Project description:Even in developed economies infectious diseases remain the most common cause of illness in early childhood. Our current understanding of the epidemiology of these infections is limited by reliance on data from decades ago performed using low-sensitivity laboratory methods, and recent studies reporting severe, hospital-managed disease.The Observational Research in Childhood Infectious Diseases (ORChID) study is an ongoing study enrolling a dynamic birth cohort to document the community-based epidemiology of viral respiratory and gastrointestinal infections in early childhood. Women are recruited antenatally, and their healthy newborn is followed for the first 2 years of life. Parents keep a daily symptom diary for the study child, collect a weekly anterior nose swab and dirty nappy swab and complete a burden diary when a child meets pre-defined illness criteria. Specimens will be tested for a wide range of viruses by real-time PCR assays. Primary analyses involves calculating incidence rates for acute respiratory illness (ARI) and acute gastroenteritis (AGE) for the cohort by age and seasonality. Control material from children when they are without symptoms will allow us to determine what proportion of ARIs and AGE can be attributed to specific pathogens. Secondary analyses will assess the incidence and shedding duration of specific respiratory and gastrointestinal pathogens.This study is approved by The Human Research Ethics Committees of the Children's Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service, the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital and The University of Queensland.clinicaltrials.gov NCT01304914.
Project description:IntroductionConventional risk factors targeted by prevention (e.g., low education, smoking, and obesity) are associated with a 1.2- to 2-fold increased risk of dementia. It is unclear whether having a physical disease is an equally important risk factor for dementia.MethodsIn this exploratory multicohort study of 283,414 community-dwelling participants, we examined 22 common hospital-treated physical diseases as risk factors for dementia.ResultsDuring a median follow-up of 19 years, a total of 3416 participants developed dementia. Those who had erysipelas (hazard ratio = 1.82; 95% confidence interval = 1.53 to 2.17), hypothyroidism (1.94; 1.59 to 2.38), myocardial infarction (1.41; 1.20 to 1.64), ischemic heart disease (1.32; 1.18 to 1.49), cerebral infarction (2.44; 2.14 to 2.77), duodenal ulcers (1.88; 1.42 to 2.49), gastritis and duodenitis (1.82; 1.46 to 2.27), or osteoporosis (2.38; 1.75 to 3.23) were at a significantly increased risk of dementia. These associations were not explained by conventional risk factors or reverse causation.DiscussionIn addition to conventional risk factors, several physical diseases may increase the long-term risk of dementia.
Project description:BackgroundOrofacial pain in people with dementia is difficult to detect, and often under-treated. Our aim was to investigate the prevalence of orofacial pain in people with dementia in acute hospitals in the UK. Secondary aims were to examine oral health status and explore associations between orofacial pain and oral health factors.MethodsThis cross-sectional observational study was carried out in two UK hospitals. Using the Orofacial Pain Scale in Non-Verbal Individuals (OPS-NVI) to identify orofacial pain, 101 participants with dementia, admitted to acute medical wards, were observed for at least 3 min during rest and chewing. Verbal participants were then asked about presence of orofacial pain, using self-report pain scales. Finally, a brief oral assessment was performed.ResultsOrofacial pain, assessed with the OPS-NVI, was present in 11.9% (95% C.I. 5.9, 18.8) of participants at rest and 21.9% (95% C.I. 14.6, 31.3) whilst chewing. Participants who were no longer able to self-report pain were significantly more likely to experience orofacial pain. Oral health in both dentate and edentate participants was poor. Brush frequency, indication of chewing quality, consistency of the food, presence of extra-oral abnormalities, person who performed mouth care, and oral hygiene in dentate participants were significant predictors for the presence of orofacial pain.ConclusionImproving oral care in acute hospital patients with dementia, particularly those who cannot self-report pain, may significantly reduce pain and suffering in this population.
