Prevalence of Dirofilaria immitis in dogs in Jamaica.

Dirofilaria immitis is a zoonotic vector-borne parasite that causes heartworm disease most commonly in canines. Although present in the Caribbean, no published work exists from Jamaica. Therefore, the aim of our study was to evaluate the prevalence of D.

Consecutive Evaluation of Systematic Community-Based COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Testing in Three Different Populations in Jamaica during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The rise in COVID-19 cases in late 2021 posed a grave threat to the public health system and the economy of Jamaica. A key pillar of controlling COVID-19 includes rapid diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals and their contacts. Hence, we evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of weekly deployment of antigen rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDTs) by conducting three 6-week studies within high-risk populations in Jamaica.

Health Status and COVID-19 Epidemiology in an Inland Region of Portugal: A Retrospective Study.

Multiple factors, from socioeconomic development to genetic background, can affect the regional impact of some diseases, and this has also been seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of this retrospective study was to characterize a population in the interior of Portugal regarding health status and COVID-19 epidemiology. Between October 2021 and January 2023, 1553 subjects residing in Beira Baixa, Portugal, were included.

Grandmotherhood is associated with reduced OXTR DNA methylation.

In mammals, both parental and alloparental care are associated with increased brain oxytocin signaling. Grandmothers are important alloparents in many human families. Based on animal model research showing that peripheral Oxtr methylation is associated with Oxtr expression in the nucleus accumbens, we investigated whether grandmaternal caregiving is associated with lower peripheral OXTR methylation.