Lessons from COVID-19 for rescalable data collection.

Novel data and analyses have had an important role in informing the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Existing surveillance systems were scaled up, and in some instances new systems were developed to meet the challenges posed by the magnitude of the pandemic. We describe the routine and novel data that were used to address urgent public health questions during the pandemic, underscore the challenges in sustainability and equity in data generation, and highlight key lessons learnt for designing scalable data collection systems to support decision making during a public health crisis.

Bilateral ectopic pelvic kidney associated to left ureteropelvic junction syndrome: A case report.

Bilateral ectopic pelvic kidney is an exceptional finding and it may be associated rarely with other abnormalities of the kidney such as uretero-pelvic junction syndrome. We report a case of bilateral ectopic pelvic kidney revealed by left flanc pain with a left uretero-pelvic junction syndrome and a right ureteral duplication proved by computed tomography. A MAG3 renal scintigraphy was performed confirming the obstructive uretero-pelvic junction.

Primary hydatid cyst of the kidney revealed by hydatiduria: A case report.

Hydatid disease is frequent in endemic regions especially in sheep farming areas. Kidneys are uncommonly affected (2%-4%). We report a case of right renal colic with hydatiduria revealing a primary renal hydatid cyst ruptured in the mid calyx proved by computed tomography scan and laboratory testing.

A rare case of ureteral tuberculosis mimicking a tumor.

Isolated ureteral involvement in urogenital tuberculosis is rare. The diagnosis can be difficult to evoke. The radiological aspect often evokes tumor involvement, hence the importance of mentioning this pathology in endemic countries.

Are Diabetic Patients at Increased Risk for Biochemical Recurrence After Radical Prostatectomy?

Introduction Diabetic patients are at a lower risk for prostate cancer. However, the relationship between diabetes mellitus (DM) and biochemical recurrence (BCR) after radical prostatectomy (RP) is less clear. The goal of our study was to determine diabetes's value as a biochemical recurrence predictor.

A Novel Tool for Real-time Estimation of Epidemiological Parameters of Communicable Diseases Using Contact-Tracing Data: Development and Deployment.

Background: The Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS) contains a management module to support countries in their epidemic response. It consists of the documentation, linkage, and follow-up of cases, contacts, and events. To allow SORMAS users to visualize data, compute essential surveillance indicators, and estimate epidemiological parameters from such network data in real-time, we developed the SORMAS Statistics (SORMAS-Stats) application.

Real-time monitoring of COVID-19 dynamics using automated trend fitting and anomaly detection.

As several countries gradually release social distancing measures, rapid detection of new localized COVID-19 hotspots and subsequent intervention will be key to avoiding large-scale resurgence of transmission. We introduce ASMODEE (automatic selection of models and outlier detection for epidemics), a new tool for detecting sudden changes in COVID-19 incidence. Our approach relies on automatically selecting the best (fitting or predicting) model from a range of user-defined time series models, excluding the most recent data points, to characterize the main trend in an incidence.

Exploring beyond clinical routine SARS-CoV-2 serology using MultiCoV-Ab to evaluate endemic coronavirus cross-reactivity.

The humoral immune response to SARS-CoV-2 is a benchmark for immunity and detailed analysis is required to understand the manifestation and progression of COVID-19, monitor seroconversion within the general population, and support vaccine development. The majority of currently available commercial serological assays only quantify the SARS-CoV-2 antibody response against individual antigens, limiting our understanding of the immune response. To overcome this, we have developed a multiplex immunoassay (MultiCoV-Ab) including spike and nucleocapsid proteins of SARS-CoV-2 and the endemic human coronaviruses.

EventEpi-A natural language processing framework for event-based surveillance.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 60% of all outbreaks are detected using informal sources. In many public health institutes, including the WHO and the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), dedicated groups of public health agents sift through numerous articles and newsletters to detect relevant events. This media screening is one important part of event-based surveillance (EBS).

Sperm DNA status in infertile patients with clinical varicocele.

