Publications by authors named "Seema Jain"

Article Synopsis
  • - The EPIC study analyzed data from 2,272 adults hospitalized for pneumonia to understand the prevalence of Mycoplasma pneumoniae (Mp) using PCR testing on throat swabs from 2010 to 2012.
  • - Only 43 patients (1.8%) tested positive for Mp, primarily affecting younger adults (median age: 45), with some experiencing severe cases leading to ICU admissions, but no in-hospital deaths were reported.
  • - Factors linked to higher Mp detection included being younger and having certain radiographic findings, indicating the need for better testing methods to improve diagnosis and treatment options for pneumonia patients.
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  • - The study investigates the impact of social vulnerability on clinical outcomes for hospitalized influenza patients, analyzing data from over 57,000 cases between the 2014-2015 and 2018-2019 influenza seasons across 13 states.
  • - It aims to understand how social vulnerability correlates with severe outcomes like ICU admission, use of advanced respiratory support, and 30-day mortality, while also examining patterns of vaccine and antiviral use based on social vulnerability levels.
  • - Findings reveal that patients from areas with high social vulnerability experience worse outcomes, such as higher rates of needing invasive ventilation support compared to those from less vulnerable areas.
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Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a rare condition occurring after SARS-CoV-2 infection in children under 21 years of age. Children (5-17 years) with MIS-C meeting the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) case definition were reported via California's passive disease surveillance system. Incidence of MIS-C was compared in unvaccinated and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccinated children aged 12-17 and 5-11 years.

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Coccidioidomycosis, a fungal disease caused by soil-borne spp., exhibits pronounced seasonal transmission, with incidence in California typically peaking in the fall. However, the influence of climate on the timing and duration of transmission seasons remains poorly understood.

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Problem/condition: Seasonal influenza accounts for 9.3 million-41 million illnesses, 100,000-710,000 hospitalizations, and 4,900-51,000 deaths annually in the United States. Since 2003, the Influenza Hospitalization Surveillance Network (FluSurv-NET) has been conducting population-based surveillance for laboratory-confirmed influenza-associated hospitalizations in the United States, including weekly rate estimations and descriptions of clinical characteristics and outcomes for hospitalized patients.

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Article Synopsis
  • Individuals can experience long COVID symptoms even after having mild or no symptoms during the acute phase of infection, highlighting the need for accurate public health assessments.
  • This study analyzed over 10 million confirmed COVID-19 cases in California to estimate the loss of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) due to long COVID across different age groups, finding that younger adults (18-49) faced the highest overall loss.
  • The analysis suggests that while older adults experience severe long COVID effects, younger individuals may suffer significant cumulative impacts from mild symptoms, emphasizing the importance of understanding long COVID across all age groups.
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Background: More than four years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, understanding of SARS-CoV-2 burden and post-acute sequela of COVID (PASC), or long COVID, continues to evolve. However, prevalence estimates are disparate and uncertain. Leveraging survey responses from a large serosurveillance study, we assess prevalence estimates using five different long COVID definitions among California residents.

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Background: Coccidioidomycosis, an emerging fungal disease in the western USA, exhibits seasonal patterns that are poorly understood, including periods of strong cyclicity, aseasonal intervals, and variation in seasonal timing that have been minimally characterized, and unexplained as to their causal factors. Coccidioidomycosis incidence has increased markedly in recent years, and our limited understanding of intra- and inter-annual seasonality has hindered the identification of important drivers of disease transmission, including climate conditions. In this study, we aim to characterize coccidioidomycosis seasonality in endemic regions of California and to estimate the relationship between drought conditions and coccidioidomycosis seasonal periodicity and timing.

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Article Synopsis
  • Coccidioidomycosis, also known as Valley fever, is a fungal infection linked to wet winters following drought periods, with a significant spike in cases seen in California in 2023 due to wetter conditions after a statewide drought from 2020-2022.
  • The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) issued alerts due to the anticipated rise in infections, leading to nearly 9,054 reported cases in 2023 and forecasts for continued high risk in 2024-2025.
  • An ensemble model predicts that California could see over 12,000 cases in 2024-2025, especially in regions like the Southern San Joaquin Valley and Southern Coast, highlighting the seasonal peak in cases expected
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Background: Undernutrition in children under 5 years of age is still a great public health burden. Integrated child development services (ICDS) were launched with an idea of making a dent on this age-old issue. Various studies in the past have been done to identify lacunae in the programme, but very few studies are done focussing on the satisfaction of mothers with the supplementary nutrition provided through ICDS programme.

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Background: There is limited information on the extent and patterns of disparities in COVID-19 mortality throughout the pandemic. We aimed to examine trends in disparities by demographics over variants in the pre- and post-vaccine availability period among Californian workers using a social determinants of health lens.

Methods: Using death certificates, we identified all COVID-19 deaths that occurred between January 2020 and May 2022 among workers aged 18-64 years in California (CA).

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Background: Hypertension is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, affecting over one billion people. It is responsible for roughly half of all heart disease and stroke-related deaths globally. Because hypertension does not cause any symptoms on its own, it is commonly referred to as "the silent killer.

