Systematic Review of Reported HIV Outbreaks, Pakistan, 2000-2019.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Rabold EM
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8007288 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Systematic Review of Reported HIV Outbreaks, Pakistan, 2000-2019.
Rabold Elizabeth M EM Ali Hammad H Fernandez Danielle D Knuth Martha M Schenkel Karl K Asghar Rana Jawad RJ Baig Mirza Amir MA Shaikh Saqib S Morgan Oliver O
Emerging infectious diseases 20210401 4
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Project description:ContextHealth economic evaluations (e.g., cost-effectiveness analysis) can guide the efficient use of resources to improve health outcomes. This study aims to summarize the content and quality of interpersonal violence prevention economic evaluations.Evidence acquisitionIn 2020, peer-reviewed journal articles published during 2000-2019 focusing on high-income countries were identified using index terms in multiple databases. Study content, including violence type prevented (e.g., child abuse and neglect), outcome measure (e.g., abusive head trauma clinical diagnosis), intervention type (e.g., education program), study methods, and results were summarized. Studies reporting on selected key methods elements essential for study comparison and public health decision making (e.g., economic perspective, time horizon, discounting, currency year) were assessed.Evidence synthesisA total of 26 economic evaluation studies were assessed, most of which reported that assessed interventions yielded good value for money. Physical assault in the community and child abuse and neglect were the most common violence types examined. Studies applied a wide variety of cost estimates to value avoided violence. Less than two thirds of the studies reported all the key methods elements.ConclusionsComprehensive data collection on violence averted and intervention costs in experimental settings can increase opportunities to identify interventions that generate long-term value. More comprehensive estimates of the cost of violence can improve opportunities to demonstrate how prevention investment can be offset through avoided future costs. Better adherence to health economic evaluation reporting standards can enhance comparability across studies and may increase the likelihood that economic evidence is included in violence prevention decision making.
| S-EPMC7987799 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Fragile states are home to a sixth of the world's population, and their populations are particularly vulnerable to infectious disease outbreaks. Timely surveillance and control are essential to minimise the impact of these outbreaks, but little evidence is published about the effectiveness of existing surveillance systems. We did a systematic review of the circumstances (mode) of detection of outbreaks occurring in 22 fragile states in the decade 2000-2010 (i.e. all states consistently meeting fragility criteria during the timeframe of the review), as well as time lags from onset to detection of these outbreaks, and from detection to further events in their timeline. The aim of this review was to enhance the evidence base for implementing infectious disease surveillance in these complex, resource-constrained settings, and to assess the relative importance of different routes whereby outbreak detection occurs.We identified 61 reports concerning 38 outbreaks. Twenty of these were detected by existing surveillance systems, but 10 detections occurred following formal notifications by participating health facilities rather than data analysis. A further 15 outbreaks were detected by informal notifications, including rumours.There were long delays from onset to detection (median 29 days) and from detection to further events (investigation, confirmation, declaration, control). Existing surveillance systems yielded the shortest detection delays when linked to reduced barriers to health care and frequent analysis and reporting of incidence data.Epidemic surveillance and control appear to be insufficiently timely in fragile states, and need to be strengthened. Greater reliance on formal and informal notifications is warranted. Outbreak reports should be more standardised and enable monitoring of surveillance systems' effectiveness.
| S-EPMC3180250 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe meningitis belt of sub-Saharan Africa has traditionally experienced large outbreaks of meningitis mainly caused by Neisseria meningitidis. More recently, Streptococcus pneumoniae has been recognized as a cause of meningitis outbreaks in the region. Little is known about the natural history and epidemiology of these outbreaks, and, in contrast to meningococcal meningitis, there is no agreed definition for a pneumococcal meningitis epidemic. The aim of this analysis was to systematically review and understand pneumococcal meningitis outbreaks in Africa between 2000 and 2018.MethodsMeningitis outbreaks were identified using a systematic literature review and analyses of meningitis surveillance databases. Potential outbreaks were included in the final analysis if they reported at least 10 laboratory-confirmed meningitis cases above baseline per week with ≥50% of cases confirmed as pneumococcus.ResultsA total of 10 potential pneumococcal meningitis outbreaks were identified in Africa between 2000 and 2018. Of these, 2 were classified as confirmed, 7 were classified as possible, and 1 was classified as unlikely. Three outbreaks spanned more than 1 year. In general, the outbreaks demonstrated lower peak attack rates than meningococcal meningitis outbreaks and had a predominance of serotype 1. Patients with pneumococcal meningitis tended to be older and had higher case fatality rates than meningococcal meningitis cases. An outbreak definition, which includes a weekly district-level incidence of at least 10 suspected cases per 100 000 population per week, with >10 cumulative confirmed cases of pneumococcus per year, would have identified all 10 potential outbreaks.ConclusionsGiven the frequency of and high case fatality from pneumococcal meningitis outbreaks, public health recommendations on vaccination strategies and the management of outbreaks are needed. Improved laboratory testing for S. pneumoniae is critical for early outbreak identification.
