National Weekly SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR Screening of All Workers in Long-Term Care Facilities Associated with Decrease in Resident Mortality Rate.

Introduction: Outbreaks of COVID-19 in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) have resulted mainly from disease transmission by asymptomatic health care workers. This study examines whether routine screening tests carried out on health care workers can help in reducing COVID-19 outbreaks, morbidity, and mortality of LTCF residents.

Methods: The study followed a weekly, nationwide, government-funded screening program of LTCF personnel for SARS-CoV-2, by using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction as the main testing technology.

Anxiety in the face of the first wave of the spread of COVID-19 in Israel: Psychosocial determinants of a "Panic-to-complacency-continuum".

Background And Methods: Based on an established ongoing prospective-longitudinal study examining anxiety in response to COVID-19, a representative sample of 1018 Jewish-Israeli adults were recruited online. A baseline assessment was employed two days prior to the first spread of COVID-19, followed by six weekly assessments. Three classes of general anxiety and virus-specific anxiety were identified: (1) "Panic" (a very high and stable anxiety throughout the spread), (2) "Complacency" (a very low and stable anxiety throughout the spread), and (3) "Threat-Sensitivity" (a linear increase, plateauing at the 5th wave).

Association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and the physical fitness of young-adult cadets: a retrospective case-control study.

Objectives: To determine the association of symptomatic and asymptomatic mild COVID-19 and the SARS-CoV-2 viral load with the physical fitness of army cadets.

Design: A retrospective case-control study.

Setting: Officers' Training School of the Israel Defense Forces.

The role of time-varying viral shedding in modelling environmental surveillance for public health: revisiting the 2013 poliovirus outbreak in Israel.

Environmental pathogen surveillance is a sensitive tool that can detect early-stage outbreaks, and it is being used to track poliovirus and other pathogens. However, interpretation of longitudinal environmental surveillance signals is difficult because the relationship between infection incidence and viral load in wastewater depends on time-varying shedding intensity. We developed a mathematical model of time-varying poliovirus shedding intensity consistent with expert opinion across a range of immunization states.

A Non-Randomized Controlled Trial for Reducing Postpartum Depression in Low-Income Minority Women at Community-Based Women's Health Clinics.

Objective: To analyze an intervention that delivered tailored clinic staff training on postpartum depression (PPD) followed by awareness raising and social support aimed at lowering PPD among low-income Bedouin women in southern Israel.

Methods: We conducted a non-randomized controlled trial at two women's health clinics. The study included 332 of the 384 eligible women recruited at baseline (intervention = 169, control = 163), who completed two face-to-face interviews, one at 26-38 weeks of pregnancy (Time 1) and one 2-4 months postpartum (Time 2).