Trends in childhood asthma in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

Aim: Estimate the incidence of asthma among children aged 0 to 15 years in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden during 2000-2017.

Methods: Cases of preschool asthma (up to 6 years) and school-age asthma (from 6 years) were identified through national registers using an algorithm including hospital diagnoses and prescription medicines. The respective cumulative incidence (CI) was estimated in 1-year age intervals for each country and birth year.

Vaccination against measles-mumps-rubella and rates of non-targeted infectious disease hospitalisations: Nationwide register-based cohort studies in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.

Objectives: To investigate if receipt of measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine following the third dose of diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis (DTaP3) is associated with reduced rates of non-targeted infectious disease hospitalisations.

Methods: Register based cohort study following 1,397,027 children born in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden until 2 years of age. Rates of infectious disease hospitalisations with minimum one overnight stay according to time-varying vaccination status were compared using Cox proportional hazards regression analysis with age as the underlying timescale and including multiple covariates.

The importance of quality of health campaign information for outcome evaluation. A case study from Guinea-Bissau and Bangladesh.

Background: Numerous national health intervention campaigns, e.g. supplementary immunization campaigns/activities (SIAs), have been conducted in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) in the last decades.

A Risk Management Approach to Global Pandemics of Infectious Disease and Anti-Microbial Resistance.

Pandemics of infectious disease and growing anti-microbial resistance (AMR) pose major threats to global health, trade, and security. Conflict and climate change compound and accelerate these threats. The One Health approach recognizes the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health, but is grounded in the biomedical model, which reduces health to the absence of disease.

Randomized trial of BCG in healthcare workers to reduce absenteeism during the COVID-19 pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa.

Background: We tested whether providing BCG vaccine to healthcare workers (HCWs) could reduce non-planned absenteeism and thereby reduce the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare systems in Africa.

Methods: We conducted a multicenter, single-blinded, placebo-controlled randomized trial in Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique between December 2020 and June 2022. Participants were randomized 1:1 to BCG vaccine or placebo (saline) and followed by biweekly telephone calls for 6 mo.

Evaluating the effect of BCG vaccination for non-specific protection from infection in senior citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic: A randomised clinical trial.

Objectives: The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine may induce non-specific protection against unrelated infections. We tested the effect of BCG on the risk of infections among Danish senior citizens.

Methods: Single-blinded randomised controlled trial including 1676 volunteers >65 years.

Effect of a campaign with oral polio vaccine on general health: A cluster-randomised trial in rural Guinea-Bissau.

Objectives: To investigate in a cluster-randomised trial whether a campaign with oral polio vaccine (C-OPV) reduced mortality and morbidity.

Methods: We randomised 222 village clusters under demographic surveillance to an intervention (health check and C-OPV) or control group (health check only). Children aged 0-8 months were eligible.

Influenza vaccine effectiveness in immunocompromised patients with cancer: A Danish nationwide register-based cohort study.

Background: Influenza vaccination is free of charge for Danish citizens with acquired immunodeficiency but recommendations do not specifically target patients with cancer. This study investigated whether influenza vaccination reduces the main outcome of overall mortality and the secondary outcomes of influenza requiring treatment, pneumonia, myocardial infarction, stroke, heart failure, and venous thromboembolism in patients with cancer.

Methods: This was a register-based nationwide cohort study.

Contradictory mortality results in early 2-dose measles vaccine trials: interactions with oral polio vaccine may explain differences.

Objectives: Between 2003 and 2019, three trials (randomised controlled trials [RCTs]) in Guinea-Bissau randomised infants to an early 2-dose measles vaccine (MV) schedule at 4 and 9 months vs standard MV at 9 months. The RCTs produced contradictory mortality results; the effect being beneficial in the 2-dose group in the first but tending to have higher mortality in the last two RCTs. We hypothesised that increased frequency of campaigns with oral polio vaccine (C-OPV) explained the pattern.

Seasonal variation in BCG-induced trained immunity.

The Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine is a well-established inducer of innate immune memory (also termed trained immunity), causing increased cytokine production upon heterologous secondary stimulation. Innate immune responses are known to be influenced by season, but whether seasons impact induction of trained immunity is not known. To explore the influence of season on innate immune memory induced by the BCG vaccine, we vaccinated healthy volunteers with BCG either during winter or spring.

Fragment-Based Discovery of a Series of Allosteric-Binding Site Modulators of β-Glucocerebrosidase.

