Prevalence of chronic conditions in Syrian refugees to Ottawa.

Objective: To study the prevalence of chronic conditions (ie, anemia, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase [G6PD] deficiency, hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, and tobacco use) in Syrian refugees.

Design: Cross-sectional study. Four primary care health clinics received Syrian refugees from December 2015 to April 2016, and each followed a standard protocol for refugee health assessments.

Describing the burden of diphtheria in Canada from 2006 to 2017, using hospital administrative data and reportable disease data.

Background: Canada has maintained a low incidence of toxigenic diphtheria since the 1990s, supported by continued commitment to publicly funded vaccination programs.

Objective: To determine whether hospitalization data, complemented with notifiable disease data, can describe the toxigenic respiratory and cutaneous diphtheria burden in Canada, and to assess if Canada is meeting its diphtheria vaccine-preventable disease-reduction target of zero annual cases of locally transmitted respiratory diphtheria.

Methods: Diphtheria-related hospital discharge data from 2006 to 2017 were extracted from the Discharge Abstract Database (DAD), and diphtheria case counts for the same period were retrieved from the Canadian Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (CNDSS), for descriptive analyses.

Risk environments facing potential users of a supervised injection site in Ottawa, Canada.

Background: Supervised injection sites (SISs) have been effective in reducing health risks among people who inject drugs (PWID), including those who face issues of homelessness, mental health illness, interactions with local policing practices, and HIV infection. We investigate the risk behaviours and risk environments currently faced by potential users of an SIS in Ottawa to establish the need for such a service and to contribute to the design of an SIS that can address current health risks and reduce harm.

Methods: The PROUD cohort is a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project that examines the HIV risk environment among people who use drugs in Ottawa.

Establishing a community-based participatory research partnership among people who use drugs in Ottawa: the PROUD cohort study.

Background: Grounded in a community-based participatory research (CBPR) framework, the PROUD (Participatory Research in Ottawa: Understanding Drugs) Study aims to better understand HIV risk and prevalence among people who use drugs in Ottawa, Ontario. The purpose of this paper is to describe the establishment of the PROUD research partnership.

Methods: PROUD relies on peers' expertise stemming from their lived experience with drug use to guide all aspects of this CBPR project.

Hepatitis C virus load and expression of a unique subset of cellular genes in circulating lymphoid cells differentiate non-responders from responders to pegylated interferon alpha-ribavirin treatment.

Based on investigations of liver biopsy material, certain cellular genes have been implicated as correlates of success or failure to interferon alpha-ribavirin (IFN/RBV) therapy against hepatitis C. The current study aimed at determining whether expression of host genes thought to be relevant to HCV replication in the liver would be correlated with HCV infection status in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and also with patient responsiveness to IFN/RBV treatment. Therefore, PBMCs from patients with chronic hepatitis C responding (n = 35) or not (n = 49) to IFN/RBV and from healthy controls (n = 15) were evaluated for HCV RNA load and cellular gene expression.