Nutri-Score in the European Food Retail Supply: A Potential Incentive for Food Reformulation?

Background: To improve consumers' diet, policy measures such as food reformulation strategies and front-of-pack nutritional labels (FOPNLs) are implemented, aiming to guide consumers' food choice and to stimulate an improvement in food composition by manufacturers. The FOPNL Nutri-Score has been implemented in several European countries. Changes in food compositions in relation to the Nutri-Score over time have been limitedly studied.

Excellent capability for molecular detection of -borne dengue, Zika, and chikungunya viruses but with a need for increased capacity for yellow fever and Japanese encephalitis viruses: an external quality assessment in 36 European laboratories.

Mosquito-borne viruses represent a large global health burden. With geographic expansion of competent vectors for chikungunya virus (CHIKV), dengue virus (DENV), and Zika virus (ZIKV) in Europe, it is anticipated that the number of autochthonous cases of these tropical viruses in Europe will increase. Therefore, regular assessment of diagnostic capabilities in Europe is important.

Exploring Different Sampling Strategies: A Description of Our Success in Reaching Hard-to-Reach Turkish and Moroccan Immigrant Women in The Netherlands.

Introduction: In the Netherlands, since 1996, there is a national cervical cancer (CC) screening programme in place for women aged 30-60 years. The participation of Turkish- and Moroccan-Dutch women is very low. To facilitate their informed decision-making, we developed a culturally sensitive educational video, and evaluated it through a questionnaire study.

Identifying essential resource parameters for pandemic preparedness and response: an international Delphi study within the EU PANDEM-2 project.

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the crucial role of healthcare and public health resource management, where scarcity impairs pandemic response resulting in increased disease transmission, delayed patient care and poorer health outcomes. In the EU PANDEM-2 project, we aimed to identify essential resource parameters for pandemic preparedness and response in the context of an emerging viral respiratory illness.

Design: After performing a systematic literature review, we conducted a Delphi study consisting of a structured questionnaire and consensus round with two separate panels of European public health experts (PHEs) and clinicians, respectively.

Gestational hypercholanemia suppresses pregnancy-associated adipose mass increase and stimulates a pro-inflammatory environment in mice.

Women with intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) have hypercholanemia alongside an increased risk of dyslipidemia. We investigated how cholic acid (CA) supplementation in murine pregnancy impacts adipose tissue function. Mice were fed normal or 0.

Learning from post-COVID-19 condition for epidemic preparedness: a variable catalogue for future post-acute infection syndromes.

Scope: The emergence of post-COVID-19 condition (PCC) after SARS-CoV-2 infection underscores the critical need for preparedness in addressing future post-acute infection syndromes (PAIS), particularly those linked to epidemic outbreaks. The lack of standardized clinical and epidemiological data during the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly hindered timely diagnosis and effective treatment of PCC, highlighting the necessity of pre-emptively standardizing data collection in clinical studies to better define and manage future PAIS. In response, the Cohort Coordination Board, a consortium of European-funded COVID-19 research projects, has reviewed data from PCC studies conducted by its members.

Estimating the effect of COVID-19 vaccination and prior infection on Ct values as a proxy of SARS-CoV-2 viral load.

Objectives: SARS-CoV-2 viral load could be an important parameter for transmission potential. Here, we use RT-qPCR cycle threshold (Ct) values as a proxy for viral load. We assess the effect of COVID-19 vaccination and prior infection status on Ct value, while accounting for the virus variant.

The effect of sleep and shift work on the primary immune response to messenger RNA-based COVID-19 vaccination.

Shift work can cause circadian misalignment, which often results in sleeping problems and has been associated with immune dysfunction. To better understand the impact of shift work on a primary immune response to vaccination, we compared severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2)-specific humoral and cellular immune responses after one injection of the messenger RNA (mRNA)-1273 vaccine between day workers (n = 24) and night shift workers (n = 21). In addition, duration and quality of sleep were assessed for a period of 7 days around the time of vaccination using actigraphy and daily sleep diaries, and their relationship with immunogenicity of mRNA-1273 vaccination was studied.

Home-based nursing care for clients carrying multidrug-resistant organisms: A focus group study in the Netherlands.

Background: The growing population of vulnerable clients receiving home-based nursing care (HBNC), combined with the worldwide increase in the prevalence of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs), poses a new burden on nursing staff. This study explored the attitudes, perceptions, experiences, challenges, and needs of nursing staff providing HBNC for clients carrying MDROs.

Methods: Seven focus groups with home-based nursing staff (N = 34) were performed in the Netherlands between April and July 2022, using a semistructured, open-ended topic list based on the integrated-change model and seven domains of practice.

Performance Evaluation of Molecular Detection of Enteroviruses: Results of 18 Years of Quality Control for Molecular Diagnostics (QCMD) External Quality Assessment Program, 2005-2022.

