Chemical Composition of Electronic Vaping Products From School Grounds in California.

Introduction: The use of electronic vaping products (EVPs) containing nicotine, marijuana, and/or other substances remains prominent among youth; with EVPs containing nicotine being the most commonly used tobacco product among youth since 2014. However, a detailed understanding of the chemical composition of these products is limited.

Aims And Methods: From February 25th to March 15th, 2019, a total of 576 EVPs, including 233 e-cigarette devices (with 43 disposable vape pens) and 343 e-liquid cartridges/pods/bottled e-liquids, were found or confiscated from a convenience sample of 16 public high schools in California.

Enabling accelerated vaccine roll-out for Public Health Emergencies of International Concern (PHEICs): Novel Oral Polio Vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) experience.

To address the evolving risk of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2), Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) partners are working closely with countries to deploy an additional innovative tool for outbreak response - novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2). The World Health Organization's (WHO) Prequalification program issued an Emergency Use Listing (EUL) recommendation for nOPV2 on 13 November 2020. The WHO's EUL procedure was created to assess and list unlicensed vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics to enable their use in response to a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).

Chemical Composition of JUUL Pods Collected From Students in California High Schools.

Purpose: To examine the chemical composition of JUUL pods collected from a convenience sample of 16 high schools in California to identify possible consumer modification or counterfeit use.

Methods: Using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry, we quantitatively analyzed the nicotine, propylene glycol (PG), and vegetable glycerin (VG) in JUUL pods (n = 26) collected from California high schools and compared results to commercial 3% (n = 15) and 5% (n = 24) JUUL pods purchased online.

Results: Most of the collected JUUL pods (24/26 pods) had a nicotine concentration (43.

Comparative Impact of Individual Quarantine vs. Active Monitoring of Contacts for the Mitigation of COVID-19: a modelling study.

Background: Voluntary individual quarantine and voluntary active monitoring of contacts are core disease control strategies for emerging infectious diseases, such as COVID-19. Given the impact of quarantine on resources and individual liberty, it is vital to assess under what conditions individual quarantine can more effectively control COVID-19 than active monitoring. As an epidemic grows, it is also important to consider when these interventions are no longer feasible, and broader mitigation measures must be implemented.

Individual quarantine versus active monitoring of contacts for the mitigation of COVID-19: a modelling study.

Background: Voluntary individual quarantine and voluntary active monitoring of contacts are core disease control strategies for emerging infectious diseases such as COVID-19. Given the impact of quarantine on resources and individual liberty, it is vital to assess under what conditions individual quarantine can more effectively control COVID-19 than active monitoring. As an epidemic grows, it is also important to consider when these interventions are no longer feasible and broader mitigation measures must be implemented.

Clinical Sequelae Associated with Unresolved Tropical Splenomegaly in a Cohort of Recently Resettled Congolese Refugees in the United States-Multiple States, 2015-2018.

Tropical splenomegaly is often associated with malaria and schistosomiasis. In 2014 and 2015, 145 Congolese refugees in western Uganda diagnosed with splenomegaly during predeparture medical examinations underwent enhanced screening for various etiologies. After anecdotal reports of unresolved splenomegaly and complications after U.

Incubation periods impact the spatial predictability of cholera and Ebola outbreaks in Sierra Leone.

Forecasting the spatiotemporal spread of infectious diseases during an outbreak is an important component of epidemic response. However, it remains challenging both methodologically and with respect to data requirements, as disease spread is influenced by numerous factors, including the pathogen's underlying transmission parameters and epidemiological dynamics, social networks and population connectivity, and environmental conditions. Here, using data from Sierra Leone, we analyze the spatiotemporal dynamics of recent cholera and Ebola outbreaks and compare and contrast the spread of these two pathogens in the same population.

Homelessness and Hepatitis A-San Diego County, 2016-2018.

Background: Hepatitis A is a vaccine-preventable viral disease transmitted by the fecal-oral route. During 2016-2018, the County of San Diego investigated an outbreak of hepatitis A infections primarily among people experiencing homelessness (PEH) to identify risk factors and support control measures. At the time of the outbreak, homelessness was not recognized as an independent risk factor for the disease.

Wound Botulism Outbreak Among Persons Who Use Black Tar Heroin - San Diego County, California, 2017-2018.

During September 29-October 6, 2017, the County of San Diego Public Health Services (COSD) was notified of two patients with suspected wound botulism and a history of using black tar heroin. On October 9, COSD, which had reported an average of one wound botulism case per year during 2001-2016, sent a health alert through the California Health Alert Network, notifying Southern California providers of these two patients, including their signs and symptoms and black tar heroin exposure. In collaboration with the California Department of Public Health, COSD conducted an investigation to identify additional cases, determine risk factors for illness, estimate cost of medical care, and develop recommendations to prevent further illness.