Project description:Background: Nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) are public health measures that aim to suppress the transmission of infectious diseases, including border restrictions, quarantine and isolation, community management, social distancing, face mask usage, and personal hygiene. This research aimed to assess the co-benefits of NPIs against COVID-19 on notifiable infectious diseases (NIDs) in Guangdong Province, China. Methods: Based on NID data from the Notifiable Infectious Diseases Surveillance System in Guangdong, we first compared the incidence of NIDs during the emergency response period (weeks 4-53 of 2020) with those in the same period of 2015-2019 and then compared that with the expected incidence during the synchronous period of 2020 for each city by using a Bayesian structural time series model. Findings: A total of 514,341 cases of 39 types of NIDs were reported in Guangdong during the emergency response period in 2020, which decreased by 50·7% compared with the synchronous period during 2015-2019. It was estimated that the number of 39 NIDs during the emergency response in 2020 was 65·6% (95% credible interval [CI]: 64·0% - 68·2%) lower than expected, which means that 982,356 (95% CI: 913,443 - 1,105,170) cases were averted. The largest reduction (82·1%) was found for children aged 0-14 years. For different categories of NIDs, natural focal diseases and insect-borne infectious diseases had the greatest reduction (89·4%), followed by respiratory infectious diseases (87·4%), intestinal infectious diseases (59·4%), and blood-borne and sexually transmitted infections (18·2%). Dengue, influenza, and hand-foot-and-mouth disease were reduced by 99·3%, 95·1%, and 76·2%, respectively. Larger reductions were found in the regions with developed economies and a higher number of COVID-19 cases. Interpretation: NPIs against COVID-19 may have a large co-benefit on the prevention of other infectious diseases in Guangdong, China, and the effects have heterogeneity in populations, diseases, time and space. Funding: Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province.
Project description:Introduction: Infectious diseases have a major impact on morbidity and mortality in hospital. Microbial diagnosis remains elusive for most cases of suspected infection which impacts on the use of antibiotics. Rapid advances in genomic technologies combined with high-quality phenotypic data have great potential to improve the diagnosis, management and clinical outcomes of infectious diseases. The aim of the Bioresource in Adult Infectious Diseases (BioAID) is to provide a platform for biomarker discovery, trials and clinical service developments in the field of infectious diseases, by establishing a registry linking clinical phenotype to microbial and biological samples in adult patients who attend hospital with suspected infection. Methods and analysis: BioAID is a cohort study which employs deferred consent to obtain an additional 2.5mL RNA blood sample from patients who attend the Emergency Department (ED) with suspected infection when they undergo peripheral blood culture sampling. Clinical data and additional biological samples including DNA, serum and microbial isolates are obtained from BioAID participants during hospital admission. Participants are also asked to consent to be recalled for future studies. BioAID aims to recruit 10,000 patients from 5-8 sites across England. Since February 2014 >4000 individuals have been recruited to the study. The final cohort will be characterised using descriptive statistics including information on the number of cases that can be linked to biological and microbial samples to support future research studies. Ethical approval and section 251 exemption have been obtained for BioAID researchers to seek deferred consent from patients from whom a RNA specimen has been collected. Samples and meta-data obtained through BioAID will be made available to researchers worldwide following submission of an application form and research protocol. Conclusions: BioAID will support a range of study designs spanning discovery science, biomarker validation, disease pathogenesis and epidemiological analyses of clinical infection syndromes.
Project description:Training programs for infectious diseases fellows pursuing a career in infection prevention and control and hospital epidemiology are grounded in mentorship and organizational experience. In this commentary, we propose a competency-based framework for creating structured learning for infectious diseases fellows pursuing hospital epidemiology and related fields.
Project description:In this retrospective study, we aimed to investigate the frequency, trend, and nature of non-infectious diseases (non-IDs) as the final diagnosis for patients during an infectious disease (ID) consultation in an acute care hospital in Japan. This study included adult inpatients who underwent ID consultations between October 2016 and March 2018. The demographic data, clinical manifestations, and final non-ID diagnoses of cases were explored. Among the 502 patients who underwent ID consultations, 45 (9.0%) were diagnosed with non-IDs. The most common diagnoses were tumors (22.2%, n = 10), connective tissue and collagen vascular diseases (13.3%, n = 6), other inflammatory diseases (8.9%, n = 4), and drug-induced fever (8.9%, n = 4). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the presence of consultations for diagnosis (odds ratio [OR], 22.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 10.1-48.2; p<0.01), consultations from the internal medicine department (OR, 2.5; 95% CI, 1.2-5.2; p = 0.02), and non-bacteremia cases (OR, 5.2; 95% CI, 1.4-19.3; p = 0.01) were independently associated with diagnosed non-IDs. Non-IDs after ID consultations were mainly tumor-related, inflammatory diseases, and drug fever. The presence of consultations for diagnosis, consultations from the internal medicine department and non-bacteremia cases were related to non-IDs among ID consultations. Further research is needed to explore the frequency and pattern of non-IDs to improve the quality of ID consultations in daily practice.
