Hand, turning a bolt with a wrench, attached to a metal water pipe in a grassy field

Strengthening One Health Surveillance in Thailand can enhance Global Health security. Using the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (U.S. CDC) “Guidelines for Evaluating Public Health Surveillance Systems” with the addition of three novel metrics: transparency, interoperability, and security, researchers evaluated an avian influenza (AI) surveillance system launched in 2016 in Thailand. The surveillance system included stakeholders from human, animal, and environmental sectors, at the central level and in four provinces, to monitor influenza A viruses within human, waterfowl, and poultry populations. The strengths of the AI surveillance system included acceptability, simplicity, representativeness, and flexibility, while challenges faced included data quality, stability, security, interoperability, and transparency. [One Health]

Malaria remains a leading cause of pediatric disease and death in Mozambique. Longitudinal surveillance data on children under 15 years admitted with malaria to a hospital in Mozambique was gathered between July 1997 and June 2017. During this period, 32,138 children were admitted with a malaria diagnosis. Malaria accounted for a large proportion of admissions, ranging from 76.9% in 2000–2001 to 27.5% in 2010–2011. The number of malaria admissions and deaths has decreased since 2002, while the median patient age has increased from 1.7 years (1997–2006) to 2.6 years (2006–2017). Case fatality ratios (CFRs) for severe malaria fluctuated between 7.2% (2010–2011) and 1.1% (2014–2015), varying by severe malaria syndrome (3.3% for anemia, 5.1% for respiratory distress, and 14.8% for cerebral malaria). Overall malaria CFRs (1.8%) did not vary by age group. [The Lancet Global Health]

High prevalence of intimate partner violence against infertile women in LMICs. Researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analyses to assess the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) against infertile women in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Of 2,661 references, 25 studies met the inclusion criteria for a meta-analysis, with a total sample size of 7,164 participants. Compared with the World Health Organization’s global estimates of rates of IPV for ever-married or ever-partnered women of reproductive age (13% over the last 12 months and 27% over a lifetime), the pooled prevalence of IPV against infertile women in this study was found to be higher, 36.0% over a 12-month period and 47.2% over a lifetime. Psychological violence was the most common form experienced, followed by physical violence, sexual violence, and economic coercion. [The Lancet Global Health]

The efficacy of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) is threatened by the emergence of invasive and resistant non-vaccine serotypes. In a systematic review of published surveillance studies reporting the rates of penicillin non-susceptible pneumococci (PNSP) in children under five in countries where PCV-10 and -13 were introduced, researchers sought to identify whether the introduction of the vaccines had led to a decrease in overall PNSP rates among the group studied. The overall observed trend following the introduction of PCV-10 and PCV-13 was a decrease in PNSP; however, an increase in PNSP rates (serotype 19A) was observed in PCV-10 settings. Emerging resistant non-vaccine type strains warrant continuous surveillance of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) in children under five to monitor penicillin resistance in PCV-10 and -13 settings. [Vaccine: X]

Social distancing behaviors are impacted by individuals’ social groups and circumstances. Researchers applied simple and multiple logistic regression models to data from a public survey (administered online and via telephone) in South Africa from April 8-29, 2020, to assess adherence to social distancing and its associated factors during the state-implemented lockdown in the country. Of 17,586 participants, 9.2% had come into close physical contact with a person outside their home (hugging, kissing, or shaking hands) in the previous seven days. Odds of physical contact with a person outside of the home were significantly higher among men, students, those misinformed on physical distancing, with angry attitudes about the lockdown, with a lack of confidence in the government response, people from households with communal water facilities, and with higher household size. [Psychology, Health & Medicine]

COVID-19 vaccines among youth deter hospitalizations but effectiveness wanes. To understand vaccination outcomes for children (aged 5 to 11 years) and adolescents (aged 12 to 17 years) who were fully vaccinated after the emergence of Omicron, researchers used four New York state databases to compare the number of cases and hospitalizations in fully vaccinated (≥14 days after primary series completion) and unvaccinated youth from November 29, 2021, to January 30, 2022. The unvaccinated vs. vaccinated incident rate ratios (IRR) declined between December and January for both children and adolescents. Hospitalizations were higher in unvaccinated than fully vaccinated youths by the week of January 24, with IRR of 1.9 for children compared with 3.7 for adolescents. Protection declined with time following vaccination; for 13 or fewer days after full vaccination, the IRR for unvaccinated vs. fully vaccinated adolescents was 4.3, but by 28 to 34 days it was 2. [JAMA]

Disparate healthcare coverage in the U.S. augmented the COVID-19 death toll. To understand how excess mortality from COVID-19 in the United States may be related to lower health insurance coverage, researchers assessed daily COVID-19 cases, hospitalization, and mortality stratified by region, age group, gender, and race from January 2020 to February 2021. The data were matched with structural characteristics of studied regions, including the average proportion with health insurance. Groups with lower health insurance coverage had significantly higher mortality and higher case counts and hospitalization rates. They were also less likely to be tested for the illness early in the pandemic. Researchers estimate that had there been full health insurance coverage, 60,000 deaths or 26% of the total death toll in the period analyzed could have been prevented. [The Lancet Regional Health – Americas]

Higher neutralizing antibody levels in mRNA compared with adenovirus vector-based COVID-19 vaccines. Researchers compared the ability of vaccines to recognize and neutralize SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs; Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron) among a prospective cohort of 165 healthcare workers in the Netherlands, vaccinated with one of four vaccines (BNT162b2, mRNA-1273, AZD1222 or Ad26.COV2.S). Serum sampling was performed five times between January, 2021 and January, 2022, including before and after booster vaccination with BNT162b2. Four weeks after finishing the initial vaccination series, SARS-CoV-2 wild-type neutralizing antibody titers were highest in mRNA-1273 recipients and substantially lower in those vaccinated with the adenovirus vector-based vaccines. The BNT162b2 booster vaccination increased neutralizing antibody titers for all groups, with substantial improvement against the VOCs, even the Omicron variant. [PLOS Medicine]

Lead exposure can increase antibiotic resistance. Heavy metals, like lead, often kill bacteria because they emit ions that stop their normal cell functions, however, bacteria exposed to high metal concentrations have gained survival traits that can combat antibiotics. Researchers in Wisconsin in the United States gathered health data from 695 adults, including skin, nose, and mouth swabs, along with saliva and stool samples. Testing revealed that 34% of participants had antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and among the participants with the highest levels of lead in their urine, more than 50% tested positive. [Scientific American]

Multi-drug resistant Pneumococci is a growing problem in Sweden. Whole-genome sequencing and antimicrobial susceptibility profiles were used to characterize the molecular epidemiology, presence of resistance genes, and selected virulence genes of extensively drug-resistant (n=15) and multi-drug resistant (MDR) (n=10) Streptococcus pneumoniae detected in clinical respiratory tract samples isolated from patients in a Swedish county from 2016 to 2018. Out of the 25 isolates, 19 were related to dominant global MDR lineages. While MDR S. pneumoniae is less common in Sweden than in other countries, virulent non-pneumococcal conjugate vaccines MDR serotypes may become a greater challenge as the presence of specific serotypes (3, 15A, and 19A) are persistent or increasing in invasive pneumococcal disease. [Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology]