Influenza-A mediated pre-existing immunity levels to SARS-CoV-2 could predict early COVID-19 outbreak dynamics.

Susceptibility to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections is highly variable and could be mediated by a cross-protective pre-immunity. We identified 14 cross-reactive peptides between SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A H1N1, H3N2, and human herpesvirus (HHV)-6A/B with potential relevance. The H1N1 peptide NGVEGF was identical to a peptide in the most critical receptor binding motif in SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that interacts with the angiotensin converting enzyme 2 receptor.

High sexual risk taking and diverging trends of HIV-1 and HIV-2 in the military of Guinea Bissau.

Background: HIV and other sexually transmitted infections are a growing problem in the military personnel of Africa, and information about this problem in Guinea-Bissau is lacking. The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence and trends of the HIV epidemics in the military forces of Guinea Bissau and to explore possible risk factors for HIV infection.

Methodology: Repeated cross-sectional surveys of HIV-1 and HIV-2 were conducted between 1992 and 2005, and knowledge, sexual behaviour and risk factors for HIV-1 and HIV-2 in military personnel in Guinea-Bissau were assessed.

Risk factors for positive tuberculin skin test in Guinea-Bissau.

Background: The tuberculin skin test is used for tracing of tuberculosis transmission and identifying individuals in need of prophylactic treatment.

Methods: Using a case-control study design, we recruited 220 smear-positive tuberculosis cases and 223 randomly selected healthy community controls in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau, during 1999-2000. Tuberculin skin tests were performed on family members of cases and controls (n = 1059 and n = 921, respectively).

Clinical predictors for death in HIV-positive and HIV-negative tuberculosis patients in Guinea-Bissau.

Object: To assess easily monitored predictors for tuberculosis mortality.

Design: Risk factors for tuberculosis mortality were assessed during the 8-month treatment in 440 men and 269 women diagnosed with confirmed or presumed intrathoracic tuberculosis included prospectively in Guinea-Bissau from May 1996 to April 2001. A civil war occurred in the study area from June 1998 to May 1999.

Tuberculosis in Bissau: incidence and risk factors in an urban community in sub-Saharan Africa.

Background: Despite the long history of tuberculosis (TB) research, population-based studies from developing countries are rare.

Methods: In a prospective community study in Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau, we assessed the impact of demographic, socioeconomic and cultural risk factors on active TB. A surveillance system in four districts of the capital identified 247 adult (>or=15 years) cases of intrathoracic TB between May 1996 and June 1998.

GB virus C during the natural course of HIV-1 infection: viremia at diagnosis does not predict mortality.

Objective: To investigate whether GBV-C viremia at diagnosis of HIV-1 infection predicts disease outcome in patients not receiving combination antiretroviral therapy (ART), and whether longitudinal changes in GBV-C viremia are associated with disease progression.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Methods: 230 patients with a serum sample available for testing obtained within 2 years of HIV-1 diagnosis were followed until either initiation of ART, death, or their last visit to our clinic (median follow-up 4.

Social network, social support and the rate of decline of CD4 lymphocytes in asymptomatic HIV-positive homosexual men.

Aims: To test a stress-disease hypothesis by investigating the influence of social network and social support factors on the course over time of the CD4 lymphocytes in an HIV-positive population of gay men.

Methods: The study is a prospective cohort study of a representative population of HIV-positive gay men, undertaken at the Department of Infectious Diseases, Malmö University Hospital. This is the only clinic providing care for HIV-positive individuals in the city of Malmö in southern Sweden (population 248,000).

A case-control study of transmission routes for GB virus C/hepatitis G virus in Swedish blood donors lacking markers for hepatitis C virus infection.

Background And Objectives: The transmission routes for GB virus-C (GBV-C)/hepatitis G virus (HGV) in blood donors unexposed to hepatitis C virus (HCV) are unknown. We performed a case-control study of risk factors for GBV-C/HGV exposure in blood donors.

Materials And Methods: After testing stored sera from 458 HCV-negative blood donors for GBV-C/HGV RNA and GBV-C/HGV E2 antibodies, 66 donors with GBV-C/HGV markers and 125 age- and gender-matched controls were interviewed regarding risk factors for viral transmission.

Tuberculosis mortality during a civil war in Guinea-Bissau.

Context: Tuberculosis (TB) is an increasing global problem, despite effective drug therapies. Access to TB therapy during conflict situations has not been studied.

Objective: To determine the effect of irregular TB treatment due to an armed conflict in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa.

Intestinal parasites in HIV-2 associated AIDS cases with chronic diarrhoea in Guinea-Bissau.

Previous studies from African countries where HIV-1 infection is prevalent have shown that infections with Cryptosporidium parvum, Isospora belli and microsporidia are frequently associated with chronic diarrhoea in AIDS patients. The information about the occurrence of these parasites in HIV-2 associated AIDS cases with chronic diarrhoea is limited. We have performed a study of stool parasites in patients from Guinea-Bissau, the country with the highest prevalence of HIV-2 in the world.

Prevalences of HTLV-1 infection and associated risk determinants in an urban population in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa.

Objective: To assess the prevalence and modes of transmission of HTLV-1 infection in an adult population in Bissau, and to evaluate possible interactions between the pattern of spread of HTLV-1 and HIV-1/HIV-2.

