Publications by authors named "Trang Dinh Van"

Since the rapid expansion of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV, transmitted drug resistance (TDR) has become a major concern in Vietnam. HIV services there are transitioning to be covered by social insurance. Access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is being expanded to tackle the growing HIV epidemic among men who have sex with men.

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Some candidates of a new circulating recombinant form (CRF) of HIV-1 were found in northern Vietnam in our previous study. We succeeded in near full-length sequencing using MinION with plasma samples from 12 people living with HIV. Three of the samples were CRF109_0107, which was recently reported in China.

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Article Synopsis
  • A survey involving 7808 people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) was conducted across 11 antiretroviral therapy (ART) sites in Northern Vietnam to assess the effects of COVID-19.
  • The study found a low prevalence of COVID-19 (1.2% antibody positivity) among PLHIV, with no significant increase in risky health behaviors or disruption in HIV treatment.
  • Despite these positives, the economic impacts were severe, leading to high unemployment and depression, though depression rates did decrease by 11.2% compared to before the pandemic; social support was identified as a key factor in improving mental health and economic stability.
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Protein aggregates and abnormal proteins are toxic and associated with neurodegenerative diseases. There are several mechanisms to help cells get rid of aggregates but little is known on how cells prevent aggregate-prone proteins from being synthesised. The EBNA1 of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) evades the immune system by suppressing its own mRNA translation initiation in order to minimize the production of antigenic peptides for the major histocompatibility (MHC) class I pathway.

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Background: Asymptomatic transmission was found to be the Achilles' heel of the symptom-based screening strategy, necessitating the implementation of mass testing to efficiently contain the transmission of COVID-19 pandemic. However, the global shortage of molecular reagents and the low throughput of available realtime PCR facilities were major limiting factors.

Methods: A novel semi-nested and heptaplex (7-plex) RT-PCR assay with melting analysis for detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA has been established for either individual testing or 96-sample pooled testing.

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As a response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Vietnam enforced strict quarantine, contact tracing and physical distancing policies resulting in one of the lowest numbers of individuals infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) globally. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibody positivity among high-risk populations in Vietnam. A prevalence survey was undertaken within four communities in Vietnam, where at least two COVID-19 cases had been confirmed.

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Article Synopsis
  • - A cluster of 44 COVID-19 cases in Vietnam, imported from Europe, was analyzed between March 6 and April 15, 2020, with a majority of patients showing symptoms like dry cough and fever upon admission.
  • - The majority of cases were Vietnamese and were primarily linked to travel from the UK and other European nations, with no cases reported from China.
  • - Genetic analysis revealed that the viruses from these patients shared high similarity with the Wuhan reference strain and included notable mutations tied to European variants, though no new mutations were linked to increased disease severity.
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BK polyomavirus (BKPyV) is an important pathogen in transplant recipients. We report four draft BKPyV genomes, three of BKPyV genotype I (subtype I-b2) (AUS-105, AUS-106, and AUS-108) and one of genotype II (AUS-107). These draft genomes were identified in longitudinal urine samples collected from a single hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipient.

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JC polyomavirus (JCPyV) may cause clinical syndromes such as progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy in immunocompromised patients. Here, we report seven complete genome sequences of JCPyV genotype 7A, generated directly from urine samples from Vietnamese renal transplant recipients by using rolling-circle amplification and next-generation sequencing.

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complex is a common cause of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) globally, remarkable for its high rate of antibiotic resistance, including to carbapenems. There are few data on the resistance of in Vietnam, which are essential for developing evidence-based treatment guidelines for HAIs. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was conducted by VITEK2, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) was performed on 66 clinical complex isolates recovered during 2009 at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases (NHTD), a referral hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam.

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