Global prevalence and content of information about alcohol use as a cancer risk factor on Twitter.

Objectives: Alcohol use is a major risk factor for several forms of cancer, though many people have limited knowledge of this link. Public health communicators and cancer advocates desire to increase awareness of this link with the long-term goal of reducing cancer burden. The current study is the first to examine the prevalence and content of information about alcohol use as a cancer risk on social media internationally.

Search Term Identification Methods for Computational Health Communication: Word Embedding and Network Approach for Health Content on YouTube.

Background: Common methods for extracting content in health communication research typically involve using a set of well-established queries, often names of medical procedures or diseases, that are often technical or rarely used in the public discussion of health topics. Although these methods produce high recall (ie, retrieve highly relevant content), they tend to overlook health messages that feature colloquial language and layperson vocabularies on social media. Given how such messages could contain misinformation or obscure content that circumvents official medical concepts, correctly identifying (and analyzing) them is crucial to the study of user-generated health content on social media platforms.

Emergence of GII.Pg norovirus in gastroenteritis outbreaks in Victoria, Australia.

The ORF 1 GII.Pg genotype represents an obligatory recombinant comprising the ORF 1 GII.Pg genotype and a number of ORF 2 genotypes.

Evaluation of the updated RIDA®QUICK (Version N1402) immunochromatographic assay for the detection of norovirus in clinical specimens.

The sensitivity and specificity of the R-Biopharm RIDA(®)QUICK (N1402) immunochromatography assay for norovirus detection was examined using fecal material from Australian gastroenteritis incidents. The study involved the analysis of 3 groups of specimens; group 1 comprised 100 norovirus open reading frame (ORF) 1 RT-PCR positive specimens; group 2 comprised 100 ORF 1 RT-PCR norovirus negative specimens and group 3 comprised 12 specimens containing common gastroenteritis viruses other than norovirus. The RIDA(®)QUICK (N1402) assay detected both GI and GII norovirus and had an overall sensitivity of 87%.

Norovirus genotype diversity associated with gastroenteritis outbreaks in Victoria in 2013.

The noroviruses are now considered a leading cause of outbreaks of non-bacterial gastroenteritis worldwide. Vaccine strategies against norovirus are currently under consideration but depend on a detailed knowledge of the capsid genotypes. This study examined the incidence of norovirus outbreaks in Victoria over 1 year (2013) and documented the genotypes occurring in the different outbreak settings (healthcare and non-healthcare) and age groups.

Norovirus genotype diversity in community-based sporadic gastroenteritis incidents: a five-year study.

Although norovirus is a known cause of sporadic gastroenteritis, the incidence and genotypes of norovirus associated with sporadic community-based gastroenteritis are poorly understood. The current study examined this issue by using material from alleged food poisoning incidents in the state of Victoria, Australia, for the period 2008-2012. Norovirus was identified, by either ORF (open reading frame) 1 or ORF 2 RT-PCR methodology, in 159 of 379 (42.