β-Glucocerebrosidase (GBA/GCase) mutations leading to misfolded protein cause Gaucher's disease and are a major genetic risk factor for Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies. The identification of small molecule pharmacological chaperones that can stabilize the misfolded protein and increase delivery of degradation-prone mutant GCase to the lysosome is a strategy under active investigation. Here, we describe the first use of fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) to identify pharmacological chaperones of GCase.

Maternal Bacille Calmette-Guérin Scars and Mortality Risk for Male and Female Newborns: Observational Study From Guinea-Bissau.

Background: Maternal priming with bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) has been associated with reduced mortality in male offspring. We investigated this association in a cohort of healthy BCG-vaccinated neonates.

Methods: This observational study within a randomized controlled trial comparing different BCG strains was conducted in Guinea-Bissau from 2017 to 2020.

Discovering Subgroups of Children With High Mortality in Urban Guinea-Bissau: Exploratory and Validation Cohort Study.

Background: The decline in global child mortality is an important public health achievement, yet child mortality remains disproportionally high in many low-income countries like Guinea-Bissau. The persisting high mortality rates necessitate targeted research to identify vulnerable subgroups of children and formulate effective interventions.

Objective: This study aimed to discover subgroups of children at an elevated risk of mortality in the urban setting of Bissau, Guinea-Bissau, West Africa.

Breast cysticercosis - a case report.

Isolated incidences of human cysticercosis have been reported world-wide, but it remains a major public health concern in endemic areas such as Mexico, Africa, South-East Asia, Eastern Europe, and South America. Cysticercosis most commonly involves the skeletal muscle, subcutaneous tissue, brain, and eyes. The breast is an uncommon site of presentation for cysticercosis.

Is vaccination against measles, mumps, and rubella associated with reduced rates of antibiotic treatments among children below the age of 2 years? Nationwide register-based study from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.

Objectives: Previous studies have shown that vaccination against measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) may have beneficial non-specific effects, reducing the risk of infections not targeted by the vaccine. We investigated if MMR vaccine given after the third dose of diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis vaccine (DTaP3), was associated with reduced rates of antibiotic treatments.

Methods: Register-based cohort study following children from the age of recommended MMR vaccination until age 2 years.

Effects of Neonatal BCG-Japan Versus BCG-Russia Vaccination on Overall Mortality and Morbidity: Randomized Controlled Trial From Guinea-Bissau (BCGSTRAIN II).

Background: Vaccination with the Danish strain of bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) has been associated with pronounced reductions in all-cause neonatal mortality and morbidity. Developing a skin reaction postvaccination is associated with markedly reduced mortality risk. It is unknown whether the beneficial nonspecific effects are maintained across different BCG strains.

Perspectives on development and advancement of new tuberculosis vaccines.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a leading cause of death worldwide and is estimated to have caused 1.3 million deaths worldwide in 2022. Approximately one quarter of the world's population are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, of whom up to 10% will progress to developing active TB disease.

A CAG repeat threshold for therapeutics targeting somatic instability in Huntington's disease.

The Huntington's disease mutation is a CAG repeat expansion in the huntingtin gene that results in an expanded polyglutamine tract in the huntingtin protein. The CAG repeat is unstable and expansions of hundreds of CAGs have been detected in Huntington's disease post-mortem brains. The age of disease onset can be predicted partially from the length of the CAG repeat as measured in blood.

The association between BCG scars and self-reported chronic diseases: A cross-sectional observational study within an RCT of Danish health care workers.

Introduction: The live-attenuated vaccines Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) and Vaccinia have been associated with beneficial non-specific effects. We assessed the prevalence of BCG and Vaccinia vaccine scars in a cohort of Danish health care workers and investigated the association between the presence of vaccine scars and self-reported chronic diseases.

Methods: Cross-sectional study utilizing baseline data collected during 2020-2021 at enrollment in a BCG trial aiming to assess the effect of BCG vaccination on absenteeism and infectious disease morbidity during the SARS-COV-2 pandemic.

Rethinking international financing for health to better respond to future pandemics.

International financing for health has been high on the political and global health agenda since COVID-19. The recent launch of the Pandemic Fund represents the first consolidated effort of the international community to mobilise additional voluntary financial resources for the purpose of strengthening global efforts in pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPR). Against such a dynamic landscape, building on recent critiques and new policy proposals, we propose a new generation of more equitable, effective and coordinated financing arrangements for pandemic PPR and for global health and development more broadly: lessons that could be applied in the ongoing endeavour of the Pandemic Fund.