Unresolved Splenomegaly in Recently Resettled Congolese Refugees - Multiple States, 2015-2018.

In 2014, panel physicians from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), who conduct Department of State-required predeparture examinations for U.S.-bound refugees at resettlement sites in Uganda, noticed an unusually high number of Congolese refugees with enlarged spleens, or splenomegaly.

Population mobility reductions associated with travel restrictions during the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone: use of mobile phone data.

Background: Travel restrictions were implemented on an unprecedented scale in 2015 in Sierra Leone to contain and eliminate Ebola virus disease. However, the impact of epidemic travel restrictions on mobility itself remains difficult to measure with traditional methods. New 'big data' approaches using mobile phone data can provide, in near real-time, the type of information needed to guide and evaluate control measures.

Prolonging herd immunity to cholera via vaccination: Accounting for human mobility and waning vaccine effects.

Background: Oral cholera vaccination is an approach to preventing outbreaks in at-risk settings and controlling cholera in endemic settings. However, vaccine-derived herd immunity may be short-lived due to interactions between human mobility and imperfect or waning vaccine efficacy. As the supply and utilization of oral cholera vaccines grows, critical questions related to herd immunity are emerging, including: who should be targeted; when should revaccination be performed; and why have cholera outbreaks occurred in recently vaccinated populations?

Methods And Findings: We use mathematical models to simulate routine and mass oral cholera vaccination in populations with varying degrees of migration, transmission intensity, and vaccine coverage.

Comparing nonpharmaceutical interventions for containing emerging epidemics.

Strategies for containing an emerging infectious disease outbreak must be nonpharmaceutical when drugs or vaccines for the pathogen do not yet exist or are unavailable. The success of these nonpharmaceutical strategies will depend on not only the effectiveness of isolation measures but also the epidemiological characteristics of the infection. However, there is currently no systematic framework to assess the relationship between different containment strategies and the natural history and epidemiological dynamics of the pathogen.

Fractional dosing of yellow fever vaccine to extend supply: a modelling study.

Background: The ongoing yellow fever epidemic in Angola strains the global vaccine supply, prompting WHO to adopt dose sparing for its vaccination campaign in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, in July-August, 2016. Although a 5-fold fractional-dose vaccine is similar to standard-dose vaccine in safety and immunogenicity, efficacy is untested. There is an urgent need to ensure the robustness of fractional-dose vaccination by elucidation of the conditions under which dose fractionation would reduce transmission.

Measuring the association between artemisinin-based case management and malaria incidence in southern Vietnam, 1991-2010.

In addition to being effective, fast-acting, and well tolerated, artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are able to kill certain transmission stages of the malaria parasite. However, the population-level impacts of ACTs on reducing malaria transmission have been difficult to assess. In this study on the history of malaria control in Vietnam, we assemble annual reporting on malaria case counts, coverage with insecticide-treated nets (ITN) and indoor residual spraying (IRS), and drug purchases by provincial malaria control programs from 1991 to 2010 in Vietnam's 20 southern provinces.

Coffee rings as low-resource diagnostics: detection of the malaria biomarker Plasmodium falciparum histidine-rich protein-II using a surface-coupled ring of Ni(II)NTA gold-plated polystyrene particles.

We report a novel, low-resource malaria diagnostic platform inspired by the coffee ring phenomenon, selective for Plasmodium falciparum histidine-rich protein-II (PfHRP-II), a biomarker indicative of the P. falciparum parasite strain. In this diagnostic design, a recombinant HRP-II (rcHRP-II) biomarker is sandwiched between 1 μm Ni(II)nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) gold-plated polystyrene microspheres (AuPS) and Ni(II)NTA-functionalized glass.

Markov modeling analysis of health and economic outcomes of therapy with valsartan versus amlodipine in patients with type 2 diabetes and microalbuminuria.

Objective: To estimate 8-year health and economic outcomes of the angiotensin II receptor blocker valsartan versus the calcium channel blocker amlodipine in therapy of patients with type 2 diabetes and microalbuminuria based on clinical endpoints from a 6-month randomized controlled clinical trial, the MicroAlbuminuria Reduction With VALsartan (MARVAL) study.

Methods: We developed a Markov model that utilized urinary albumin excretion rate data to project patient distributions to 7 possible health states over 8 years. For each health state, we identified quality-adjustment weights (health utilities) and medical care costs from public sources.