Design And Methods: Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to evaluate gender-and age-specific HTLV-1 prevalences as well as associated risk determinants in an adult population based on a serosurvey comprising 2127 individuals from 304 randomly selected houses in Bissau.

Results: Using stringent Western blot criteria, the overall seroprevalence of HTLV-1 was 3.

Three-year follow-up of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa.

Setting: Raoul Follereau Hospital, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau.

Objective: To study the long-term outcome of patients with bacteriologically verified tuberculosis (TB), with or without human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) co-infection.

Design: Sputum samples were collected from all patients referred to the hospital with clinical symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis.

Trends and interaction of HIV-1 and HIV-2 in Guinea-Bissau, west Africa: no protection of HIV-2 against HIV-1 infection.

Objectives: To study trends in the prevalence and incidence of HIV-1 and HIV-2 infections in Guinea-Bissau over the last 7 years, and to evaluate the protective effect of HIV-2 against HIV-1 infection.

Design: Prospective follow-up of a cohort of police officers in Guinea-Bissau, and sentinel surveillance of pregnant women in Bissau.

Methods: Participants in the police cohort were tested regularly for antibodies to HIV and Treponema pallidum, and information about sexual risk behaviour and a history of sexually transmitted diseases was obtained.

Child survival in children born to HIV-2 infected women in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa.

We have retrospectively studied the effect of maternal HIV-2 infection and other risk factors on child survival at a family planning centre in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. A total of 2109 women were included, and the seroprevalence of HIV-2 was 5.7%.

Clinical features, immunological changes and mortality in a cohort of HIV-2-infected individuals in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau.

Clinical symptoms and immunological changes associated with HIV-2 infection were studied in a cohort of police officers in Guinea-Bissau. HIV-related symptoms were classified according to the WHO clinical staging system. The inclusion period was from January 1990 to January 1997, and among 2637 subjects included (90.

Declining HIV-2 prevalence and incidence among men in a community study from Guinea-Bissau.

Objective: To assess the present level of HIV-2 infection in an adult population in Bissau and to evaluate sex and age-specific changes in HIV-2 prevalence and incidence between 1987 and 1996.

Design And Methods: Sex and age-specific changes in HIV-2 prevalence were evaluated comparing a survey from 1987 in a sample of 100 houses with a survey performed in 1996 in an independent sample of 212 houses from the same study area. HIV-2 incidence rates were examined in an adult population (age > or = 15 years) from 100 randomly selected houses followed with four consecutive HIV serosurveys from 1987 to 1996.

HIV-2 genetic variation and DNA load in asymptomatic carriers and AIDS cases in Guinea-Bissau.

The purpose of this study was to document which genetic subtypes of HIV-2 are present in Guinea-Bissau and to investigate whether asymptomatic HIV-2 carriers and AIDS patients carry distinct genetic variants. A secondary aim was to correlate proviral DNA load to clinical and immunologic status of the patients. Thirty-eight asymptomatic HIV-2 carriers and 11 AIDS patients from Bissau, Guinea-Bissau were included in a cross-sectional study in which HIV-2 env V3 sequences, HIV-2 DNA load, and CD4-positive (CD4+) lymphocyte counts were determined.

9-year HIV-2-associated mortality in an urban community in Bissau, west Africa.

Background: Community studies with 1-3 years of follow-up have reported four to five times higher mortality in HIV-2-infected than in uninfected adults. In a cohort study of HIV-1, an increasing difference in mortality rates of HIV-1-infected and uninfected individuals is expected over time, because of rising mortality with advancing HIV-1 infection. We therefore investigated long-term survival of HIV-2-infected adults.

Increased prevalence of HIV-2 infection in hospitalized patients with severe bacterial diseases in Guinea-Bissau.

We studied the association between HIV-2 infection and bacterial pneumonia, sepsis or pyomyositis, as well as the influence of HIV-2 infection on the clinical outcome in patients with these bacterial infections. A total of 201 consecutive hospitalized patients were included at the Simao Mendes National Hospital in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. Age- and sex-matched controls were selected from an ongoing census in a semi-urban area of Bissau.

Pulmonary tuberculosis in Guinea-Bissau: clinical and bacteriological findings, human immunodeficiency virus status and short term survival of hospitalized patients.

Objective: To study tuberculosis patients in Guinea-Bissau with regard to clinical findings, bacteriologically verified diagnosis, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status and short term survival.

Design: 763 consecutive patients referred to the tuberculosis clinic with pulmonary symptoms underwent clinical examination and Ziehl-Neelsen sputum microscopy. Sputum for culture of mycobacteria on Löwenstein-Jensen medium was collected from all hospitalized patients, who were also screened by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay for the presence of HIV-1 and HIV-2 antibodies.

Mycobacterium avium complex sputum isolates from patients with respiratory symptoms in Guinea-Bissau.

In total, 814 patients with clinically suspected tuberculosis were examined at the Raoul Follerau Hospital in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. Sputum samples were collected, and cultures were grown on Löwenstein-Jensen medium. Isolates were further characterized by standard biochemical methods and nucleic acid probes for Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC).

A community-based study of human immunodeficiency virus type 2 provirus load in rural village in West Africa.

A community-based study of provirus load in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 2-infected subjects was done in a rural village in Guinea-Bissau. HIV-2 provirus load varied considerably, with a geometric mean of 124.3 (95% confidence interval, 86.