Sixteen novel lineages of SARS-CoV-2 in South Africa.

The first severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in South Africa was identified on 5 March 2020, and by 26 March the country was in full lockdown (Oxford stringency index of 90). Despite the early response, by November 2020, over 785,000 people in South Africa were infected, which accounted for approximately 50% of all known African infections. In this study, we analyzed 1,365 near whole genomes and report the identification of 16 new lineages of SARS-CoV-2 isolated between 6 March and 26 August 2020.

Tobacco Use and Health-Related Quality of Life Among Individuals with Depression Who Are Receiving Treatment for HIV in Cape Town, South Africa.

Background: Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide, and prevalence rates are high among people living with HIV (PLWH), particularly in men. Depression is also common among PLWH, especially among smokers, who may use tobacco to manage mood. Although HIV and depression have been linked to functional impairment and poor health-related quality of life (HRQOL), little research has examined the degree to which smoking impacts these relationships in low- and middle-income countries with high HIV burden.

End-to-end SARS-CoV-2 transmission risks in sport: Current evidence and practical recommendations.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused disruption to professional and recreational sports across the world. The SARS-CoV-2 virus can be transmitted by relatively large respiratory droplets that behave ballistically, and exhaled aerosol droplets, which potentially pose a greater risk. This review provides a summary of end-to-end SARS-CoV-2 transmission risk factors for sport and an overview of transmission mechanisms to be considered by all stakeholders.

Myths, misconceptions, othering and stigmatizing responses to Covid-19 in South Africa: A rapid qualitative assessment.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a new strain of virus in the Coronavirus family that has not been previously identified. Since SARS-CoV-2 is a new virus, everyone is at risk of catching the Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). No one has immunity to the virus.

Physical Preparation in Female Rugby Codes: An Investigation of Current Practices.

Female sports have recently seen a dramatic rise in participation and professionalism world-wide. Despite progress, the infrastructure and general sport science provisions in many female sports are behind their male counterparts. From a performance perspective, marked differences in physical and physiological characteristics can be seen between the sexes.

Safety and efficacy of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine (AZD1222) against SARS-CoV-2: an interim analysis of four randomised controlled trials in Brazil, South Africa, and the UK.

Background: A safe and efficacious vaccine against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), if deployed with high coverage, could contribute to the control of the COVID-19 pandemic. We evaluated the safety and efficacy of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine in a pooled interim analysis of four trials.

Methods: This analysis includes data from four ongoing blinded, randomised, controlled trials done across the UK, Brazil, and South Africa.

Illness and infection in elite full-contact football-code sports: A systematic review.

Objectives: Full-contact football-code team sports offer a unique environment for illness risk. During training and match-play, players are exposed to high-intensity collisions which may result in skin-on-skin abrasions and transfer of bodily fluids. Understanding the incidence of all illnesses and infections and what impact they cause to time-loss from training and competition is important to improve athlete care within these sports.

The Training of Short Distance Sprint Performance in Football Code Athletes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Short-sprint (≤ 20 m) performance is an important quality for success in the football codes. Therefore, developing an evidence base for understanding training methods to enhance short-sprint performance is key for practitioners. However, current systematic reviews are limited by (1) a lack of focus on football code athletes, (2) a lack of consideration of all training modalities and (3) a failure to account for the normal training practices undertaken by intervention groups within their analysis.

The Effects of Exercise on Indirect Markers of Gut Damage and Permeability: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Aim: Exercise appears to cause damage to the endothelial lining of the human gastrointestinal tract and elicit a significant increase in gut permeability.

Objective: The aim of this review was to determine the effect of an acute bout of exercise on gut damage and permeability outcomes in healthy populations using a meta-analysis.

Methods: PubMed, The Cochrane Library as well as MEDLINE, SPORTDiscus and CINHAL, via EBSCOhost were searched through February 2019.

Cardiac Myosin Activation with Omecamtiv Mecarbil in Systolic Heart Failure.

Background: The selective cardiac myosin activator omecamtiv mecarbil has been shown to improve cardiac function in patients with heart failure with a reduced ejection fraction. Its effect on cardiovascular outcomes is unknown.

Methods: We randomly assigned 8256 patients (inpatients and outpatients) with symptomatic chronic heart failure and an ejection fraction of 35% or less to receive omecamtiv mecarbil (using pharmacokinetic-guided doses of 25 mg, 37.

Benefit Sharing for Human Genomics Research: Awareness and Expectations of Genomics Researchers in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Benefit sharing is an ethical issue that underscores the need to find a balance between access to genetic resources and the provision of fair benefits in exchange for access. The Human Genome Organisation (HUGO) is one of the few initiatives to have engaged with the topic of benefit sharing in human genomics. However, there is a lack of clarity on what benefit sharing entails in human genomics research and how it could be implemented in practice.

