Changing risk awareness and personal protection measures for low to high pathogenic avian influenza in live-poultry markets in Taiwan, 2007 to 2012.

Background: Outbreaks of low and high pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI, HPAI) H5N2 in chickens have occurred in Taiwan since 2003 and 2012, respectively. Fully understanding the different awareness, attitudes and protective behaviors adopted by workers in live-poultry markets (LPMWs) and local community residents (CRs) to face the challenges of LPAI and HPAI is very important to minimize viral adaptations to human populations.

Methods: A structural questionnaire containing information on respondents' occupation, personal risk awareness, attitudes toward different policies, and preventative measures was administered.

Risks of Breast and Endometrial Cancer in Women with Diabetes: A Population-Based Cohort Study.

Objective: We investigated the overall and age-specific risks of developing breast and endometrial cancer among women with diabetes in a population-based cohort study.

Methods: Women with diabetes (n = 319310) and age-matched controls (n = 319308), selected from ambulatory care claims and beneficiary registry in 2000, respectively were linked to the in-patient claims (2000-2008) to identify admissions due to breast (ICD-9-CM: 174) and endometrial (ICD-9-CM: 182) cancer. The person-year approach with Poisson assumption was used to estimate the incidence density rate.

Avian influenza risk perception and preventive behavior among traditional market workers and shoppers in Taiwan: practical implications for prevention.

Background: Avian influenza (AI) can be highly pathogenic and fatal. Preventive behavior such as handwashing and wearing face masks has been recommended. However, little is known about what psychosocial factors might influence people's decision to adopt such preventive behavior.

Increased seroprevalence of human herpesvirus 8 in patients with hematological disorders.

Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8) has been consistently linked to Kaposi's sarcoma and many hematological diseases such as pleural effusion lymphoma, multicentric Castleman's disease, some lymphoproliferative diseases and posttransplantation bone marrow failure. However, whether patients with hematological disorders are at a higher risk of HHV8 infection has not been determined. In this study, indirect immunofluorescence was used to detect antibodies against lytic antigens of HHV8 in 265 patients with hematological disorders.

Detection of bcr-abl gene expression at a low level in blood cells of some patients with essential thrombocythemia.

The major bcr-abl fusion gene is seen as a major marker of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). However, whether the bcr-abl transcript can be detected in patients with essential thrombocythemia (ET) is still a matter of controversy. We detected the messenger RNA expression of the bcr-abl gene using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction in peripheral-blood leukocytes (PBLs) from 63 patients with myeloproliferative disorders (including CML, ET, and polycythemia vera [PV]) and 51 normal, healthy volunteers.