Project description:The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of an infectious diseases specialist (IDS)-led antimicrobial stewardship programmes (ASPs) in a large Korean hospital. An interrupted time series analysis assessing the trends in antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance rate of major pathogens between September 2015 and August 2017 was performed in an 859-bed university-affiliated hospital in Korea. The restrictive measure for designated antibiotics led by an IDS reduced carbapenems usage by -4.57 days of therapy (DOT)/1,000 patient-days per month in general wards (GWs) (95% confidence interval [CI], -6.69 to -2.46; P < 0.001), and by -41.50 DOT/1,000 patient-days per month in intensive care units (ICUs) (95% CI, -57.91 to -25.10; P < 0.001). Similarly, glycopeptides usage decreased by -2.61 DOT/1,000 patient-days per month in GWs (95% CI, -4.43 to -0.79; P = 0.007), and -27.41 DOT/1,000 patient-days per month in ICUs (95% CI, -47.03 to -7.79; P = 0.009). Use of 3rd generation cephalosporins, beta-lactam/beta-lactamase inhibitors, and fluoroquinolones in GWs showed change comparable with that of carbapenems or glycopeptides use. Furthermore, trends of antimicrobial resistance rate of Staphylococcus aureus to gentamicin in GWs, Staphylococcus aureus to ciprofloxacin and oxacillin in ICUs, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa to imipenem in ICUs decreased in slope in the intervention period. The in-hospital mortality rate per 1,000 patient-days among ICU patients remained stable between the pre-intervention and intervention periods. In conclusion, an IDS-led ASPs could enact a meaningful reduction in antibiotic use, and a decrease in antibiotic resistance rate, without changing mortality rates in a large Korean hospital.
Project description:BackgroundAntenatal Corticosteroid Treatment (ACT) improves the outcome of preterm infants, but may influence immune system development and risk of immune-related diseases. We investigated whether ACT is associated with infectious diseases in children born at term (≥37 gestational weeks), and very-to-moderate (<34 gestational weeks), and late (34-36 completed gestational weeks) preterm.MethodsAll singleton live births in Finland between 01/01/2006 and 31/12/2021, were followed-up until 31/12/2021. Exposure was maternal ACT. Primary outcomes were numbers of inpatient treatment days, episodes, and specialized care outpatient visits with any infectious disease diagnoses between ages 0 and 4 years. We considered mother- and child-related covariates, and conducted term-born co-sibling comparisons.FindingsData comprised 855,234 children. Of the 20,858 (2.4%) treatment-exposed children, 5981 (28.2%) were very-to-moderate preterm-born, 5809 (27.9%) late preterm-born, and 9069 (43.5%) term-born. Of the 271,767 term-born co-sibling pairs, 5010 (1.8%) were treatment-exposure-discordant, and 266,522 (98.1%) nonexposure-concordant. Among the term- and late preterm-born, treatment-exposed children had more inpatient treatment days than nonexposed children (term: 0.87 vs. 0.56 day/y, adjusted mean difference [aMD] 0.19, 95% CI 0.17-0.28; late preterm: 1.35 vs. 1.00 days/y, aMD 0.31,0.13-0.31), more inpatient treatment episodes (term: 0.43 vs. 0.33 episodes/y, aMD 0.06, 0.06-0.11; late preterm: 0.55 vs. 0.48 episodes/y, aMD 0.12, 0.06-0.18), and specialized care treatment visits (term: 1.46 vs. 0.95 visits/y, aMD 0.38; 0.34-0.43; late preterm: 1.63 vs. 1.28 visits/y, aMD 0.22, 0.12-0.32). Treatment-exposed and nonexposed very-to-moderate preterm-born children were similar in these outcomes, though they had less inpatient treatment days and episodes at 3-4 years. Differences remained in term-born co-sibling comparisons.InterpretationThese findings reinforce previous suggestions for careful consideration of risks and benefits of ACT.FundingAcademy of Finland, HiLIFE Fellows-Programme.
Project description:Individual Level Models (ILMs), a new class of models, are being applied to infectious epidemic data to aid in the understanding of the spatio-temporal dynamics of infectious diseases. These models are highly flexible and intuitive, and can be parameterised under a Bayesian framework via Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. Unfortunately, this parameterisation can be difficult to implement due to intense computational requirements when calculating the full posterior for large, or even moderately large, susceptible populations, or when missing data are present. Here we detail a methodology that can be used to estimate parameters for such large, and/or incomplete, data sets. This is done in the context of a study of the UK 2001 foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) epidemic.