Use of the PRECEDE-PROCEED Model in Piloting Vaccine Promotion and Infection Self-Protection: Intervention Development and Effectiveness Examination.

Objectives: This study aimed to tailor and pilot a health education program using the PRECEDE-PROCEED model to promote vaccination and enhance self-protective behaviors against COVID-19 in Hong Kong populations.

Study Design: Quasi-experimental study.

Methods: Phases 1-4 of the PRECEDE-PROCEED model were used to identify the needs for COVID-19 prevention.

Characteristics and pathogenicity of SWS causing high mortality in mud crab () aquaculture in Hong Kong.

Introduction: is a Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium belonging to the family of , a common pathogen in aquaculture animals, However, studies on its impact on (mud crabs) are limited. In this study, we isolated SWS from dead mud crab during a disease outbreak in a Hong Kong aquaculture farm, which caused up to 70% mortality during summer.

Methods: Experimental infection and histopathology were used to investigate the pathogenicity of SWS in and validate Koch's postulates.

Transmission Patterns of Co-Circulation of Omicron Sub-Lineages in Hong Kong SAR, China, a City with Rigorous Social Distancing Measures, in 2022.

Objective: This study aimed to characterize the changing landscape of circulating SARS-CoV-2 lineages in the local community of Hong Kong throughout 2022. We examined how adjustments to quarantine arrangements influenced the transmission pattern of Omicron variants in a city with relatively rigorous social distancing measures at that time.

Methods: In 2022, a total of 4684 local SARS-CoV-2 genomes were sequenced using the Oxford Nanopore GridION sequencer.

Comprehensive identification of pathogenic microbes and antimicrobial resistance genes in food products using nanopore sequencing-based metagenomics.

Foodborne pathogens, particularly antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacteria, remain a significant threat to global health. Given the limitations of conventional culture-based approaches, which are limited in scope and time-consuming, metagenomic sequencing of food products emerges as a promising solution. This method provides a fast and comprehensive way to detect the presence of pathogenic microbes and antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs).

Genetic mechanisms of co-emergence of INH-resistant strains during the standard course of antituberculosis therapy.

The incidence of isoniazid (INH) resistant is increasing globally. This study aimed to identify the molecular mechanisms behind the development of INH resistance in strains collected from the same patients during the standard course of treatment. Three strains were collected from a patient before and during antituberculosis (anti-TB) therapy.

An AI-empowered indoor digital contact tracing system for COVID-19 outbreaks in residential care homes.

An AI-empowered indoor digital contact-tracing system was developed using a centralized architecture and advanced low-energy Bluetooth technologies for indoor positioning, with careful preservation of privacy and data security. We analyzed the contact pattern data from two RCHs and investigated a COVID-19 outbreak in one study site. To evaluate the effectiveness of the system in containing outbreaks with minimal contacts under quarantine, a simulation study was conducted to compare the impact of different quarantine strategies on outbreak containment within RCHs.

Spatiotemporal Distribution of Tuberculosis in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia: A Hotspot Analysis.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health concern in low- and middle-income countries including Ethiopia. This study aimed to assess the spatiotemporal distribution of TB and identify TB risk factors in Ethiopia's Oromia region. Descriptive and spatiotemporal analyses were conducted.

Long-Read Sequencing with Hierarchical Clustering for Antiretroviral Resistance Profiling of Mixed Human Immunodeficiency Virus Quasispecies.

Background: HIV infections often develop drug resistance mutations (DRMs), which can increase the risk of virological failure. However, it has been difficult to determine if minor mutations occur in the same genome or in different virions using Sanger sequencing and short-read sequencing methods. Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) sequencing may improve antiretroviral resistance profiling by allowing for long-read clustering.

Identification of microbial community in the urban environment: The concordance between conventional culture and nanopore 16S rRNA sequencing.

Introduction: Microbes in the built environment have been implicated as a source of infectious diseases. Bacterial culture is the standard method for assessing the risk of exposure to pathogens in urban environments, but this method only accounts for <1% of the diversity of bacteria. Recently, full-length 16S rRNA gene analysis using nanopore sequencing has been applied for microbial evaluations, resulting in a rise in the development of long-read taxonomic tools for species-level classification.

Probable airborne transmission of causing an urban outbreak of melioidosis during typhoon season in Hong Kong, China.

Between January 2015 and October 2022, 38 patients with culture-confirmed melioidosis were identified in the Kowloon West (KW) Region, Hong Kong. Notably, 30 of them were clustered in the Sham Shui Po (SSP) district, which covers an estimated area of 2.5 km.

Evaluation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis enrichment in metagenomic samples using ONT adaptive sequencing and amplicon sequencing for identification and variant calling.

Sensitive detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) in small percentages in metagenomic samples is essential for microbial classification and drug resistance prediction. However, traditional methods, such as bacterial culture and microscopy, are time-consuming and sometimes have limited TB detection sensitivity. Oxford nanopore technologies (ONT) MinION sequencing allows rapid and simple sample preparation for sequencing.

Understanding spatiotemporal symptom onset risk of Omicron BA.1, BA.2 and hamster-related Delta AY.127.

Purpose: Investigation of the community-level symptomatic onset risk regarding severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants of concern, is crucial to the pandemic control in the new normal.