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Background: To describe the methodology for conducting the CalScope study, a remote, population-based survey launched by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) to estimate SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and understand COVID-19 disease burden in California.

Methods: Between April 2021 and August 2022, 666,857 randomly selected households were invited by mail to complete an online survey and at-home test kit for up to one adult and one child. A gift card was given for each completed survey and test kit.

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Introduction Diabetes is a long-term condition that necessitates ongoing medical attention and self-care to prevent immediate complications and minimize the likelihood of long-term issues. Early diagnosis is one of the most important steps for people living with diabetes to take. Public awareness regarding the importance of lifestyle modification in managing type 2 diabetes mellitus is a crucial preventive measure.

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Objective: To describe the implementation of a test-negative design case-control study in California during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Study Design: Test-negative case-control study.

Methods: Between February 24, 2021 - February 24, 2022, a team of 34 interviewers called 38,470 Californians, enrolling 1,885 that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (cases) and 1,871 testing negative for SARS-CoV-2 (controls) for 20-minute telephone survey.

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In March 2021, California implemented a vaccine equity policy that prioritized COVID-19 vaccine allocation to communities identified as least advantaged by an area-based socioeconomic measure, the Healthy Places Index. We conducted quasi-experimental and counterfactual analyses to estimate the effect of this policy on COVID-19 vaccination, case, hospitalization, and death rates. Among prioritized communities, vaccination rates increased 28.

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Surveillance data can provide rapid, within-season influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) estimates to guide public health recommendations. Mandatory reporting of influenza vaccine administration to California's immunization information registry began January 1, 2023, and mandatory reporting of all influenza laboratory test results, including negative results, was instituted in California on June 15, 2023. These data, collected by the California Department of Public Health during October 1, 2023-January 31, 2024, were used to calculate interim influenza VE against laboratory-confirmed influenza by comparing the odds of vaccination among case-patients (persons who received a positive influenza laboratory test result) and control patients (those who received a negative influenza laboratory test result).

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Introduction: Lack of childcare has been linked to missed health care appointments for adult women, especially for lower-income women. The COVID-19 pandemic created additional stressors for many low-income families that already struggled to meet childcare and health care needs. By exploring the experiences of women who were referred for childcare services at a U.

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We assessed tuberculosis (TB) diagnostic delays among patients with TB and COVID-19 in California, USA. Among 58 persons, 43% experienced TB diagnostic delays, and a high proportion (83%) required hospitalization for TB. Even when viral respiratory pathogens circulate widely, timely TB diagnostic workup for at-risk persons remains critical for reducing TB-related illness.

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Introduction: Ertugliflozin, a sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor, seems to improve glycemic control in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We aim to evaluate the efficacy of Ertugliflozin across multiple time intervals (18, 26, and 52 weeks) in T2DM patients.

Methods: A literature search was conducted on electronic databases.

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Monitoring for COVID-19 through wastewater has been used for adjunctive public health surveillance, with SARS-CoV-2 viral concentrations in wastewater correlating with incident cases in the same sewershed. However, the generalizability of these findings across sewersheds, laboratory methods, and time periods with changing variants and underlying population immunity has not been well described. The California Department of Public Health partnered with six wastewater treatment plants starting in January 2021 to monitor wastewater for SARS-CoV-2, with analyses performed at four laboratories.

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Purpose: To assess changes in the COVID-19 mortality rate and disparities over variants or waves by industry.

Methods: We identified COVID-19 deaths that occurred between January 2020 and May 2022 among California workers aged 18-64 years using death certificates, and estimated Californians at risk using the Current Population Survey. The waves in deaths were wave 1: March-June 2020, wave 2: July-November 2020, wave 3/Epsilon and Alpha variants: December 2020-May 2021, wave 4/Delta variant: June 2021-January 2022, and wave 5/Omicron variant: February-May 2022.

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Background: Uptake of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) bivalent vaccines and the oral medication nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid) has remained low across the United States. Assessing the public health impact of increasing uptake of these interventions in key risk groups can guide further public health resources and policy and determine what proportion of severe COVID-19 is avertable with these interventions.

Methods: This modeling study used person-level data from the California Department of Public Health on COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, deaths, and vaccine administration from 23 July 2022 to 23 January 2023.

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Unlabelled: The frequency and severity of wildfires in the Western United States have increased over recent decades, motivating hypotheses that wildfires contribute to the incidence of coccidioidomycosis, an emerging fungal disease in the Western United States with sharp increases in incidence observed since 2000. While coccidioidomycosis outbreaks have occurred among wildland firefighters clearing brush, it remains unknown whether fires are associated with an increased incidence among the general population.

Methods: We identified 19 wildfires occurring within California's highly endemic San Joaquin Valley between 2003 and 2015.

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Background: Uptake of COVID-19 bivalent vaccines and oral medication nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid) has remained low across the United States. Assessing the public health impact of increasing uptake of these interventions in key risk groups can guide further public health resources and policy.

Methods: This modeling study used person-level data from the California Department of Public Health on COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, deaths, and vaccine administration from July 23, 2022 to January 23, 2023.

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