Correction to: Quantifying the Collision Dose in Rugby League: A Systematic Review, Meta-analysis, and Critical Analysis.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

The Brighton Collaboration standardized template for collection of key information for risk/benefit assessment of a Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) vaccine platform.

The Brighton Collaboration Viral Vector Vaccines Safety Working Group (V3SWG) was formed to evaluate the safety and characteristics of live, recombinant viral vector vaccines. The Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) vector system is being explored as a platform for development of multiple vaccines. This paper reviews the molecular and biological features specifically of the MVA-BN vector system, followed by a template with details on the safety and characteristics of an MVA-BN based vaccine against Zaire ebolavirus and other filovirus strains.

"It's Important, but It's Not Everything": Practitioners' Use, Analysis and Perceptions of Fitness Testing in Academy Rugby League.

A plethora of research exists examining the physical qualities of rugby league players. However, no research has investigated practitioners' insights into the use, analysis and perceptions of such fitness testing data that is vital for applying research into practice. Therefore, this study aimed to examine practitioners' (coaches and strength & conditioning [S&C] coaches) perceptions and challenges of using fitness testing and the development of physical qualities.

The Validity of Automated Tackle Detection in Women's Rugby League.

Cummins, C, Charlton, G, Naughton, M, Jones, B, Minahan, C, and Murphy, A. The validity of automated tackle detection in women's rugby league. J Strength Cond Res 36(7): 1951-1955, 2022-This study assessed the validity of microtechnology devices to automatically detect and differentiate tackles in elite women's rugby league match-play.

Signaling C-Type Lectin Receptors in Antifungal Immunity.

We are all exposed to fungal organisms daily, and although many of these organisms are not harmful, billions of people a year contract a fungal infection. Most of these infections are not fatal and can be cleared by the host immune response. However, due to an increase in high-risk populations, the global fungal burden has increased, with more than 1.

Travel burden and clinical presentation of retinoblastoma: analysis of 1024 patients from 43 African countries and 518 patients from 40 European countries.

Background: The travel distance from home to a treatment centre, which may impact the stage at diagnosis, has not been investigated for retinoblastoma, the most common childhood eye cancer. We aimed to investigate the travel burden and its impact on clinical presentation in a large sample of patients with retinoblastoma from Africa and Europe.

Methods: A cross-sectional analysis including 518 treatment-naïve patients with retinoblastoma residing in 40 European countries and 1024 treatment-naïve patients with retinoblastoma residing in 43 African countries.

Fostering successful and sustainable collaborations to advance implementation science: the adolescent HIV prevention and treatment implementation science alliance.

Introduction: HIV continues to devastate the adolescent population in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The complex array of interpersonal, social, structural and system-level obstacles specific to adolescents have slowed progress in prevention and treatment of HIV in this population. The field of implementation science holds promise for addressing these challenges.

"At home, no one knows": A qualitative study of retention challenges among women living with HIV in Tanzania.

Introduction: Despite the broad success of Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programs, HIV care engagement during the pregnancy and postpartum periods is suboptimal. This study explored the perspectives of women who experienced challenges engaging in PMTCT care, in order to better understand factors that contribute to poor retention and to identify opportunities to improve PMTCT services.

Methods: We conducted in-depth interviews with 12 postpartum women to discuss their experiences with PMTCT care.

Medical conferences in the era of environmental conscientiousness and a global health crisis: The carbon footprint of presenter flights to pre-COVID pediatric urology conferences and a consideration of future options.

Introduction: Medical conferences are integral to academic medicine, with academic posters being a well-established medium for presenting research. However, conferences carry an ecological footprint due to greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, traditional conference formats have recently not been possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reducing the Risk for Postpartum Depression in Adolescent Mothers: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objective: To estimate the effect of an interpersonal therapy-based intervention on reducing the risk of postpartum depression in adolescents.

Methods: A randomized controlled trial enrolled 250 pregnant adolescents who were aged 18 years or younger at conception. The initial sample size calculation estimated 276 participants (324 with attrition) were needed to detect a 50% reduction in risk of the primary outcome, postpartum major depressive episode, with an alpha of 0.

Structural differences between REM and non-REM dream reports assessed by graph analysis.

Dream reports collected after rapid eye movement sleep (REM) awakenings are, on average, longer, more vivid, bizarre, emotional and story-like compared to those collected after non-REM. However, a comparison of the word-to-word structural organization of dream reports is lacking, and traditional measures that distinguish REM and non-REM dreaming may be confounded by report length. This problem is amenable to the analysis of dream reports as non-semantic directed word graphs, which provide a structural assessment of oral reports, while controlling for individual differences in verbosity.

Locomotor characteristics of the women's inaugural super league competition and the rugby league world cup.

Understanding the locomotor characteristics of competition can help rugby league (RL) coaches optimise training prescription. To date, no research exists on the locomotor characteristics of women's RL. The aim was to compare whole match and peak locomotor characteristics of women's RL competition at international (RL World Cup [WRLWC]) and domestic level (Super League [WSL]).