scholarly journals The Lack of Association Between Bacille Calmette-Guerin Vaccination and Clustering of Aboriginals with Tuberculosis in Western Canada

2005 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 134-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria J Cook ◽  
Eduardo Hernández-Garduño ◽  
Dennis Kunimoto ◽  
Earl S Hershfield ◽  
E Anne Fanning ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major health problem for Aboriginal people in Canada, with high rates of clustering of active TB cases. Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination has been used as a preventive measure against TB in this high-risk population.OBJECTIVE: The study was designed to determine if BCG vaccination in Aboriginal people influenced recent TB transmission through an analysis of the clustering of TB cases.METHODS: A retrospective analysis of all culture-positive Mycobacterium tuberculosis cases in Aboriginal people in western Canada (1995 to 1997) was performed. Isolates were analyzed using standard methodology for restriction fragment length polymorphism and spoligotyping.RESULTS: Of 256 culture-positive Aboriginal TB cases, BCG status was confirmed in 216 (84%) cases; 34% had been vaccinated with BCG, 57% were male and 56% were living on-reserve. Patients who had been vaccinated with BCG were younger than unvaccinated individuals (mean age 32.4±1.65 years versus 45.0±1.8 years, P<0.0001). Clustering was found in 62% of cases: 59% of non-BCG vaccinated cases were clustered versus 68% of those vaccinated with BCG (P=0.16). Younger patients (younger than 60 years of age) were more likely to be clustered in the univariate analysis (P<0.01). When age, sex, province, and HIV and reserve status were controlled for, BCG vaccination was not associated with clustering (OR 1.3, 95% CI 0.7 to 2.6).CONCLUSIONS: BCG vaccinated Aboriginal people were no less likely to have active TB from recently transmitted disease. BCG vaccination appears to have limited value in preventing clustering of TB cases within this high-risk community.

Author(s):  
Federico Marin ◽  
Simone Fezzi ◽  
Alessia Gambaro ◽  
Francesco Ederle ◽  
Gianluca Castaldi ◽  
...  

Abstract Aims To evaluate the safety and efficacy of catheter-based radiofrequency renal sympathetic denervation (RSD) in a daily practice population of patients with uncontrolled resistant hypertension, on top of medical therapy. Methods Consecutive unselected patients with uncontrolled resistant hypertension undergoing RSD were enrolled. Office and ambulatory blood pressure (BP) measurements were collected at baseline and 3, 6 and 12 months after RSD. Efficacy was assessed even in patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) below 45 mL/min/1.73 m2. Patients were defined as responders if systolic BP decreased by at least 5 mmHg at ambulatory BP or by 10 mmHg at office BP at their last follow-up visit. Results Forty patients with multiple comorbidities underwent RSD from 2012 to 2019. Baseline office and ambulatory BP was 159.0/84.9 ± 26.2/14.9 mmHg and 155.2/86.5 ± 20.9/14.0 mmHg, respectively. At 12-month follow up a significant reduction in office and ambulatory systolic BP, respectively by − 19.7 ± 27.1 mmHg and by − 13.9 ± 23.6 mmHg, was observed. BP reduction at 12-month follow-up among patients with eGFR < 45 mL/min was similar to that obtained in patients with higher eGFR. Twenty-nine patients (74.4%) were responders. Combined hypertension, higher ambulatory systolic BP and lower E/E’ at baseline emerged as predictors of successful RSD at univariate analysis. No major complications were observed and renal function (was stable up to 12 months), even in patients with the lowest eGFR values at baseline. Conclusion RSD is safe and feasible in patients with uncontrolled resistant hypertension on top of medical therapy, even in a high-risk CKD population with multiple comorbidities, with a significant reduction in systolic BP and a trend towards a reduction in diastolic BP lasting up to 12 months. Graphic abstract


