administrative levels across two regions between Jan-2006 and Dec-2013 and predicted their respective expected counts between Jan-2014 and Jun- 2015. By comparing predicted to observed data, those counts of fallen dairy cattle that exceeded the upper limits of a conventional 95% predicted interval were identified as mortality peaks. This work proposes a dynamic system that combines hierarchical time series and autoregressive integrated moving average models (ARIMA). These ARIMA models also include trend and seasonality for describing profiles of weekly mortality and detecting aberrations at the region, province, and county levels (spatial aggregations). Software that fitted the model parameters was built using the R statistical packages.
The work builds a novel tool to monitor fallen stock data for different geographical aggregations and can serve as a means of generating early warning signals of a health problem. This approach can be adapted to other types of animal health data that share similar hierarchical structures.
A deeper understanding of the role of sialic/desialylated groups during TgMIC4-glycoproteins interactions has importance to better clarify the odd process of host cell invasion by members of the ...apicomplexan phylum. Within this context, we evaluated the interaction established by recombinant TgMIC4 (the whole molecule) with sialylated (bovine fetuin) and desialylated (asialofetuin) glycoproteins by using functionalized quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D). A suitable receptive surface containing recombinant TgMIC4 for monitoring β-galactose-containing carbohydrate ligand (limit of quantification ∼ 40 μM) was designed and used as biomolecular recognition platform to study the binding and conformational mechanisms of TgMIC4 during the interaction with glycoprotein containing (fetuin), or not, terminal sialic group (asialofetuin). It was inferred that the binding/interaction monitoring depends on the presence/absence of sialic groups in target protein and is possible to be differentiated through a slower binding kinetic step using QCM-D approach (which we are inferring to be thus associated with β-galactose ligand). This slower binding/interaction step is likely supposed (from mechanical energetic analysis obtained in QCM-D measurements) to be involved with Toxoplasma gondii (the causative agent of toxoplasmosis) parasitic invasion accompanied by ligand (galactose) induced binding conformational change (i.e., cell internalization process can be additionally dependent on structural conformational changes, controlled by the absence of sialic groups and to the specific binding with galactose), in addition to TgMIC4-glycoprotein solely recognition binding process.
Abstract
Background
Peru has one of the highest per capita SARS-CoV-2 death rates in Latin America. Healthcare workers (HCW) are a critical workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic but are themselves ...often at increased risk of infection. We evaluated SARS-CoV-2 attack rate and risk factors among frontline HCWs.
Methods
We performed a prospective cohort study of HCW serving two acute care hospitals in Lima, Peru from Aug 2020 to Mar 2021. Participants had baseline SARS-CoV-2 serology using the CDC ELISA, active symptom monitoring, and weekly respiratory specimen collection with COVID-19 exposure/risk assessment for 16-weeks regardless of symptoms. Respiratory specimens were tested by real-time reverse transcriptase PCR (rRT-PCR).
Results
Of 783 eligible, 667 (85%) HCW were enrolled (33% nurse assistants, 29% non-clinical staff, 26% nurses, 7% physicians, and 6% other). At baseline and prior to COVID-19 vaccine introduction, 214 (32.1%; 214/667) were reactive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. In total, 72 (10.8%; 72/667) HCWs were found to be rRT-PCR positive during weekly follow-up. Of the rRT-PCR positive HCWs, 37.5% (27/72) did not report symptoms within 1-week of specimen collection. During follow up, HCW without detectable SARS-CoV-2 antibodies at baseline were significantly more likely to be rRT-PCR positive (65/453, 14.3%) compared to those with SARS-CoV-2 antibodies at baseline (4/214, 1.9%) (p-value: < 0.001). Three HCW were both serologically reactive and rRT-PCR positive at baseline. Looking only at HCW without SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, nurse assistants (rRT-PCR positive: 18.6%; 27/141) and non-clinical healthcare workers (16.5%; 21/127) were at greater risk of infection compared to nurses (8.5%; 10/118), physicians (7.9%; 3/38), and other staff (10.3%; 4/29) (RR 1.95;95%CI 1.2,3.3; p-value: 0.01).
Conclusion
Baseline SARS-CoV-2 prevalence and 16-week cumulative incidence were substantial in this pre-vaccination Peruvian HCW cohort. Almost 40% of new infections occurred in HCW without complaint of symptoms illustrating a limitation of symptom-based HCW screening for COVID-19 prevention. Nurse assistants and non-clinical healthcare workers were at greater risk of infection indicating a role for focused infection prevention and risk reduction strategies for some groups of HCW.
