Lessons learned for public health workforce development: An evaluation of the centers for disease control and prevention's laboratory leadership service fellowship.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched the Laboratory Leadership Service (LLS) Fellowship Program in July 2015 to develop public health laboratory (PHL) leaders who will improve PHL quality and safety. This article describes a retrospective, summative evaluation to determine the extent to which LLS has met its short-term goals for PHL workforce development. The evaluation relied on existing data from routine LLS data collection and reporting, supplemented with a new alumni survey.

Antibody- and genome-based identification of recent HCV infection.

The diagnosis of recent HCV infection remains challenging due to the absence of serological markers specific to the early phase of infection. Clinical follow-up and seroconversion to anti-HCV immunoglobulin (Ig)G, detection of viral RNA and changes in levels of blood biomarkers associated with liver pathology provide circumstantial evidence of recent HCV infection. Studies based on anti-HCV IgG avidity, antigen-specific antibody profiling, HCV viral load fluctuations and signature changes in the HCV genome show potential to discriminate recent from persistent HCV infection.

Laboratory diagnostics for hepatitis C virus infection.

Identification of prevalent infection by hepatitis C virus (HCV) is based serologically on detecting anti-HCV immunoglobulin G, using immunoassays, immunoblot assays, and, more recently, immunochromatography-based rapid tests. None discriminate between active and resolved HCV infection. Tests for detecting HCV RNA identify active HCV infection but are costly.

Distinguishing acute from chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection based on antibody reactivities to specific HCV structural and nonstructural proteins.

Currently available serological assays for detection of antibodies to hepatitis C virus (HCV) cannot reliably discriminate acute from chronic HCV infection. We developed a multiplexed, flow-cytometric microsphere immunoassay to measure anti-HCV-IgG reactivities to the core, NS3, NS4, and NS5 HCV recombinant proteins and applied it to 99 serum samples from 24 anti-HCV seroconverters and 141 anti-HCV-IgG and HCV RNA-positive plasma specimens from chronically infected people. Differences in the geometric means or means of signal/cutoff ratios between the two sample sets were statistically significant for all the antigens tested.

A new algorithm for deduction of hepatitis B surface antigen subtype determinants from the amino acid sequence.

Objective: We have reexamined hepatitis B virus subtypes to determine the role of specific HBsAg amino acids in serologic reactivity because of problematic genotype/subtype associations seen in a set of geographically diverse serum specimens.

Methods: We obtained DNA sequences for 491 HBsAg-positive specimens from geographically distinct locations, determined their genotypes through phylogenetic analysis, and subtyped the specimens using an algorithm derived from published data on the molecular basis of HBsAg subtype reactivity. Problematic samples were subtyped serologically to resolve conflicts based on the amino acid sequence alone.