| S-EPMC8414910 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe 2023 dengue outbreak has proven that dengue is not only an endemic disease but also an emerging health threat in Bangladesh. Integrated studies on the epidemiology, clinical characteristics, seasonality, and genotype of dengue are limited. This study was conducted to determine recent trends in the molecular epidemiology, clinical features, and seasonality of dengue outbreaks.MethodsWe analyzed data from 41 original studies, extracting epidemiological information from all 41 articles, clinical symptoms from 30 articles, and genotypic diversity from 11 articles. The study adhered to the standards of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) Statement and Cochrane Collaboration guidelines.ResultsA total of 565,438 dengue cases and 2,587 fatalities were documented from January 2000 to March 2024. Notably, 60% of cases during the 2019 and 2023 outbreaks were reported in regions previously considered non-endemic. Fatalities were more frequent among women (70%). The majority of the studies (95-100%) used the NS1Ag test, followed by IgG or IgM and RT-PCR tests. New hotspots of dengue transmission were identified in the southern (Khulna, 10.8% and Barishal, 11.8%) and southeastern (Chattogram, 13.8%) regions of Bangladesh. Serotyping was conducted on 92.4% (1,456 of 1,575) of isolates between 2012 and 2023. Of the four serotypes, DENV3 was the most prevalent (57%), followed by DENV2 (30%), DENV1 (11%), and DENV4 (<1%). Genotype DENV3-I (43 of 59 isolates) was the most prevalent, followed by DENV3-II (8 of 59). The highest frequency of dengue cases was observed in August (26.3%), followed by September (22.5%), October (20.2%), and November (13.08%). Fever (90.51, 95% CI 85-100%) was the most prevalent symptom, followed by headache (57.98, 95% CI 12-100%), vomiting (51.16, 95% CI 23-91%), abdominal pain (34.12, 95% CI 12-85%), and myalgia (25.53, 95% CI 13-85%), respectively.ConclusionThis study provides integrated insights into the molecular epidemiology, clinical features, seasonality, and transmission of dengue in Bangladesh and highlights research gaps for future studies.
| S-EPMC11557403 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionThe global development agenda reflects greater attention to ending child marriage and supporting adolescent girls than ever before. Limited understandings of the evidence base on child marriage, however, make it challenging to assess gaps in the literature and inform policy and programming to respond to the needs of adolescent girls. The goal of this project is to systematically identify, evaluate and synthesise the global evidence on child marriage.Methods and analysisWe will include articles with a thematic focus on child marriage from all geographic settings, two decades of research (2000-2019) and in four languages (English, Spanish, French and Portuguese). We will search 18 electronic academic databases (7 in English and 4 each in French, Spanish and Portuguese, with 1 overlapping database) and for the grey literature, conduct targeted hand-searches of organisations engaged in work to prevent child marriage. The databases for studies in English are PubMed, PsychINFO, Embase, CINAHL Plus, Popline, Web of Science and Cochrane Library; for studies in French, the databases will be DialNet, Directory of Open Access Journals, Science Direct and Biblioteca CCG-IBT database; in Spanish, DialNet, La Biblioteca Científica Electrónica en Línea, Red Iberoamericana de Innovación y Conocimiento Científico and Jstor and in Portuguese, Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde, Biblioteca Científica Eletrônica On-line and Biblioteca Digital Brasileira de Teses e Dissertações. We will also review reference lists of select articles and seek input from key authors, field practitioners and participants in international convenings. We will collect and analyse data on publication characteristics, including type of document, institutional affiliation, publication year, language, focus country and region, study objective, specific focus, research method, key findings and recommendations of the material offered for future work. The database searches for publications in English were conducted in January 2020 and we plan to complete the searches in French, Spanish and Portuguese in early 2021.Ethics and disseminationAs a systematic review of already-published data, this study does not raise ethical or safety concerns. The authors plan to publish the results of the scoping review in a relevant international journal as well as present the results widely following publication. Building on this foundational work, the authors plan to conduct analyses that make use of the rich data.Registration detailsThe study design adheres to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews. Our protocol was registered with Open Science Framework on 14 January 2020 (https://osf.io/awh8v).
