Publications by authors named "K Durski"
Little is known about the epidemiology of leptospirosis in the Dominican Republic, the second most populous country in the Caribbean. We report on findings from a multi-stage household survey across two regions in the country that reveals a previously under-estimated burden of human Leptospira infection. Our findings, based on the reference-standard microscopic agglutination test, indicate a complex picture of serogroup diversity, spatial heterogeneity in infection and risk, and a marked discrepancy between reported cases and serologically estimated infections.
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- A study was conducted with 2,300 patients in the Dominican Republic between March 2021 and August 2022 to track changes in antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.
- The geometric mean of these spike-binding antibodies significantly increased from 6.6 BAU/mL early in the study to 1,332 BAU/mL by mid-2022.
- The results indicated that higher antibody levels were associated with a lower likelihood of acute infection, suggesting that monitoring both antibody levels and viral presence can help assess community immunity against emerging COVID-19 variants.
SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence, cumulative infections, and immunity to symptomatic infection - A multistage national household survey and modelling study, Dominican Republic, June-October 2021.
Lancet Reg Health Am
December 2022
Article Synopsis
- A study in the Dominican Republic assessed SARS-CoV-2 immunological protection and found that a significant percentage of the population had been exposed or infected.
- Out of 6,683 participants, the research estimated that 85% had immunological exposure, with 78% achieving at least 50% protection against symptomatic infection from the ancestral strain and 66% against the Delta strain.
- Factors such as age, outdoor work, smoking, urban living, and vaccination status influenced the level of protection, highlighting variations in immunological response across different demographics.
Health system resilience, known as the ability for health systems to absorb, adapt or transform to maintain essential functions when stressed or shocked, has quickly gained popularity following shocks like COVID-19. The concept is relatively new in health policy and systems research and the existing research remains mostly theoretical. Research to date has viewed resilience as an outcome that can be measured through performance outcomes, as an ability of complex adaptive systems that is derived from dynamic behaviour and interactions, or as both.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Sexual transmission chains of Ebola virus (EBOV) have been verified and linked to EBOV RNA persistence in semen, post-recovery. The rate of semen persistence over time, including the average duration of persistence among Ebola virus disease (EVD) survivors, is not well known. This cohort study aimed to analyze population estimates of EBOV RNA persistence rates in semen over time, and associated risk factors in a population of survivors from Sierra Leone.
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