Effectiveness and safety of a high-dose weekly vitamin D (20,000 IU) protocol in older adults living in residential care.

Objectives: To report 25 hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) concentrations, an indicator of vitamin D status, in older adults living in residential care 1 year after a protocol of weekly 20,000 IU of vitamin D was started.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: Five residential care facilities in British Columbia, Canada.

Pregnant women's knowledge, practices, and needs related to food safety and listeriosis: a study in British Columbia.

Objective: To understand the knowledge, attitudes, practices, and needs of pregnant women regarding food safety, including the risk of listeriosis, in order to develop targeted messages and educational resources in British Columbia (BC).

Design: Qualitative study using focus groups and quantitative study using a standardized questionnaire.

Setting: Seven family practice clinics in BC.

Investigation of the concurrent emergence of Salmonella enteritidis in humans and poultry in British Columbia, Canada, 2008-2010.

An increase in the rate of human infections with Salmonella enteritidis (SE) occurred between 2007 and 2010 in British Columbia (BC). During the same time period, an increase in SE from poultry-sourced isolates and increased clinical severity in poultry were also observed in BC. This article describes a multi-sectoral collaboration during a 3-year investigation, and the actions taken by public health and animal health professionals.

Where's the pump? Associating sporadic enteric disease with drinking water using a geographic information system, in British Columbia, Canada, 1996-2005.

We investigated whether risk of sporadic enteric disease differs by drinking water source and type using surveillance data and a geographic information system. We performed a cross-sectional analysis, at the individual level, that compared reported cases of enteric disease with drinking water source (surface or ground water) and type (municipal or private). We mapped 814 cases of campylobacteriosis, cryptosporidiosis, giardiasis, salmonellosis and verotoxigenic Escherichia coli infection, in a region of British Columbia, Canada, from 1996 to 2005, and determined the water source and type for each case's residence.

An Outbreak of Human Coronavirus OC43 Infection and Serological Cross-reactivity with SARS Coronavirus.

Background: In summer 2003, a respiratory outbreak was investigated in British Columbia, during which nucleic acid tests and serology unexpectedly indicated reactivity for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV).

Methods: Cases at a care facility were epidemiologically characterized and sequentially investigated for conventional agents of respiratory infection, SARS-CoV and other human CoVs. Serological cross-reactivity between SARS-CoV and human CoV-OC43 (HCoV-OC43) was investigated by peptide spot assay.

Effectiveness of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in Greater Vancouver, Canada: 2004-2005.

Active, population-based surveillance for invasive pneumococcal infections in Greater Vancouver (population 473,000 children) demonstrated a rapid, substantial decrease in incidence rates for children 6-23 months old with routine infant vaccination. In the subpopulation with best case ascertainment disease rates for 6-23 month olds decreased 84.6% (92.

Rapid and fatal meningococcal disease due to a strain of Neisseria meningitidis containing the capsule null locus.

Background: Neisseria meningitidis continues to be an important cause of invasive bacterial disease among children and young adults worldwide. In Canada, N. meningitidis strains that bear serogroups B and C polysaccharide capsules predominate.