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guodong Yang ◽  
Xiaogang Yu ◽  
Xiaoqi Long ◽  
Xiaoming Zhang ◽  
Weiwei Du ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: To improve the diagnostic efficiency of early oesophageal cancer, it is of great significance to develop an effective risk prediction model. This study aimed to identify a high-risk population with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) based on a population screening model.Methods: From 120 target townships randomly selected from 150 villages selected in Nanchong City, Sichuan Province, China, from Jan 2016 to Sep 2019, a total of 6409 subjects were screened. Each patient underwent standard endoscopy and narrow band imaging (NBI) and iodine staining indicator biopsies to evaluate oesophageal cancer and precancerous lesions. Before endoscopy, the subjects completed a questionnaire about ESCC risk factors. Variables were evaluated by univariate analysis, and variables significantly related to ESCC were extracted by using a logistic regression model. We used the Akaike information criterion to develop the final model structure and the coding form of variables with multiple metrics. We developed two sets of models to define severe dysplasia and above (SDA) and moderate dysplasia and above (MDA) as prognostic events, respectively. Results: The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) were0.896 (95%CI, 0.888-0.903) and 0.825 (95% CI, 0.816-0.835) for our SDA and MDA models, respectively. MDA-related and SDA-related factors included age, sex, cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking, pharyngeal foreign body sensation, swallowing obstruction, pain behind the sternum, and discomfort behind the breastbone.Conclusions: we developed an easy-to-use model to identify individuals with high risk of dysplasia or oesophageal cancer in high-risk areas of oesophageal cancer in China.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niloy R Datta ◽  
Sneha Datta

Globally, the heterogenous coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) case fatality rate (CFR) could be influenced by various epidemiological parameters. Identifying these could help formulate effective public health strategies. Incidence and mortality of COVID-19 for each of the 220 countries as on July 30, 2020 were evaluated against key epidemiological variables, namely - BCG vaccination (ongoing vs. discontinued/never undertaken), %population aged ≥65 years, incidences of ischemic heart disease (IHD), hypertensive heart disease (HHD), cancer, malaria, and diabetes; human development index (HDI) and population density. These were retrieved from the public domains of WHO, UN, World Bank and published reports. The COVID-19 CFRs ranged between 0.0% and 28.3% (mean ± SD: 3.05% ± 3.48). The influence of the individual epidemiological parameters on CFR were evaluated through the event rate estimations. A significantly lower event rate was observed in countries with ongoing BCG vaccination program (ER: with vs without ongoing BCG vaccination: 0.020 vs 0.034, p<0.001). The type of BCG strains used also influenced the ER; this being 0.018, 0.031 and 0.019 for early, late and mixed strains respectively (p=0.008). The epidemiological variables significantly associated with higher COVID-19 event rate were countries with higher %population aged ≥65 years (p<0.001), greater incidence of IHD (p<0.001) and cancer (p=0.003) and better HDI (p=0.003). Incidences of malaria, HHD and diabetes along with population density had no significant impact on COVID-19 CFR. Further, BCG vaccination significantly lowered the COVID-19 ER in each of the high-risk population subgroups - countries with >7.1% population aged ≥65 years (p=0.008), >0.737 HDI (p=0.001), IHD >1171/105 population (p=0.004) and cancer incidence >15726 (p<0.001). The results supports BCG induced trained immunity leading to heterologous immunoprotection against COVID-19. Thus BCG vaccination with early strains could provide a cost-effective prophylaxis, especially in high-risk individuals and bridge the gap till an effective vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 is freely available globally.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (Supplement_G) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Fezzi ◽  
Gianluca Castaldi ◽  
Maddalena Widmann ◽  
Federico Marin ◽  
Alessandro Ruzzarin ◽  
...  