The gold standard for enterovirus (EV) detection is the polymerase chain reaction based on the detection of the 5' untranslated region of the virus. Correct detection of EV is crucial for patient and public health purposes. The performance of diagnostic and public health laboratories on molecular EV-detection was analyzed using data from the external quality assessment program distributed by Quality Control for Molecular Diagnostics (QCMD) between 2005 and 2022.

A good start for all children: Integrating early-life course medical and social care through Solid Start, the Netherlands' nationwide action programme.

The foundations of human wellbeing are laid in early life during the preconception stage and the 1,000-days of life from conception to the child's second birthday. This period is therefore receiving scrutiny as a concept for guiding pregnancy-care innovation and public health policy. The Dutch government took responsibility to invest in this.

The respiratory microbiome is linked to the severity of RSV infections and the persistence of symptoms in children.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of infant respiratory infections and hospitalizations. To investigate the relationship between the respiratory microbiome and RSV infection, we sequence nasopharyngeal samples from a birth cohort and a pediatric case-control study (Respiratory Syncytial virus Consortium in Europe [RESCEU]). 1,537 samples are collected shortly after birth ("baseline"), during RSV infection and convalescence, and from healthy controls.

Assessing occupational styrene exposure in the European and US Glass Reinforced Plastics Industry for the period between 1947 and 2020.

Background: We aimed to develop a method for assessing occupational styrene exposures for application in epidemiological studies on risks of lymphohematopoietic neoplasms and other malignant and non-malignant diseases in the European and the US glass reinforced plastics industries.

Method: We estimated a linear mixed effects model based on individual airborne personal measurements of styrene from the glass reinforced plastics industry in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, UK, and the US. The most suitable model was chosen based on its predictive power as assessed using cross validation with different combinations of predictors; and by comparing their prediction errors.

Similarities between and genomes and horizontal gene transfer from their endosymbionts.

The taxa and are sympatric in Tunisia. The genetics underlying their morphological differences are unresolved. In this study, ticks collected in Jouza-Amdoun, Tunisia, were morphologically identified and sequenced using Oxford Nanopore Technologies.

Cross-sectoral genomic surveillance reveals a lack of insight in sources of human infections with Shiga toxin-producing , the Netherlands, 2017 to 2023.

Shiga toxin-producing (STEC) is a zoonotic pathogen associated with illness ranging from mild diarrhoea to haemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) or even death. Cross-sectoral data sharing provides an opportunity to gain insight in reservoirs and sources of human infections and starting points for pro-active measures. Nevertheless, phylogenetic clustering of STEC strains from animals, food and human cases is low in the Dutch surveillance system.

When and why do people change their minds in favor of vaccination? Longitudinal analyses of switching COVID-19 vaccination preferences.

Background: Vaccinations are a cornerstone of public health. However, reluctance to accepting vaccines is common. Using longitudinal data, we investigated which individual and contextual factors were associated with switching preferences from initial hesitancy or unwillingness toward acceptance of a first COVID-19 vaccination.

The neonatal gut microbiota: A role in the encephalopathy of prematurity.

Preterm birth correlates with brain dysmaturation and neurocognitive impairment. The gut microbiome associates with behavioral outcomes in typical development, but its relationship with neurodevelopment in preterm infants is unknown. We characterize fecal microbiome in a cohort of 147 neonates enriched for very preterm birth using 16S-based and shotgun metagenomic sequencing.

Impact on murine neurodevelopment of early-life exposure to airborne ultrafine carbon nanoparticles.

The effects of ultrafine particle (UFP) inhalation on neurodevelopment, especially during critical windows of early life, remain largely unexplored. The specific time windows during which exposure to UFP might be the most detrimental remain poorly understood. Here, we studied early-life exposure to clean ultrafine carbonaceous particles (UFP) and neurodevelopment and central nervous system function in offspring.

Early immune profiling reveals distinct inflammatory responses between children and adults few days after primary SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Background: To date, it is still not clear why during the COVID-19 pandemic children generally developed no or milder symptoms compared to adults. As innate immune responses are crucial in the early defense against pathogens, we aimed at profiling these responses from both adults and children with a primary SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Methods: In the first months of the pandemic, PBMCs and serum were collected from peripheral blood of adults and children at different time points after testing SARS-CoV-2 PCR positive (PCR+).

Causal, predictive or observational? Different understandings of key event relationships for adverse outcome pathways and their implications on practice.

The Adverse Outcome Pathways (AOPs) framework is pivotal in toxicology, but the, terminology describing Key Event Relationships (KERs) varies within AOP guidelines.This study examined the usage of causal, observational and predictive terms in AOP, documentation and their adaptation in AOP development. A literature search and text, analysis of key AOP guidance documents revealed nuanced usage of these terms, with KERs often described as both causal and predictive.

Association of baseline cytokines with antibody concentrations after diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis booster vaccination in Finnish children.

Background: Despite extensive vaccinations, pertussis remains endemic and epidemic in multiple countries. The persistence of cases can be partly attributed to the significant individual variation in vaccine responses. This study evaluated the association of baseline cytokines (before booster vaccination) on antibody concentrations to Tdap-vaccine antigens.