Objective: To evaluate if a potential relationship exists between sperm nuclear DNA damage and clinical varicocele and to determine the impact of clinical varicocele on standard semen parameters.

Materials And Methods: A prospective study involving 30 infertile patients with clinical varicocele and 15 controls patients referred to our laboratory for routine spermiological exploration. Spermograms were performed and analyzed according to World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines 2010.

Idiopathic scrotal calcinosis: A new case report.

Scrotal calcinosis is a rare benign pathology and its etiology is still discussed. The main complaint is mostly aesthetic. The treatment of extended forms is a one-staged excision.

A Mislocated Intrauterine Device Migrating to the Urinary Bladder: An Uncommon Complication Leading to Stone Formation.

Intrauterine devices are a popular form of reversible contraception among women. Its administration can lead to some uncommon but serious complications such as perforation leading to its migration into adjacent organs. Like any foreign body, the presence of an IUD in the bladder can result in stone formation due to its lithogenic potential.

A Bayesian Monte Carlo approach for predicting the spread of infectious diseases.

In this paper, a simple yet interpretable, probabilistic model is proposed for the prediction of reported case counts of infectious diseases. A spatio-temporal kernel is derived from training data to capture the typical interaction effects of reported infections across time and space, which provides insight into the dynamics of the spread of infectious diseases. Testing the model on a one-week-ahead prediction task for campylobacteriosis and rotavirus infections across Germany, as well as Lyme borreliosis across the federal state of Bavaria, shows that the proposed model performs on-par with the state-of-the-art hhh4 model.

Transformation of a prostatic adenocarcinoma into squamous cell carcinoma after luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) agonist and radiotherapy treatment.

Squamous cell carcinoma of the prostate is rare and represents 0.5% to 1% of prostatic carcinomas. Transformation of prostatic adenocarcinoma into squamous cell carcinoma after LH-RH agonist intake has been reported in only 8 cases in the literature.

Non Typhoidal Salmonella Pyonephrosis in an Asymptomatic Immunocompetent Patient.

A 50-year-old man with no past medical history presented with 5 months history of right flank discomfort. Physical examination was unremarkable. CT-scan showed a large right renal pelvic calculi and upper pole hydronephrosis.

A Paratesticular Angiolipoma: A Case Report of a Rare Benign Scrotal Mass and Review of Literature.

We report a rare case of paratesticular angiolipoma in a young male. The patient is a 21-year-old male who presented with a palpable firm right intrascrotal mass of 21 mm. Ultrasound findings demonstrated that it is a solid mass.

Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy (PCNL): Standard Technique Versus Tubeless - 125 Procedures.

Introduction:  Tubeless percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) is the non-placement of a nephrostomy tube at the end of the procedure. The benefits of a nephrostomy tube placement are numerous as it provides adequate renal drainage. It may also tamponade bleeding and allow for an easier second-look nephroscopy.

Multiple unusual urological locations of hydatic cysts including kidney, retrovesical and spermatic cord. A new case report.

Human hydatidosis is endemic in regions with temperate climate where pastoral farming is common. It is frequent in the southern shore of the Mediterranean, particularly in the Maghreb countries. It remains asymptomatic for long period, and the diagnosis is often delayed.

Surveillance on speed: Being aware of infectious diseases in migrants mass accommodations - an easy and flexible toolkit for field application of syndromic surveillance, Germany, 2016 to 2017.

Europe received an increased number of migrants in 2015. Housing in inadequate mass accommodations (MA) made migrants prone to infectious disease outbreaks. In order to enhance awareness for infectious diseases (ID) and to detect clusters early, we developed and evaluated a syndromic surveillance system in three MA with medical centres in Berlin, Germany.

[Renal epithelioid angiomyolipoma mimicking renal carcinoma].

Epithelioid angiomyolipoma is a rare form of potentially malignant angiomyolipoma, recently considered separate entity by the World Health Organization classification of renal tumors. This lesion poses a problem in differential diagnosis with clear cell carcinomas. There are no clinical or radiological specific criteria that characterize this tumor.