Abstract Aims To evaluate the safety and the efficacy of catheter-based radiofrequency renal sympathetic denervation (RSD) in a daily practice population of patients with uncontrolled resistant hypertension on top of medical therapy. Methods and results Consecutive unselected patients with uncontrolled resistant hypertension undergoing RSD were enrolled. Office and ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring were collected at baseline and 3, 6, and 12 months after RSD. Efficacy was assessed also in patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate below 45 ml/min/1.73 m2. Patients were defined responders to RSD if systolic BP decreased by at least 5 mmHg at ambulatory BP or by 10 mmHg at office BP at the last follow-up available. Fifty-four patients with multiple comorbidities underwent RSD for uncontrolled-resistant hypertension from 2012 to 2021. Baseline office and ambulatory BP was 161.0/87.2 ± 24.1/15.6 mmHg and 155.4/87.5 ± 19.3/14.6 mmHg, respectively. At 12-month follow-up a significant reduction of office and ambulatory systolic BP, respectively by − 15.66 ± 29.73 mmHg (P &lt; 0.01) and by − 11.3 ± 23.1 mmHg (P &lt; 0.05), was noticed. BP reduction at 12-month follow-up among patients with eGFR &lt;45 ml/min was similar to that obtained in patients with higher eGFR. Among patients treated before July 2020 with available follow-up (45/54) 36 patients (80%) were classified as responders. Combined hypertension, higher ambulatory systolic BP and lower E/E’ at baseline emerged as predictors of success of RSD at univariate analysis. Among responders and non-responders, the average medication number showed no significant difference at baseline and during follow-up. No major complications were observed and renal function was stable up to 12 months, even in patients with lowest eGFR at baseline. Conclusions RSD is safe and feasible in patients with uncontrolled resistant hypertension on top of medical therapy, even in a high-risk CKD population with multiple comorbidities, with a significant reduction of systolic BP and a trend of reduction of the diastolic BP up to 12 months. 775 Figure


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue-Cune Chang

BACKGROUND The Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) is the new form of an acute infectious respiratory disease and has quickly spread over most continents in the world. Recently, it has been shown that Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) might protect against COVID-19. This study aims to investigate the possible correlation between BCG vaccination and morbidity/mortality/recovery rate associated with COVID-19 infection. OBJECTIVE Our findings confirm that the BCG vaccination might protect against COVID-19 virus infection. METHODS Data of COVID-19 confirmed cases, deaths, recoveries, and population were obtained from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ (Accessed on 12 June, 2020). To have meaningful comparisons among countries’ mortality and recovery rates, we only choose those countries with COVID-19 infected cases at least 200. The Poisson regression and logistic regression were used to explore the relationship between BCG vaccination and morbidity, mortality and recovery rates. RESULTS Among those 158 countries with at least 200 COVID-19 infected cases, there were 141 countries with BCG vaccination information available. The adjusted rates ratio of COVID-19 confirmed cases for Current BCG vaccination vs. non-Current BCG vaccination was 0.339 (with 95% CI= (0.338,0.340)). Moreover, the adjusted odds ratio (OR) of death and recovery after coronavirus infected for Current BCG vaccination vs. non-Current BCG vaccination were 0.258 (with 95% CI= (0.254,0.261)) and 2.151 (with 95% CI= (2.140,2.163)), respectively. CONCLUSIONS That data in this study show the BCG might provide the protection against COVID-19, with consequent less COVID-19 infection and deaths and more rapid recovery. BCG vaccine might bridge the gap before the disease-specific vaccine is developed, but this hypothesis needs to be further tested in rigorous randomized clinical trials. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT RR2-https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.14.20131268


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gobi Hariyanayagam ◽  
Sera Selvanthan Sundram Gunasekaran ◽  
Shargunan Selvanthan Gunasekaran ◽  
Nur Syafina Insyirah Zaimi ◽  
Nor Amirah Abdul Halim

