First Isolation of Japanese Encephalitis Virus Genotype IV from Mosquitoes in Australia.

Widespread transmission of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) genotype four (GIV) occurred across mainland Australia in 2022. This resulted in forty-five human cases, including seven deaths, and the identification of JEV infection in over 80 commercial piggeries. We collected mosquitoes which were trapped using CO-baited light traps deployed near piggeries reporting disease or in regions linked to human cases in the Wide Bay region in the state of Queensland.

Income assistance use among young adults who were in British Columbia special education: A longitudinal cohort study.

Background: Persons with disability (PWD) experience disproportionately high poverty rates in Canada. This trend is apparent especially among youth compared to those who develop disabilities later in life. PWD in poverty have additional needs that increase barriers to full participation in society and translate to higher basic costs for daily living.

The transition to adult income supports for youth that received special education in British Columbia, Canada: A cohort study.

Youth in special education have complex needs that are supported across multiple systems. Our research investigates the use of adult income assistance, as one structure that supports youth as they transition to adulthood. We created a cohort of youth (5-22 years old) using linked administrative data from British Columbia government ministries from 1996 to 2018.

Leptospirosis is an emerging infectious disease of pig-hunting dogs and humans in North Queensland.

Background: Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease with a worldwide distribution, caused by pathogenic serovars in the genus Leptospira. Feral pigs are known carriers of Leptospira species and pig hunting using dogs is a common recreational activity in Queensland, Australia.

Methodology And Principal Findings: This study aimed to determine the seroprevalence of Leptospira spp.

SOS! Summer of Smoke: a retrospective cohort study examining the cardiorespiratory impacts of a severe and prolonged wildfire season in Canada's high subarctic.

Objectives: To determine healthcare service utilisation for cardiorespiratory presentations and outpatient salbutamol dispensation associated with 2.5 months of severe, unabating wildfire smoke in Canada's high subarctic.

Design: A retrospective cohort study using hospital, clinic, pharmacy and environmental data analysed using Poisson regression.

Employment, Education, and Income for Canadians with Developmental Disability: Analysis from the 2017 Canadian Survey on Disability.

This study assessed needs and outcomes for people with developmental disability (DD) to understand the socioeconomic status of this group prior to implementation of the Accessible Canada Act in June 2019. The 2017 Canadian Survey on Disability (CSD) was used to analyze data for a sample of individuals with self-reported disability. Data related to employment, education, income, housing, caregivers, and use of government benefits is reported.

Establishment of a longitudinal pre-clinical model of lyssavirus infection.

Traditional mouse models of lyssavirus pathogenesis rely on euthanizing large groups of animals at various time points post-infection, processing infected tissues, and performing histological and molecular analyses to determine anatomical sites of infection. While powerful by some measures, this approach is limited by the inability to monitor disease progression in the same mice over time. In this study, we established a novel non-invasive mouse model of lyssavirus pathogenesis, which consists of longitudinal imaging of a luciferase-expressing Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV) reporter virus.

Management of Central Nervous System Infections, Vientiane, Laos, 2003-2011.

During 2003-2011, we recruited 1,065 patients of all ages admitted to Mahosot Hospital (Vientiane, Laos) with suspected central nervous system (CNS) infection. Etiologies were laboratory confirmed for 42.3% of patients, who mostly had infections with emerging pathogens: viruses in 16.

Design of a Multidisciplinary Training Program in Complementary and Integrative Health Clinical Research: Building Research Across Interdisciplinary Gaps.

Despite wide use by the public, limited evidence is available for many complementary and integrative health (CIH) practices. Thus, clinical researchers knowledgeable about CIH disciplines are necessary to study the efficacy and effectiveness of CIH practices to benefit the public health. To partially address the need for clinical researchers versed in CIH, the authors of this study report the design of an interprofessional clinical research training program focused on CIH, the Building Research across Interdisciplinary Gaps (BRIDG) program, supported by a 5-year T90/R90 grant from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.

Determinants of clinical leptospirosis in Nepal.

Leptospirosis is an important zoonotic disease in Nepal; however, there is a lack of information on sources of leptospirosis infection for people and associated risk factors. We implemented a case-control study nested within a cross-sectional survey to investigate zoonotic risks of human leptospirosis among adult, febrile patients seeking treatment in healthcare centres in Kaski District, Nepal, from April to October 2013. The study population was 239 febrile patients; the data consisted of paired blood samples; questionnaires on clinical symptoms; occupational, environmental and animal exposures; and a blood sample from animals in the household.

A Large Leptospirosis Outbreak following Successive Severe Floods in Fiji, 2012.

Severe flooding has been linked to outbreaks of leptospirosis. Two sequential extreme flood events in Western Fiji caused the largest outbreak of leptospirosis recorded in the South Pacific, with 1,217 total suspected cases, of which 314 were probable and confirmed. Most (83%) cases occurred within 6 weeks of the flood events, displaying a biphasic epidemic curve associated with the floods.

Lived experience of a record wildfire season in the Northwest Territories, Canada.

Objectives: During the period of June-September 2014, the Northwest Territories (NWT) experienced its worst wildfire season on record, with prolonged smoke events and poor air quality. In the context of climate change, this study sought to qualitatively explore the lived experience of the 2014 wildfire season among four communities in the NWT.

Methods: Our team conducted 30 semi-structured interviews in four communities (Yellowknife, N'Dilo, Detah, and Kakisa).

Leptospirosis: An important zoonosis acquired through work, play and travel.

Background: Leptospirosis is one of the most common zoonotic diseases worldwide. Infection occurs through contact with infected animals, or soil or water that has been contaminated by the urine of infected animals. Risk factors include occupational and recreational exposures, contact with floodwaters, and travel to areas with a high risk of leptospirosis, particularly tropical, developing countries.

