Publications by authors named "Fazle Khan"

Background: Households are important for SARS-CoV-2 transmission due to high intensity exposure in enclosed spaces over prolonged durations. We quantified and characterized household clustering of COVID-19 cases in Fulton County, Georgia.

Methods: We used surveillance data to identify all confirmed COVID-19 cases in Fulton County.

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Article Synopsis
  • Long-term care facilities (LTCFs) in the US faced significant challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, with high rates of illness and death among residents and staff.
  • A study in Fulton County, Georgia, analyzed SARS-CoV-2 transmission in 60 LTCFs from March 2020 to September 2021, revealing that vaccination efforts led to a rapid decrease in case counts and outbreak duration after vaccines were introduced in December 2020.
  • The findings indicated that staff cases were more infectious than those of residents, supporting the idea that staff played a crucial role in spreading the virus within LTCFs, although the impact of vaccinated cases on transmission remains uncertain.
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Objective: To describe case rates, testing rates and percent positivity of COVID-19 among children aged 0-18 years by school-age grouping.

Design: We abstracted data from Georgia's State Electronic Notifiable Disease Surveillance System on all 10 437 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases among children aged 0-18 years during 30 March 2020 to 6 June 2021. We examined case rates, testing rates and percent positivity by school-aged groupings, namely: preschool (0-4 years), elementary school (5-10 years), middle school (11-13 years), and high school (14-18 years) and compared these data among school-aged children with those in the adult population (19 years and older).

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Background: We examined differences in mortality among coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in the first, second, and third waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study of COVID-19 cases in Fulton County, Georgia, USA, reported to a public health surveillance from March 2020 through February 2021. We estimated case-fatality rates (CFR) by wave and used Cox proportional hazards random-effects models in each wave, with random effects at individual and long-term-care-facility level, to determine risk factors associated with rates of mortality.

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Water availability is important for survival of millions of people living in the Himalayan region of Upper Indus Basin and adequate monitoring system is for better water resources management. In the present study, groundwater recharge appraisals in the Neelum watershed (Upper Indus Basin) were investigated by using water balance and geospatial modeling techniques on monthly time-scale climate data from 1989 to 2015. Results demonstrated that on an average out of total annual rainfall (i.

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Background: We present data on risk factors for severe outcomes among patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the southeast United States (U.S.).

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Background: Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous persons in the United States have an increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and death from COVID-19, due to persistent social inequities. However, the magnitude of the disparity is unclear because race/ethnicity information is often missing in surveillance data.

Methods: We quantified the burden of SARS-CoV-2 notification, hospitalization, and case fatality rates in an urban county by racial/ethnic group using combined race/ethnicity imputation and quantitative bias analysis for misclassification.

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Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous persons in the United States have an increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and death from COVID-19, due to persistent social inequities. The magnitude of the disparity is unclear, however, because race/ethnicity information is often missing in surveillance data. In this study, we quantified the burden of SARS-CoV-2 infection, hospitalization, and case fatality rates in an urban county by racial/ethnic group using combined race/ethnicity imputation and quantitative bias-adjustment for misclassification.

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Long-term care facility (LTCF) residents are at particularly high risk for morbidity and mortality associated with infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), given their age and high prevalence of chronic medical conditions, combined with functional impairment that often requires frequent, close contact with health care providers, who might inadvertently spread the virus to residents (1,2). During March-May 2020 in Fulton County, Georgia, >50% of COVID-19-associated deaths occurred among LTCF residents, although these persons represented <1% of the population (3,4). Mass testing for SARS-CoV-2 has been an effective strategy for identifying asymptomatic and presymptomatic infections in LTCFs (5).

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Mass screening for SARS-CoV-2 infection in long-term care facilities revealed significantly higher prevalence of infection in facilities that screened in response to a known infection compared to those that screened as a prevention measure. "Response" facilities had a SARS-CoV-2 prevalence of 28.9% while "preventive" facilities' prevalence was 1.

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  • The study analyzed mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from 85 unrelated Sariki individuals across various provinces in Pakistan, using blood samples preserved in EDTA vacutainers.
  • Researchers amplified and sequenced hypervariable regions of mtDNA, finding a total of 63 distinct haplotypes, with 58 being unique and 5 shared among individuals.
  • The most common haplotype identified was W6, present in 12.9% of the sample, indicating a high level of genetic diversity (0.9570) in the Saraiki population, which could be useful for forensic applications.
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  • * High genetic diversity (0.9688) and power of discrimination (0.9592) were observed in the Makrani population, indicating significant genetic variation.
  • * The analysis revealed an admixed mtDNA pool comprising African (28%), West Eurasian (26%), South Asian (24%), and East Asian (2%) haplogroups, contributing to a mtDNA variation database in Pakistan.
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Background: In 2009, Ghana adopted the Strengthening Laboratory Management Toward Accreditation (SLMTA) programme in order to improve laboratory quality. The programme was implemented successfully with limited donor funding and local human resources.

Objectives: To demonstrate how Ghana, which received very limited PEPFAR funding, was able to achieve marked quality improvement using local human resources.

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Background: Shigellosis outbreaks in daycare centers result in substantial disease and economic burdens in the United States. The emergence of multidrug resistant Shigella strains raises questions regarding control of transmission within daycare centers and treatment for children. From May to October 2005, 639 Shigella sonnei cases were reported in northwest Missouri, mostly among persons exposed to daycare centers.

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A vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus (VISA) isolated from the blood of a 46-year-old patient with endocarditis was determined to be pulsed-field type USA300, daptomycin nonsusceptible, and positive for the Panton-Valentine leukocidin genes. Development of the VISA phenotype does not appear limited to traditional health care strains of S. aureus.

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Background: Between September and December 2003, an outbreak of pertussis occurred in Cass County, MO, mostly among adolescent school children.

Methods: We conducted a 1:2 matched case-control study among school children and used conditional logistic regression to evaluate risk factors for pertussis, including the total number of vaccine doses received, age at administration of each dose of vaccine and the type of vaccine (whole cell or acellular).

Results: Of all 127 pertussis cases reported in this outbreak, the majority were adolescents (10-19 years of age, 50%) and adults (20 years or older, 22%); only 10% were infants and children less than 5 years of age.

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