Methods: Investigated in this study is the spatiotemporal symptom onset risk with Omicron BA.1, BA.

Clinical utility of target amplicon sequencing test for rapid diagnosis of drug-resistant from respiratory specimens.

An in-house-developed target amplicon sequencing by next-generation sequencing technology (TB-NGS) enables simultaneous detection of resistance-related mutations in (MTB) against 8 anti-tuberculosis drug classes. In this multi-center study, we investigated the clinical utility of incorporating TB-NGS for rapid drug-resistant MTB detection in high endemic regions in southeast China. From January 2018 to November 2019, 4,047 respiratory specimens were available from patients suffering lower respiratory tract infections in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, among which 501 were TB-positive as detected by in-house IS6110-qPCR assay with diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of 97.

A multi-omics investigation into the mechanisms of hyper-virulence in .

Clinical manifestations of tuberculosis range from asymptomatic infection to a life-threatening disease such as tuberculous meningitis (TBM). Recent studies showed that the spectrum of disease severity could be related to genetic diversity among clinical strains of Certain strains are reported to preferentially invade the central nervous system, thus earning the label "hypervirulent strains".However, specific genetic mutations that accounted for enhanced mycobacterial virulence are still unknown.

Induction of amphotericin B resistance in susceptible by extracellular vesicles.

Drug resistance derived from extracellular vesicles (EVs) is an increasingly important research area but has seldom been described regarding fungal pathogens. Here, we characterized EVs derived from a triazole-resistant but amphotericin B-susceptible strain of . Nano- to microgram concentrations of EVs prepared from both broth and solid agar cultures could robustly increase the yeast's survival against both pure and clinical amphotericin B formulations in a dose-dependent manner, resulting in up to 16-fold changes of minimum inhibitory concentration.

Explosive outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant is associated with vertical transmission in high-rise residential buildings in Hong Kong.

The phenomenon of vertical transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in high-rise residential buildings (HRRBs) is unique in our densely populated cosmopolitan city. The compulsory testing of a whole building under the scheme of restriction-testing declaration (RTD) during the fourth wave (non-Omicron variant) and fifth wave (mostly Omicron variant) of COVID-19 outbreak in Hong Kong allowed us to study the prevalence of this phenomenon, which may represent a form of airborne transmission. From 23 January 2021 to 24 March 2022, 25,450 (5.

Application of digital PCR to determine the reliability of Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2 assay with envelope (E) gene negative and nucleocapsid (N2) gene positive results.

This study used digital polymerase chain reaction (dPCR) to determine whether envelope (E) gene-negative and nucleocapsid (N2) gene-positive (E-N+) results obtained with the Cepheid Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2 assay are reliable. Using droplet digital PCR results as a reference, 18 of 22 E-N+ samples with a low viral load (81.8%) were identified as true positives.

Screening Repurposed Antiviral Small Molecules as Antimycobacterial Compounds by a Lux-Based phoP Promoter-Reporter Platform.

The emergence of multidrug-resistant strains and hyper-virulent strains of are big therapeutic challenges for tuberculosis (TB) control. Repurposing bioactive small-molecule compounds has recently become a new therapeutic approach against TB. This study aimed to identify novel anti-TB agents from a library of small-molecule compounds via a rapid screening system.

Probable Animal-to-Human Transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Delta Variant AY.127 Causing a Pet Shop-Related Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Outbreak in Hong Kong.

Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can infect human and other mammals, including hamsters. Syrian (Mesocricetus auratus) and dwarf (Phodopus sp.) hamsters are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection in the laboratory setting.

Co-circulation of two SARS-CoV-2 variant strains within imported pet hamsters in Hong Kong.

During the investigation of a pet shop outbreak of severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) with probable hamster-to-human transmission, the environmental and hamster samples in epidemiologically linked pet shops were found positive for SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant AY.127 strains which are phylogenetically closely related to patients and reported European strains. This interspecies' spill-over has triggered transmission in 58 patients epidemiologically linked to three pet shops.

The Clinical Utility of Two High-Throughput 16S rRNA Gene Sequencing Workflows for Taxonomic Assignment of Unidentifiable Bacterial Pathogens in Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry.

Bacterial pathogens that cannot be identified using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) are occasionally encountered in clinical laboratories. The 16S rRNA gene is often used for sequence-based analysis to identify these bacterial species. Nevertheless, traditional Sanger sequencing is laborious, time-consuming, and low throughput.

A low-cost TaqMan minor groove binder probe-based one-step RT-qPCR assay for rapid identification of N501Y variants of SARS-CoV-2.

The increasing prevalence of N501Y variants of SARS-CoV-2 has kindled global concern due to their enhanced transmissibility. Genome sequencing is the gold standard method to identify the emerging variants of concern. But it is time-consuming and expensive, limiting the widespread deployment of genome surveillance in some countries.

Complementation of contact tracing by mass testing for successful containment of beta COVID-19 variant (SARS-CoV-2 VOC B.1.351) epidemic in Hong Kong.

Background: Global dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern (VOCs) remains a concern. The aim of this study is to describe how mass testing and phylogenetic analysis successfully prevented local transmission of SARS-CoV-2 VOC in a densely populated city with low herd immunity for COVID-19.

Methods: In this descriptive study, we conducted contact tracing, quarantine, and mass testing of the potentially exposed contacts with the index case.