Assessing COVID-19 transmission through school and family networks using population-level registry data from the Netherlands.

Understanding the impact of different types of social interactions is key to improving epidemic models. Here, we use extensive registry data-including PCR test results and population-level networks-to investigate the impact of school, family, and other social contacts on SARS-CoV-2 transmission in the Netherlands (June 2020-October 2021). We isolate and compare different contexts of potential SARS-CoV-2 transmission by matching pairs of students based on their attendance at the same or different primary school (in 2020) and secondary school (in 2021) and their geographic proximity.

Changes in food behaviours during the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Australia.

Aim: The objective of this study was to explore changes in Australian consumer food behaviours during COVID-19 public health restrictions (lockdown), to provide insights into how this unforeseen crisis event affected dietary behaviour patterns.

Methods: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted in September 2020 with a nationally representative sample of the Australian adult population. Participants were asked to complete questions about (1) meal planning and food purchasing and (2) barriers to cooking, before and during a national-wide COVID-19 lockdown in early 2020.

Cross-sectoral genomic surveillance reveals a lack of insight in sources of human infections with Shiga toxin-producing , the Netherlands, 2017 to 2023.

Shiga toxin-producing (STEC) is a zoonotic pathogen associated with illness ranging from mild diarrhoea to haemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) or even death. Cross-sectoral data sharing provides an opportunity to gain insight in reservoirs and sources of human infections and starting points for pro-active measures. Nevertheless, phylogenetic clustering of STEC strains from animals, food and human cases is low in the Dutch surveillance system.

Blood-based biomarkers for early frailty are sex-specific: validation of a combined in silico prediction and data-driven approach.

Frailty is characterized by loss of physical function and is preferably diagnosed at an early stage (e.g., during pre-frailty).

Intestinal Carriage of Two Distinct -Carrying Strains by a Child with Uncomplicated Diarrhea.

Two distinct -carrying () strains, isolated from a child with uncomplicated diarrhea fifteen weeks apart, were characterized by combining short- and long-read sequencing to compare their genetic relatedness. One strain was characterized as Shiga toxin-producing (STEC)/typical enteropathogenic (tEPEC) O63:H6 with a repertoire of virulence genes including , (α2-subtype), , and . The other STEC with serotype O157:H16, reported for the first time as -carrying in this study, possessed, in addition, (ε-subtype) and , amongst other virulence-related genes.