Publications by authors named "Jeremy I Hawker"

Objectives: Gastrointestinal (GI) infections are common and most people do not see a physician. There is conflicting evidence of the impact of socioeconomic status (SES) on risk of GI infections. We assessed the relationship between SES and GI calls to two National Health Service (NHS) telephone advice services in England.

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Analysis of whole genome sequencing data uncovered a previously undetected outbreak of Salmonella Enteritidis that had been on-going for four years. Cases were resident in all countries of the United Kingdom and 40% of the cases were aged less than 11 years old. Initial investigations revealed that 30% of cases reported exposure to pet snakes.

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Background: A key component of strategies to reduce antimicrobial resistance is better antimicrobial prescribing. The majority of antibiotics are prescribed in primary care. While many existing surveillance systems can monitor trends in the quantities of antibiotics prescribed in this setting, it can be difficult to monitor the quality of prescribing as data on the condition for which prescriptions are issued are often not available.

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Cyclospora cayetanensis was identified in 176 returned travellers from the Riviera Maya region of Mexico between 1 June and 22 September 2015; 79 in the United Kingdom (UK) and 97 in Canada. UK cases completed a food exposure questionnaire. This increase in reported Cyclospora cases highlights risks of gastrointestinal infections through travelling, limitations in Cyclospora surveillance and the need for improved hygiene in the production of food consumed in holiday resorts.

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Objectives: To measure trends in antibiotic prescribing in UK primary care in relation to nationally recommended best practice.

Patients And Methods: A descriptive study linking individual patient data on diagnosis and prescription in a large primary care database, covering 537 UK general practices during 1995-2011.

Results: The proportion of cough/cold episodes for which antibiotics were prescribed decreased from 47% in 1995 to 36% in 1999, before increasing to 51% in 2011.

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The aim of this study was to describe the findings from an outbreak investigation following several apparently unrelated community outbreaks of gastroenteritis. Epidemiological, environmental, laboratory and traceback investigations were used to identify the source of the outbreak. We enrolled 23 (of 29) laboratory confirmed cases and 24 neighbourhood case-nominated controls in a case-control study which revealed that illness was associated with consumption of iceberg lettuce (matched odds ratio 8.

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Background: Every winter, hospitals in the UK and other developed countries experience a surge in respiratory admissions. Ecological studies suggest that social circumstances may be an important determinant.

Aim: To establish the most important factors associated with winter hospital admissions among older people presenting with acute respiratory disease, especially the relative effect of social factors.

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We examined MMR vaccine uptake among ethnic groups in Birmingham, UK between 1994 and 2000, a period incorporating adverse MMR vaccine publicity. From 1994 to 2000 overall uptake: (1) fell significantly from 91.1% in 1994 to 89.

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New evidence strengthens policy to vaccinate healthcare workers

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The aim of this study was to examine the effects of age, sex and social deprivation on mortality rates for respiratory infection. An ecological study was undertaken, using official public health mortality data and population census data for the West Midlands health region, UK. Postcodes at the time of death were used to assign Townsend deprivation scores and the resulting deprivation quintile.

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We examined hospital admissions for illness temporally associated with childhood immunisations to determine the influence of material deprivation. Children aged <5 years hospitalised in the West Midlands were identified using ICD10 codes (Y580-Y599) from April 1995 through March 2000. Material deprivation was measured using the Townsend score.

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Study Objective: To examine the relationship between social deprivation and risk of hospital admission for respiratory infection.

Methods And Subjects: Ecological study using hospital episode statistics and population census data. Cases were residents of the West Midlands Health Region admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of respiratory infection, acute respiratory infection, pneumonia or influenza over a 5-year period.

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This study examines the impact of H. influenzae type b (Hib) conjugate vaccine on sociodemographic risk factors for invasive H. influenzae disease in the 2 years before and immediately after the introduction of Hib conjugate vaccine.

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