| S-EPMC7978326 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe management of people living with HIV and AIDS is multidimensional and complex. Using patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) has been increasingly recognized to be the key factor for providing patient-centered health care to meet the lifelong needs of people living with HIV and AIDS from diagnosis to death. However, there is currently no consensus on a PROM recommended for health care providers and researchers to assess health outcomes in people living with HIV and AIDS.ObjectiveThe purpose of this systematic review was to summarize and categorize the available validated HIV-specific PROMs in adults living with HIV and AIDS and to assess these PROMs using the Consensus-Based Standards for the Selection of Health Measurement Instruments (COSMIN) methodology.MethodsThis systematic review followed the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. A literature search of 3 recommended databases (PubMed, Embase, and PsychINFO) was conducted on January 15, 2021. Studies were included if they assessed any psychometric property of HIV-specific PROMs in adults living with HIV and AIDS and met the eligibility criteria. The PROMs were assessed for 9 psychometric properties, evaluated in each included study following the COSMIN methodology by assessing the following: the methodological quality assessed using the COSMIN risk of bias checklist; overall rating of results; level of evidence assessed using the modified Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation approach; and level of recommendation.ResultsA total of 88 PROMs classified into 8 categories, assessing the psychometric properties of PROMs for adults living with HIV and AIDS, were identified in 152 studies including 79,213 people living with HIV and AIDS. The psychometric properties of most included PROMs were rated with insufficient evidence. The PROMs that received class A recommendation were the Poz Quality of Life, HIV Symptom Index or Symptoms Distress Module of the Adult AIDS Clinical Trial Group, and People Living with HIV Resilience Scale. In addition, because of a lack of evidence, recommendations regarding use could not be made for most of the remaining assessed PROMs (received class B recommendation).ConclusionsThis systematic review recommends 3 PROMs to assess health outcomes in adults living with HIV and AIDS. However, all these PROMs have some shortcomings. In addition, most of the included PROMs do not have sufficient evidence for assessing their psychometric properties and require a more comprehensive validation of the psychometric properties in the future to provide more scientific evidence. Thus, our findings may provide a reference for the selection of high-quality HIV-specific PROMs by health care providers and researchers for clinical practice and research.
| S-EPMC9782451 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND: China has already achieved remarkable accomplishments in shrinking the malaria burden since the mid-20th Century. The country now plans to eliminate malaria by the year 2020. Looking at the dynamics of malaria outbreaks during the last decades might provide important information regarding the potential challenges of such an elimination strategy and might help to avoid mistakes of the past. METHODS: A systematic review of the published literature (English and Chinese) was conducted to identify malaria outbreaks during the period 1990 until 2013 in China. The main causes of outbreaks as described in these papers were categorized according to whether they were related to population migration, environmental factors, vector and host related factors, and operational problems of the health services. RESULTS: The review identified 36 malaria outbreaks over the 23-year study period, on which sufficient information was available. They mainly occurred in southern and central China involving 12 provinces/autonomous regions. More than half of all outbreaks (21/36, 58%) were attributed at least in part to population migration, with malaria importation to non- or low-endemic areas from high-endemic Chinese areas (13/15) or endemic countries (2/15) having been the most frequent reason (15/21, 71%). Other main causes were problems of the health services (15/36, 42%), in particular poor malaria case management (10/15, 67%), environmental factors (7/36, 19%), and vector and host related factors (5/36, 14%). CONCLUSIONS: Beside a number of other challenges, addressing population movement causing malaria appears to be of particular importance to the national malaria programme. Strengthening of surveillance for malaria and early radical treatment of cases should thus be considered among the most important tools for preventing malaria outbreaks and for the final goal of malaria elimination in China.