A Prospective Hospital Study to Evaluate the Diagnostic Accuracy of Rapid Diagnostic Tests for the Early Detection of Leptospirosis in Laos.

Leptospirosis is a globally important cause of acute febrile illness, and a common cause of non-malarial fever in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Simple rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are needed to enable health-care workers, particularly in low resource settings, to diagnose leptospirosis early and give timely targeted treatment. This study compared four commercially available RDTs to detect human IgM against spp.

Leptospirosis in Tasmanian Devils ( Sarcophilus harrisii ) in Tasmania, 2008-12.

In 2014, we performed a diagnostic study of leptospirosis in Tasmanian devil ( Sarcophilus harrisii ) samples collected between 2008 and 2012 from wild and captive animals. Tasmanian devil populations have been declining because of a facial tumor disease since the 1990s, with ongoing investigations examining potential causative agents. Identifying other causative pathogens that may contribute additively to their decline is important to preserve current and future populations.

The Aetiologies and Impact of Fever in Pregnant Inpatients in Vientiane, Laos.

Introduction: Laos has the highest maternal mortality ratio in mainland Southeast Asia and a high incidence of infectious diseases. Globally, malaria has been the pathogen most intensively investigated in relation to impact on pregnancy, but there has been relatively little research on the aetiology and impact of other diseases. We therefore aimed to determine the causes and impact of fever in pregnant women admitted to two central hospitals in Vientiane City, Lao PDR (Laos).

The Utility of Blood Culture Fluid for the Molecular Diagnosis of Leptospira: A Prospective Evaluation.

Leptospirosis is an important zoonosis worldwide, with infections occurring after exposure to contaminated water. Despite being a global problem, laboratory diagnosis remains difficult with culture results taking up to 3 months, serology being retrospective by nature, and polymerase chain reaction showing limited sensitivity. Leptospira have been shown to survive and multiply in blood culture media, and we hypothesized that extracting DNA from incubated blood culture fluid (BCF), followed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) could improve the accuracy and speed of leptospira diagnosis.

Pulmonary and Critical Care In-Service Training Examination Score as a Predictor of Board Certification Examination Performance.

Rationale: Most trainees in combined pulmonary and critical care medicine fellowship programs complete in-service training examinations (ITEs) that test knowledge in both disciplines. Whether ITE scores predict performance on the American Board of Internal Medicine Pulmonary Disease Certification Examination and Critical Care Medicine Certification Examination is unknown.

Objectives: To determine whether pulmonary and critical care medicine ITE scores predict performance on subspecialty board certification examinations independently of trainee demographics, program director competency ratings, fellowship program characteristics, and prior medical knowledge assessments.

Human Leptospirosis Infection in Fiji: An Eco-epidemiological Approach to Identifying Risk Factors and Environmental Drivers for Transmission.

Leptospirosis is an important zoonotic disease in the Pacific Islands. In Fiji, two successive cyclones and severe flooding in 2012 resulted in outbreaks with 576 reported cases and 7% case-fatality. We conducted a cross-sectional seroprevalence study and used an eco-epidemiological approach to characterize risk factors and drivers for human leptospirosis infection in Fiji, and aimed to provide an evidence base for improving the effectiveness of public health mitigation and intervention strategies.

Causes of Fever in Rural Southern Laos.

The etiology of fever in rural Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos) has remained obscure until recently owing to the lack of laboratory facilities. We conducted a study to determine the causes of fever among 229 patients without malaria in Savannakhet Province, southern Laos; 52% had evidence of at least one diagnosis (45% with single and 7% with apparent multiple infections). Among patients with only one diagnosis, dengue (30.

Validation of a microsphere immunoassay for serological leptospirosis diagnosis in human serum by comparison to the current gold standard.

A microsphere immunoassay (MIA) utilising Luminex xMap technology that is capable of determining leptospirosis IgG and IgM independently was developed. The MIA was validated using 200 human samples submitted for routine leptospirosis serology testing. The traditional microscopic agglutination (MAT) method (now 100 years old) suffers from a significant range of technical problems including a dependence on antisera which is difficult to source and produce, false positive reactions due to auto-agglutination and an inability to differentiate between IgG and IgM antibodies.

Orientia, rickettsia, and leptospira pathogens as causes of CNS infections in Laos: a prospective study.

Background: Scrub typhus (caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi), murine typhus (caused by Rickettsia typhi), and leptospirosis are common causes of febrile illness in Asia; meningitis and meningoencephalitis are severe complications. However, scarce data exist for the burden of these pathogens in patients with CNS disease in endemic countries. Laos is representative of vast economically poor rural areas in Asia with little medical information to guide public health policy.

Leptospirosis from water sources.

Leptospirosis outbreaks have been associated with many common water events including water consumption, water sports, environmental disasters, and occupational exposure. The ability of leptospires to survive in moist environments makes them a high-risk agent for infection following contact with any contaminated water source. Water treatment processes reduce the likelihood of leptospirosis or other microbial agents causing infection provided that they do not malfunction and the distribution networks are maintained.

Biochemical characterization and crystal structures of a fungal family 3 β-glucosidase, Cel3A from Hypocrea jecorina.

Cellulase mixtures from Hypocrea jecorina are commonly used for the saccharification of cellulose in biotechnical applications. The most abundant β-glucosidase in the mesophilic fungus Hypocrea jecorina is HjCel3A, which hydrolyzes the β-linkage between two adjacent molecules in dimers and short oligomers of glucose. It has been shown that enhanced levels of HjCel3A in H.