Sequence-matching adapter trimmers generate consistent quality and assembly metrics for Illumina sequencing of RNA viruses.

Trimming adapters and low-quality bases from next-generation sequencing (NGS) data is crucial for optimal analysis. We evaluated six trimming programs, implementing five different algorithms, for their effectiveness in trimming adapters and improving quality, contig assembly, and single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) quality and concordance for poliovirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and norovirus paired data sequenced on Illumina iSeq and MiSeq platforms. Trimmomatic and BBDuk effectively removed adapters from all datasets, unlike FastP, AdapterRemoval, SeqPurge, and Skewer.

Assessing the mucosal intestinal and systemic humoral immunity of sequential schedules of inactivated poliovirus vaccine and bivalent oral poliovirus vaccine for essential immunization in Bangladesh: An open-label, randomized controlled trial.

In 2012, the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) recommended introduction of at least one inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) dose in essential immunization programs. We evaluated systemic humoral and intestinal mucosal immunity of a sequential IPV-bivalent oral poliovirus vaccine (bOPV) schedule compared with a co-administration IPV + bOPV schedule in an open-label, randomized, controlled, non-inferiority, inequality trial in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Healthy infants aged 6 weeks were randomized to either: (A) IPV and bOPV at 6 and bOPV at 10 and 14 weeks (IPV + bOPV-bOPV-bOPV); or (B) IPV at 6 and bOPV at 10 and 14 weeks (IPV-bOPV-bOPV).

SARS-CoV-2 Test-to-Stay in Daycare.

Background And Objectives: Test-to-stay concepts apply serial testing of children in daycare after exposure to SARS-CoV-2 without use of quarantine. This study aims to assess the safety of a test-to-stay screening in daycare facilities.

Methods: 714 daycare facilities and approximately 50 000 children ≤6 years in Cologne, Germany participated in a SARS-CoV-2 Pool-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) screening from March 2021 to April 2022.

Validation of improved automated nucleic acid extraction methods for direct detection of polioviruses for global polio eradication.

Polioviruses (PV), the main causative agent of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP), are positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses of the family Picornaviridae. As we approach polio eradication, accurate and timely detection of poliovirus in stool from AFP cases becomes vital to success for the eradication efforts. Direct detection of PV from clinical diagnostic samples using nucleic acid (NA) extraction and real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) instead of the current standard method of virus isolation in culture, eliminates the long turn-around time to diagnosis and the need for high viral titer amplification in laboratories.