Flexible scan statistic with a restricted likelihood ratio for optimized COVID-19 surveillance.

Disease surveillance remains important for early detection of new COVID-19 variants. For this purpose, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends integrating of COVID-19 surveillance with other respiratory diseases. This requires knowledge of areas with elevated risk, which in developing countries is lacking from the routine analyses.

Multivariate Poisson cokriging: A geostatistical model for health count data.

Multivariate disease mapping is important for public health research, as it provides insights into spatial patterns of health outcomes. Geostatistical methods that are widely used for mapping spatially correlated health data encounter challenges when dealing with spatial count data. These include heterogeneity, zero-inflated distributions and unreliable estimation, and lead to difficulties when estimating spatial dependence and poor predictions.

Expression patterns of immune checkpoint proteins and -induced cytokines in chronic hepatitis B virus-infected and uninfected individuals: A cross-sectional study.

Background And Aim: Chronic hepatitis B virus (CHB) infection remains a major public health problem. The American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) 2018 Hepatitis B Guidelines provide that CHB individuals not requiring antiviral therapy yet are monitored to determine the need for antiviral therapy in the future; however, these tests do not include measurement of cytokines and immune cell characterization. This case-control study compared the cytokine and immune checkpoint protein expression profiles between CHB individuals not yet on antiviral treatment and hepatitis B virus (HBV)-negative individuals.

Child maltreatment and peer relationship quality: Types and timing of maltreatment and gender differences.

Introduction: Research demonstrates that child maltreatment can negatively impact adolescent peer relationships. It is not well understood, however, how the type of maltreatment and its timing (when it occurs) affects the dimensions of peer relationship quality (i.e.

AMA1 and CSP antigen diversity in parasite isolates from southern Ghana.

Introduction: Diversity in malarial antigens is an immune evasion mechanism that gives malaria parasites an edge over the host. Immune responses against one variant of a polymorphic antigen are usually not fully effective against other variants due to altered epitopes. This study aimed to evaluate diversity in the Plasmodium falciparum antigens apical membrane antigen 1 (PfAMA1) and circumsporozoite protein (PfCSP) from circulating parasites in a malaria-endemic community in southern Ghana and to determine the effects of polymorphisms on antibody response specificity.

Predicting COVID-19 hospitalizations: The importance of healthcare hotlines, test positivity rates and vaccination coverage.

In this study, we developed a negative binomial regression model for one-week ahead spatio-temporal predictions of the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Uppsala County, Sweden. Our model utilized weekly aggregated data on testing, vaccination, and calls to the national healthcare hotline. Variable importance analysis revealed that calls to the national healthcare hotline were the most important contributor to prediction performance when predicting COVID-19 hospitalizations.

Evolution of spatial disease clusters via a Bayesian space-time variability modelling.

This study proposes to use exceedance posterior probabilities of a space-time random-effects model to study the temporal dynamics of clusters. The local time trends specified for each area is further smoothed over space. We modelled the common spatial and the space-varying temporal trend using a multivariate Markov Random field to incorporate within-area correlations.

Geospatial Health (GeoHealth): Current Trends, Methods, and Applications.

As an emerging field, Geospatial Health (GeoHealth) integrates geospatial technologies, (spatial) epidemiology, and health services/resource allocations (health accessibility), with a focus to fight the burden of diseases [...

World Hepatitis day 2021 -screening and vaccination against Hepatitis B virus in Accra, Ghana.

Background: In Ghana, Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains a major public health threat as in many parts of the world. Even with an effective vaccine, there are shortfalls with low vaccine coverage among adults. To create awareness and encourage vaccination, community engagement and public-private partnerships are needed in endemic settings to help fund campaigns and offer screening and vaccinations at no cost to under privileged people.

Comparison of the association between different ozone indicators and daily respiratory hospitalization in Guangzhou, China.

Background: Epidemiological studies have widely proven the impact of ozone (O) on respiratory mortality, while only a few studies compared the association between different O indicators and health.

Methods: This study explores the relationship between daily respiratory hospitalization and multiple ozone indicators in Guangzhou, China, from 2014 to 2018. It uses a time-stratified case-crossover design.

The "Nitrogen Effect": Complexation with Macrocycles Potentiates Fused Heterocycles to Form Halogen Bonds in Competitive Solvents.

Weak intermolecular forces are typically very difficult to observe in highly competitive polar protic solvents as they are overwhelmed by the quantity of competing solvent. This is even more challenging for three-component ternary assemblies of pure organic compounds. In this work, we overcome these complications by leveraging the binding of fused aromatic N-heterocycles in an open resorcinarene cavity to template the formation of a three-component halogen-bonded ternary assembly in a protic polar solvent system.

