How ownership rights over microorganisms affect infectious disease control and innovation: A root-cause analysis of barriers to data sharing as experienced by key stakeholders.

Background: Genetic information of pathogens is an essential input for infectious disease control, public health and for research. Efficiency in preventing and responding to global outbreaks relies on timely access to such information. Still, ownership barriers stand in the way of timely sharing of genetic data from pathogens, frustrating efficient public health responses and ultimately the potential use of such resources in innovations.

Benefits and Challenges in Using Seroprevalence Data to Inform Models for Measles and Rubella Elimination.

Background: Control efforts for measles and rubella are intensifying globally. It becomes increasingly important to identify and reach remaining susceptible populations as elimination is approached.

Methods: Serological surveys for measles and rubella can potentially measure susceptibility directly, but their use remains rare.

Multinational outbreak of travel-related Salmonella Chester infections in Europe, summers 2014 and 2015.

Between 2014 and 2015, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control was informed of an increase in numbers of Salmonella enterica serotype Chester cases with travel to Morocco occurring in six European countries. Epidemiological and microbiological investigations were conducted. In addition to gathering information on the characteristics of cases from the different countries in 2014, the epidemiological investigation comprised a matched case-case study involving French patients with salmonellosis who travelled to Morocco that year.

The impact of prenatal exposure to parasitic infections and to anthelminthic treatment on antibody responses to routine immunisations given in infancy: Secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Chronic parasitic infections are associated with active immunomodulation which may include by-stander effects on unrelated antigens. It has been suggested that pre-natal exposure to parasitic infections in the mother impacts immunological development in the fetus and hence the offspring's response to vaccines, and that control of parasitic infection among pregnant women will therefore be beneficial.

Methodology/principal Findings: We used new data from the Entebbe Mother and Baby Study, a trial of anthelminthic treatment during pregnancy conducted in Uganda, to further investigate this hypothesis.

The association of low ovarian reserve with cardiovascular disease risk: a cross-sectional population-based study.

Study Question: Is there a relationship between serum anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) level and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in premenopausal women?

Summary Answer: There are indications that premenopausal women with very low ovarian reserve may have an unfavorable CVD risk profile.

What Is Known Already: Age at menopause is frequently linked to CVD occurrence. AMH is produced by ovarian antral follicles and provides a measure of remaining ovarian reserve Literature on whether AMH is related to CVD risk is still scarce and heterogeneous.

Novel Biomarkers to Improve the Prediction of Cardiovascular Event Risk in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

Background: We evaluated the ability of 23 novel biomarkers representing several pathophysiological pathways to improve the prediction of cardiovascular event (CVE) risk in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus beyond traditional risk factors.

Methods And Results: We used data from 1002 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus from the Second Manifestations of ARTertial disease (SMART) study and 288 patients from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-NL (EPIC-NL). The associations of 23 biomarkers (adiponectin, C-reactive protein, epidermal-type fatty acid binding protein, heart-type fatty acid binding protein, basic fibroblast growth factor, soluble FMS-like tyrosine kinase-1, soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 and -3, matrix metalloproteinase [MMP]-1, MMP-3, MMP-9, N-terminal prohormone of B-type natriuretic peptide, osteopontin, osteonectin, osteocalcin, placental growth factor, serum amyloid A, E-selectin, P-selectin, tissue inhibitor of MMP-1, thrombomodulin, soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, and vascular endothelial growth factor) with CVE risk were evaluated by using Cox proportional hazards analysis adjusting for traditional risk factors.

Comparison of the ISU, NCI, MSM, and SPADE Methods for Estimating Usual Intake: A Simulation Study of Nutrients Consumed Daily.

Various methods are available for estimating usual dietary intake distributions. Hence, there is a need for simulation studies to compare them. The methods Iowa State University (ISU), National Cancer Institute (NCI), Multiple Source Method (MSM) and Statistical Program to Assess Dietary Exposure (SPADE) were previously compared in another study, but some results were inconclusive due to the small number of replications used in the simulation.

Reporting and use of the OECD Health Care Quality Indicators at national and regional level in 15 countries.

Quality Problem Or Issue: OECD member states are involved since 2003 in a project coordinated by the OECD on Health Care Quality Indicators (HCQI). All OECD countries are biennially requested by the OECD to deliver national data on the quality indicators for international benchmarking purposes.

Initial Assessment: Currently, there is no knowledge whether the OECD HCQI information is used by the countries themselves for healthcare system accountability and improvement purposes.

Environmental Enteropathy, Oral Vaccine Failure and Growth Faltering in Infants in Bangladesh.

Background: Environmental enteropathy (EE) is a subclinical enteric condition found in low-income countries that is characterized by intestinal inflammation, reduced intestinal absorption, and gut barrier dysfunction. We aimed to assess if EE impairs the success of oral polio and rotavirus vaccines in infants in Bangladesh.

Methods: We conducted a prospective observational study of 700 infants from an urban slum of Dhaka, Bangladesh from May 2011 to November 2014.

Specific polymorphisms in the vitamin D metabolism pathway are not associated with susceptibility to Chlamydia trachomatis infection in humans.

Chlamydia trachomatis is the most common sexually transmitted bacterium worldwide. Its often asymptomatic course of infection increases chances of transmission, and increases risk of late complications. Genetic variations in the host immune system are known to impact the course of infections.

