Background: The effect of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir on post-COVID-19 outcomes for individuals who are immunocompromised is understudied. We aimed to examine the association of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir with post-acute sequelae and mortality among patients who are immunocompromised and admitted to hospital with COVID-19.
Methods: We did a retrospective cohort study using territory-wide electronic health records from the Hong Kong Hospital Authority and Hong Kong Department of Health.
While previous research examined coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) antiviral-vaccine interactions through exploratory subgroup analysis, none specifically designed for examining this interaction or its impact on post-acute outcomes. This study examined the interaction between nirmatrelvir-ritonavir and complete COVID-19 vaccination on reducing the risk of post-acute outcomes among COVID-19 patients. We followed COVID-19 patients hospitalized between 11 March 2022 and 10 October 2023, until 31 October 2023 in Hong Kong.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to decreased measles vaccination rates globally, exacerbating vaccine hesitancy. This study examines the relationship between COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and childhood measles vaccination among parents in Hong Kong.
Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted in Hong Kong from March to September 2022.
Febrile seizures are convulsions predominately occurring in young children. The effects of various exposomes, including influenza infection and external environmental factors, on febrile seizures have not been well-studied. In this study, we elucidated the relationships between ambient temperature, air pollutants, influenza infection, and febrile seizures using 22-year territory-wide hospitalization data in Hong Kong.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: While many investigations examined the association between environmental covariates and COVID-19 incidence, none have examined their relationship with superspreading, a characteristic describing very few individuals disproportionally infecting a large number of people.
Methods: Contact tracing data of all the laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases in Hong Kong from February 16, 2020 to April 30, 2021 were used to form the infection clusters for estimating the time-varying dispersion parameter (k), a measure of superspreading potential. Generalized additive models with identity link function were used to examine the association between negative-log k (larger means higher superspreading potential) and the environmental covariates, adjusted with mobility metrics that account for the effect of social distancing measures.