Short-term health impacts related to ozone in China before and after implementation of policy measures: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

This paper presents a meta-analysis of the impacts of short-term exposure to ozone (O) on three health endpoints: all-cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality in China. All relevant studies from January 1990 to December 2021 were searched from four databases. After screening, 30 studies were included for the meta-analysis.

Bayesian geostatistical modelling of stunting in Rwanda: risk factors and spatially explicit residual stunting burden.

Background: Stunting remains a significant public health issue in Rwanda and its prevalence exhibits considerable geographical variation. We apply Bayesian geostatistical modelling to study the spatial pattern of stunting in children less than five years considering anthropometric, socioeconomic and demographic risk factors in Rwanda. In addition, we predict the spatial residuals effects to quantify the burden of stunting not accounted for by our geostatistical model.

A 2-Month-Old with Kawasaki Disease with Coronary Artery Dilation in the Pre-COVID-19 Era.

BACKGROUND Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute inflammatory vasculitis, which occurs mostly in childhood, predominantly between the ages of 6 months and 5 years. The incidence of coronary artery abnormalities associated with KD has decreased from 25% to 4% as a result of timely diagnosis and treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG). Infants ≤6 months of age are the most likely to develop prolonged fever without the other clinical criteria for KD, and diagnosis can sometimes be challenging or delayed.

A Rare Congenital Cardiac Defect: Isolated Coronary Sinus Septal Defect and the Challenges of Diagnosis in a Child.

• Isolated coronary sinus defect without persistent left superior vena cava is a rare cardiac defect. • Diagnosis can be difficult in the absence of other defects in an asymptomatic child. • Missed or difficult cases to diagnose may be found incidentally in adulthood.

Modeling schistosomiasis spatial risk dynamics over time in Rwanda using zero-inflated Poisson regression.

The recorded clinical cases of S. mansoni at primary health facility level contain an excessive number of zero records. This could mean that no S.

Bayesian analysis of the short-term association of NO exposure with local burden of asthmatic symptoms in children.

Short-term exposure to air pollution has been associated with exacerbation of respiratory diseases such as asthma. Substantial heterogeneity in effect estimates has been observed between previous studies. This study aims to quantify the local burden of daily asthma symptoms in asthmatic children in a medium-sized city.

Modelling the impact of MAUP on environmental drivers for Schistosoma japonicum prevalence.

Background: The modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP) arises when the support size of a spatial variable affects the relationship between prevalence and environmental risk factors. Its effect on schistosomiasis modelling studies could lead to unreliable parameter estimates. The present research aims to quantify MAUP effects on environmental drivers of Schistosoma japonicum infection by (i) bringing all covariates to the same spatial support, (ii) estimating individual-level regression parameters at 30 m, 90 m, 250 m, 500 m and 1 km spatial supports, and (iii) quantifying the differences between parameter estimates using five models.

Mapping 123 million neonatal, infant and child deaths between 2000 and 2017.

Since 2000, many countries have achieved considerable success in improving child survival, but localized progress remains unclear. To inform efforts towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3.2-to end preventable child deaths by 2030-we need consistently estimated data at the subnational level regarding child mortality rates and trends.

Bayesian Random Effect Modeling for analyzing spatial clustering of differential time trends of diarrhea incidences.

In 2012, nearly 644,000 people died from diarrhea in sub-Saharan Africa. This is a significant obstacle towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 3 of ensuring a healthy life and promoting the wellbeing at all ages. To enhance evidence-based site-specific intervention and mitigation strategies, especially in resource-poor countries, we focused on developing differential time trend models for diarrhea.

Poisson-Gamma Mixture Spatially Varying Coefficient Modeling of Small-Area Intestinal Parasites Infection.

Understanding the spatially varying effects of demographic factors on the spatio-temporal variation of intestinal parasites infections is important for public health intervention and monitoring. This paper presents a hierarchical Bayesian spatially varying coefficient model to evaluate the effects demographic factors on intestinal parasites morbidities in Ghana. The modeling relied on morbidity data collected by the District Health Information Management Systems.

Modeling Schistosoma japonicum Infection under Pure Specification Bias: Impact of Environmental Drivers of Infection.

Uncertainties in spatial modeling studies of schistosomiasis (SCH) are relevant for the reliable identification of at-risk populations. Ecological fallacy occurs when ecological or group-level analyses, such as spatial aggregations at a specific administrative level, are carried out for an individual-level inference. This could lead to the unreliable identification of at-risk populations, and consequently to fallacies in the drugs’ allocation strategies and their cost-effectiveness.

Temporal trend and spatial clustering of cholera epidemic in Kumasi-Ghana.

Knowledge of the temporal trends and spatial patterns will have significant implications for effective preparedness in future epidemics. Our objective was to investigate the temporal trends and the nature of the spatial interaction of cholera incidences, dwelling on an outbreak in the Kumasi Metropolis, Ghana. We developed generalized nonparametric and segmented regression models to describe the epidemic curve.