TLR2, TLR4 and TLR9 genotypes and haplotypes in the susceptibility to and clinical course of Chlamydia trachomatis infections in Dutch women.

Chlamydia trachomatis infections demonstrate remarkable differences in clinical course that are approximately 40% based on host genetic variation. Here, we study the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and their haplotypes in TLR2, TLR4 and TLR9 (TLR2 +2477G>A; TLR2 -16934T>A; TLR4+896A>G; TLR9 -1237T>C and TLR9 +2848G>A) in relation to the susceptibility to, and severity of C. trachomatis infections.

Occurrence and determinants of selective reporting of clinical drug trials: design of an inception cohort study.

Introduction: Responsible conduct of research implies that results of clinical trials should be completely and adequately reported. This article describes the design of a cohort study that aims to investigate the occurrence and the determinants of selective reporting in an inception cohort of all clinical drug trials that were reviewed by the Dutch Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) in 2007. It also describes the characteristics of the study cohort.

Added value of anti-Müllerian hormone in prediction of menopause: results from a large prospective cohort study.

Study Question: What is the added value of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) on top of patient characteristics for predicting the risk to enter menopause within 10 years?

Summary Answer: For women who did enter menopause, the risk of entering menopause within 10 years assigned by the model with AMH was on average 3% higher than that assigned by the model without AMH, and in the subgroup of young women with regular cycles, this increase was 14%.

What Is Known Already: Prediction of age at menopause may be useful in predicting the end of female fertility. AMH may be useful for this, but the current evidence is based on small studies or specific subgroups, and does not take into account predictors other than age.

The value of models in informing resource allocation in colorectal cancer screening: the case of The Netherlands.

In May 2011, the Dutch government decided to implement a national programme for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening using biennial faecal immunochemical test screening between ages 55 and 75. Decision modelling played an important role in informing this decision, as well as in the planning and implementation of the programme afterwards. In this overview, we illustrate the value of models in informing resource allocation in CRC screening using the role that decision modelling has played in the Dutch CRC screening programme as an example.

Mycobacterium bovis BCG Vaccination Induces Divergent Proinflammatory or Regulatory T Cell Responses in Adults.

Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), the only currently available vaccine against tuberculosis, induces variable protection in adults. Immune correlates of protection are lacking, and analyses on cytokine-producing T cell subsets in protected versus unprotected cohorts have yielded inconsistent results. We studied the primary T cell response, both proinflammatory and regulatory T cell responses, induced by BCG vaccination in adults.

Vector-borne disease intelligence: strategies to deal with disease burden and threats.

Owing to the complex nature of vector-borne diseases (VBDs), whereby monitoring of human case patients does not suffice, public health authorities experience challenges in surveillance and control of VBDs. Knowledge on the presence and distribution of vectors and the pathogens that they transmit is vital to the risk assessment process to permit effective early warning, surveillance, and control of VBDs. Upon accepting this reality, public health authorities face an ever-increasing range of possible surveillance targets and an associated prioritization process.

Application of the Human Intestinal Tract Chip to the non-human primate gut microbiota.

The human intestinal microbiota is responsible for various health-related functions, and its diversity can be readily mapped with the 16S ribosomal RNA targeting Human Intestinal Tract (HIT) Chip. Here we characterise distal gut samples from chimpanzees, gorillas and marmosets, and compare them with human gut samples. Our results indicated applicability of the HITChip platform can be extended to chimpanzee and gorilla faecal samples for analysis of microbiota composition and enterotypes, but not to the evolutionary more distant marmosets.

Manifestations of integrated public health policy in Dutch municipalities.

Integrated public health policy (IPHP) aims at integrating health considerations into policies of other sectors. Since the limited empirical evidence available may hamper its further development, we systematically analysed empirical manifestations of IPHP, by placing policy strategies along a continuum of less-to-more policy integration, going from intersectoral action (IA) to healthy public policy (HPP) to health in all policies (HiAP). Our case study included 34 municipal projects of the Dutch Gezonde Slagkracht Programme (2009-15), which supports the development and implementation of IPHP on overweight, alcohol and drug abuse, and smoking.

A posteriori dietary patterns: how many patterns to retain?

Principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis are used frequently to derive dietary patterns. Decisions on how many patterns to extract are primarily based on subjective criteria, whereas different solutions vary in their food-group composition and perhaps association with disease outcome. Literature on reliability of dietary patterns is scarce, and previous studies validated only 1 preselected solution.

Drug susceptibility testing for optimizing tuberculosis treatment.

The principles of our current drug susceptibility testing (DST) for tuberculosis (TB) have already been laid out in 1963. Since then, DST has not gained much popularity owing to the long turn-around time and the introduction of potent antituberculosis drug regimens. These and other barriers have led to a critical gap in laboratory capacity in DST of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Acute cerebellar ataxia in the Netherlands: a study on the association with vaccinations and varicella zoster infection.

Aim: Acute cerebellar ataxia (ACA, sudden onset of truncal ataxia and gait disturbances) usually follows a benign illness (25% varicella). It is also described after vaccination, like MMR and varicella zoster virus (VZV). We will establish incidence rates of (varicella related) ACA and assess the attributable risk of vaccination to ACA in the Netherlands.