Disclosures
Fernanda C. Lessa, MD, MPH, Nothing to disclose
Zika virus (ZIKV) is an arbovirus belonging to the genus Flavivirus (family Flaviviridae) and was first described in 1947 in Uganda following blood analyses of sentinel Rhesus monkeys. Until the ...twentieth century, the African and Asian lineages of the virus did not cause meaningful infections in humans. However, in 2007, vectored by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, ZIKV caused the first noteworthy epidemic on the Yap Island in Micronesia. Patients experienced fever, skin rash, arthralgia and conjunctivitis. From 2013 to 2015, the Asian lineage of the virus caused further massive outbreaks in New Caledonia and French Polynesia. In 2013, ZIKV reached Brazil, later spreading to other countries in South and Central America. In Brazil, the virus has been linked to congenital malformations, including microcephaly and other severe neurological diseases, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome. Despite clinical evidence, direct experimental proof showing that the Brazilian ZIKV (ZIKV(BR)) strain causes birth defects remains absent. Here we demonstrate that ZIKV(BR) infects fetuses, causing intrauterine growth restriction, including signs of microcephaly, in mice. Moreover, the virus infects human cortical progenitor cells, leading to an increase in cell death. We also report that the infection of human brain organoids results in a reduction of proliferative zones and disrupted cortical layers. These results indicate that ZIKV(BR) crosses the placenta and causes microcephaly by targeting cortical progenitor cells, inducing cell death by apoptosis and autophagy, and impairing neurodevelopment. Our data reinforce the growing body of evidence linking the ZIKV(BR) outbreak to the alarming number of cases of congenital brain malformations. Our model can be used to determine the efficiency of therapeutic approaches to counteracting the harmful impact of ZIKV(BR) in human neurodevelopment.
•Current therapy improvement trends include drug combinations and the use of carriers.•Novo discovery and repositioning of drugs lead the researches on novel therapies.•Plants are being widely ...explored as a source of new drug discovery.•Different strategies are being developed to improve topical photodynamic therapy.•Most in vivo tests use female BALB/c mice infected in the base of tail with L. amazonensis.
Leishmaniasis is a Neglected Tropical Diseases caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania. It is a major health problem in many tropical and subtropical regions of the world and can produce three different clinical manifestations, among which cutaneous leishmaniasis has a higher incidence in the world than the other clinical forms. There are no recognized and reliable means of chemoprophylaxis or vaccination against infections with different forms of leishmaniasis. In addition, chemotherapy, unfortunately, remains, in many respects, unsatisfactory. Therefore, there is a continuing and urgent need for new therapies against leishmaniasis that are safe and effective in inducing a long-term cure. This review summarizes the latest advances in currently available treatments and improvements in the development of drug administration. In addition, an analysis of the in vivo assays was performed and the challenges facing promising strategies to treat CL are discussed. The treatment of leishmaniasis will most likely evolve into an approach that uses multiple therapies simultaneously to reduce the possibility of developing drug resistance. There is a continuous effort to discover new drugs to improve the treatment of leishmaniasis, but this is mainly at the level of individual researchers. Undoubtedly, more funding is needed in this area, as well as greater participation of the pharmaceutical industry to focus efforts on the development of chemotherapeutic agents and vaccines for this and other neglected tropical diseases.
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UV sensor based on polyurethane foam Stragliotto, María Fernanda; Mosconi, Giuliana; Strumia, Miriam C. ...
Sensors and actuators. B, Chemical,
12/2018, Volume:
277
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
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•UV sensor based on surface color change of a polyurethane (PU) film was developed.•Photochemical modification of PU films increases absorption of visible radiation.•PU film was ...specifically sensitive to UV radiation (<390 nm) when exposed to sunlight.•A reflectance prototype containing an Arduino board was developed.
Ultraviolet light (UV) present in solar radiation has an important effect on the health of human skin. For that reason, we developed a disposable and easy-to-manufacture UV light sensor based on surface color change of a polyurethane (PU) film and examined its performance against radiation received from a lamp or from the sun. The chemical modification after UV exposition and the consequent color variation from light yellow to brown in PU sensor were studied by using RGB image analysis and a reflectance prototype containing an Arduino board. It was found that the photochemical modification of PU films increases absorption of visible radiation in the blue spectrum range. Furthermore, PU surface was more sensitive to UV (<390) than that found in visible light when exposed to sunlight, which was associated with the presence of a chromophore in the material modified. In addition, it was found that the extract obtained from irradiated PU showed its maximum absorption at 309 nm. Hence, the use of this economical light radiation sensor seems to be a very promising tool to determine exposure to UV light from the solar spectrum.
This cross-sectional study aimed to compare two clinical approaches based on visual criteria for secondary caries assessments and treatment decisions in permanent posterior teeth.
The two clinical ...visual criteria tested for the assessments of restored teeth were: FDI criteria-based on the caries presence, marginal adaptation and staining criteria, adapted from the FDI (International Dental Federation) criteria and CARS criteria-"Caries Associated with Restorations or Sealants" (CARS) criteria described by the International Caries Classification and Management System. Adults were randomized according to the criteria. One calibrated examiner assessed the restorations and assigned the treatment according to the criteria. The primary outcome was replacement indication.
A total of 185 patients were included, totalling 718 restorations. The strongest correlation founded between the methods was for the presence of caries lesions (Rho = 0.829). A moderate correlation (Rho = 0.420) was founded between the treatment decisions proposed by the CARS and by the FDI criteria. The multilevel regression analysis showed that the FDI criteria indicated five times more replacements when compared to the CARS (< 0.001). Also, using the FDI criteria restorations were 2.7 times more related to caries around restorations (p < 0.001) compared to the other criterion.
The visual criteria used on the restoration's assessment directly influences the treatment decision to intervene or not on the restoration. The use of a minimally invasive based approach for assessing secondary caries may prevent overtreatment.
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