BACKGROUND In late December 2019, an outbreak of a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19; previously known as 2019-nCoV) was epidemiologically linked to seafood and wet animal market in Wuhan, Hubei, China. This event has instigated negative stigma among the general population to view the wet market as a high-risk location for potential transmission of coronavirus. OBJECTIVE This study investigated the prevalence of facemask use among general population visiting the wet market as well as factors contributing to unacceptable facemask practice. Setting The visitors to a district wet market selling range of live or freshly slaughtered animals during COVID-19 pandemic outbreak was observed for facemask practice. METHODS All Individuals visiting the market were observed for the type, category and practice of wearing facemas. Subjects were categorized into two groups of acceptable and unacceptable facemask practice. The Pearson chi-square was used to test for differences in investigated variables in the univariate setting and Binary Logistic regression model was used in the multivariate setting. Main outcome measure Prevalence, acceptance practice and odds ratio of unacceptance of facemask use. RESULTS Among 1697 individuals included in the final analysis, 1687 (99.7%) was observed wearing facemask with 1338 (78.8%) using medical-grade facemask. Among them, 1615 (95.7%) individuals facemask practice was acceptable while the reaming 72 (4.3%) individuals were observed with unacceptable facemask practice. Individuals using medical-grade facemask and high-risk age group are 6.4 times (OR=6.40; 95% CI, 2.00-20.43; p=.002) and 2.06 times practice (OR=2.06; 95% CI, 1.08-3.94; p=.028) more likely to have unacceptable facemask practice respectively. CONCLUSIONS High saturation of facemask among the general population is an adequate indicator of public hygiene measures strategy which can help to mitigate the COVID-19 epidemic impact. Alarmingly, the unacceptable facemask practice among high-risk population raises the need for a targeted approach by healthcare authorities to ensure satisfactory facemask use.


Vaccines ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 707
Author(s):  
Afifah Machlaurin ◽  
Franklin Christiaan Karel Dolk ◽  
Didik Setiawan ◽  
Tjipke Sytse van der Werf ◽  
Maarten J. Postma

Bacillus Calmette–Guerin (BCG), the only available vaccine for tuberculosis (TB), has been applied for decades. The Indonesian government recently introduced a national TB disease control programme that includes several action plans, notably enhanced vaccination coverage, which can be strengthened through underpinning its favourable cost-effectiveness. We designed a Markov model to assess the cost-effectiveness of Indonesia’s current BCG vaccination programme. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were evaluated from the perspectives of both society and healthcare. The robustness of the analysis was confirmed through univariate and probabilistic sensitivity analysis (PSA). Using epidemiological data compiled for Indonesia, BCG vaccination at a price US$14 was estimated to be a cost-effective strategy in controlling TB disease. From societal and healthcare perspectives, ICERs were US$104 and US$112 per quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), respectively. The results were robust for variations of most variables in the univariate analysis. Notably, the vaccine’s effectiveness regarding disease protection, vaccination costs, and case detection rates were key drivers for cost-effectiveness. The PSA results indicated that vaccination was cost-effective even at US$175 threshold in 95% of cases, approximating the monthly GDP per capita. Our findings suggest that this strategy was highly cost-effective and merits prioritization and extension within the national TB programme. Our results may be relevant for other high endemic low- and middle-income countries.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-24
Author(s):  
Wei Hao Kok ◽  
Andrea Ban Yu-Lin ◽  
Shamsul Azhar Shah ◽  
Faisal Abdul Hamid

Background: Lung cancer is the second most common cause of cancer-related death and the third most common cancer in Malaysia. The rising prevalence of lung cancer suggests the need to consider disease screening for early detection, especially in the high-risk population, as it offers the best chance of cure. Objectives: The study aims to determine the willingness of high-risk respondents to participate in a lung cancer screening programme if made available to them, and to determine their attitude towards lung cancer screening and explore factors that might affect participation in a screening programme. Method: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study over 6 months conducted in adult patients attending medical clinics in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC) using face-to-face administered questionnaires. Results: In total 180 respondents were analysed. There were 177 (98.3%) males. Mean age was 59.8 ± 9.1 years. Of the respondents, 138 (76.7%) had poor knowledge about cancer screening. Former smokers comprised 119 (66.1%) of the participants, and 61 (33.9%) were current smokers. In total, 141 (78.3%) respondents indicated willingness to participate in a lung cancer screening programme. Out of this group, 68 (48.2%) respondents were unwilling to pay for the procedure. Only 18 (12.8%) were unwilling to undergo lung cancer treatment if detected early. Conclusions: Awareness about general cancer screening is low. Our study showed that when informed of their high-risk status, respondents were willing to participate in lung cancer screening. There should be more health programmes to promote and raise awareness about lung cancer.


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