| S-EPMC4105761 | biostudies-other
Project description:The study examines how the remote associates test (RAT) has been used to examine theories of creativity through a review of recent studies on creativity. Creativity-related studies published between 2000 and 2019 were retrieved from the SCOPUS database. A total of 172 papers were chosen for further analysis. Content analysis shows that research on creativity using RAT mainly concerns remote association, insight problem-solving, general creative process, test development, individual difference, effect of treatment, clinical case, social interaction effect, and predictor or criterion. The study constructs a theoretical framework based on the 4P (Product-Person-Process-Place) model and demonstrates how empirical studies using the RAT explore the individual differences, internal processes, and external influences of creative thinking. In addition, the most commonly used version of the RAT is the Compound Remote Associates Problems (Bowden and Jung-Beeman, 2003a). Current research shows a trend whereby the creative thinking process has been receiving greater attention. In particular, a growing number of studies in this field have been carried out using cognitive neuroscience technologies. These findings suggest that the RAT provides researchers with a way to deepen their understanding of different levels of creativity.
| S-EPMC7644781 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Histoplasmosis is an endemic fungal infection that is confined to specific geographical regions. Histoplasma spp. are primary pathogens that cause disease in both immunocompetent and immunocompromised patients, ranging from a single-organ (mostly affecting the lungs) infection to life-threatening disseminated disease. Knowledge about the clinical epidemiology relies on data from adult populations; little is known about the patient and disease characteristics in the paediatric population. Therefore, a structured review of published cases of paediatric histoplasmosis between 2000 and 2019 was performed. A literature search of PubMed was conducted and the epidemiological and clinical data from 83 cases were analysed. The mean age at presentation was 9.5 ± 5.5 years, and 51% were girls. Two-thirds of the children were immunocompromised. The majority of children presented with disseminated disease. The most frequently observed clinical symptoms were respiratory symptoms, alongside non-specific systemic features, including fever, myalgia, fatigue and weight loss. The mortality rate was 11%. Histoplasmosis affects children of any age. Being immunocompromised is a risk factor for severe and disseminated disease. The lack of specific presenting features leads to underreporting and delay in diagnosis. To improve the recognition and outcome of histoplasmosis in childhood, increased awareness and surveillance systems are warranted.
| S-EPMC8229079 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Analyzing immunization coverage data is crucial to guide decision-making in national immunization programs and monitor global initiatives such as the Immunization Agenda 2030. We aimed to assess the quality of reported child immunization coverage data for 194 countries over 20 years. We analyzed child immunization coverage as reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) between 2000-2019 by all WHO Member States for Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine birth dose, first and third doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis-containing vaccine (DTP1, DTP3), and first dose of measles-containing vaccine (MCV1). We assessed completeness, consistency, integrity, and congruence and assigned data quality flags in case anomalies were detected. Generalized linear mixed-effects models were used to estimate the probability of flags worldwide and for different country groups over time. The probability of data quality flags was 18.2% globally (95% confidence interval [CI] 14.8-22.3). The lowest probability was seen in South-East Asia (6.3%, 3.3-11.8, p = 0.002), the highest in the Americas (29.7%, 22.7-37.9, p < 0.001). The probability of data quality flags declined by 5.1% per year globally (3.2-7.0, p < 0.001). The steepest decline was seen in Africa (-9.6%, -13.0 to -5.8, p < 0.001), followed by Europe (-5.4%, -9.2 to -1.6, p = 0.0055), and the Americas (-4.9%, -9.2 to -0.6, p = 0.026). Most country groups showed a statistically significant decline, and none had a statistically significant increase. Over the past two decades, the quality of global immunization coverage data appears to have improved. However, progress has not been universal. The results highlight the need for joint efforts so that all countries collect, report, and use high-quality data for action in immunization.
| S-EPMC10022119 | biostudies-literature