Articles

Basic reproduction number and predicted trends of coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic in the mainland of China

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused a serious epidemic around the world, but it has been effectively controlled in the mainland of China. The Chinese government limited the migration of people almos...

Authors: Yong Li, Lian-Wen Wang, Zhi-Hang Peng and Hong-Bing Shen

Personalizing symptom monitoring and contact tracing efforts through a COVID-19 web-app

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has sparked attention in many countries, especially those that have experienced a steep spike in the number of identified cases. The continued spread of the cor...

Authors: Kevin Yi-Lwern Yap and Qihuang Xie

Soluble IL-2Rα correlates with imbalances of Th1/Th2 and Tc1/Tc2 cells in patients with acute brucellosis

Previous studies showed that soluble IL-2Rα is an important marker of cellular immune activation and might be a marker of treatment efficacy for children with brucellosis. However, data regarding adult patient...

Authors: Hua-Li Sun, Cheng-Jie Ma, Xiu-Fang Du, Si-Yuan Yang, Xiao Lv, Hong Zhao, Ling-Hang Wang, Yun-Xia Tang, Xing-Wang Li and Rong-Meng Jiang

High multiple mutations of Plasmodium falciparum-resistant genotypes to sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine in Lagos, Nigeria

Plasmodium falciparum-resistance to sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) has been largely reported among pregnant women. However, the profile of resistance markers to SP dihydrofolate reductase (dhfr) and dihydroptero...

Authors: Hong Quan, Uche Igbasi, Wellington Oyibo, Sunday Omilabu, Shen-Bo Chen, Hai-Mo Shen, Chukwuma Okolie, Jun-Hu Chen and Xiao-Nong Zhou

Universities as catalysts of social innovation in health systems in low-and middle-income countries: a multi-country case study

Social innovation (SI) in health holds potential to contribute to health systems strengthening and universal health coverage (UHC). The role of universities in SI has been well described in the context of high...

Authors: Lindi van Niekerk, Don Pascal Mathanga, Noel Juban, Diana Maria Castro-Arroyave and Dina Balabanova

How Shenzhen, China avoided widespread community transmission: a potential model for successful prevention and control of COVID-19

Shenzhen is a city of 22 million people in south China that serves as a financial and trade center for East Asia. The city has extensive ties to Hubei Province, the first reported epicenter of the coronavirus ...

Authors: Huachun Zou, Yuelong Shu and Tiejian Feng

Transmissibility of COVID-19 in 11 major cities in China and its association with temperature and humidity in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu

The new coronavirus disease COVID-19 began in December 2019 and has spread rapidly by human-to-human transmission. This study evaluated the transmissibility of the infectious disease and analyzed its associati...

Authors: Xiao-Jing Guo, Hui Zhang and Yi-Ping Zeng

Strategies supporting the prevention and control of neglected tropical diseases during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic

Emerging and re-emerging zoonotic diseases represent a public health challenge of international concern. They include a large group of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), many of which are of zoonotic nature. ...

Authors: John P. Ehrenberg, Xiao-Nong Zhou, Gilberto Fontes, Eliana M. M. Rocha, Marcel Tanner and Jürg Utzinger

Clinical characteristics of different subtypes and risk factors for the severity of illness in patients with COVID-19 in Zhejiang, China

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is now becoming an enormous threat to public health. The clinical spectrum of COVID-19 is extensive, of which critical cases are with rapid disease progressi...

Authors: Shan-Yan Zhang, Jiang-Shan Lian, Jian-Hua Hu, Xiao-Li Zhang, Ying-Feng Lu, Huan Cai, Jue-Qing Gu, Chan-Yuan Ye, Ci-Liang Jin, Guo-Dong Yu, Hong-Yu Jia, Yi-Min Zhang, Ji-Fang Sheng, Lan-Juan Li and Yi-Da Yang

Evaluating the implementation of rapid diagnostic tests in a malaria elimination setting

It was recommended that malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) should be available in all epidemiological situations. But evidence was limited on the implementation of RDTs and its effectiveness in malaria elim...

Authors: Di Liang, Jia-Jie Jin, Wei-Ming Wang, Yuan-Yuan Cao, Guo-Ding Zhu, Hua-Yun Zhou, Jun Cao and Jia-Yan Huang

Transmission patterns of COVID-19 in the mainland of China and the efficacy of different control strategies: a data- and model-driven study

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has seriously endangered the health and lives of Chinese people. In this study, we predicted the COVID-19 epidemic trend and estimated the efficacy of several i...

Authors: Jian Zu, Miao-Lei Li, Zong-Fang Li, Ming-Wang Shen, Yan-Ni Xiao and Fan-Pu Ji

Clinical characteristics of four cancer patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection in Wuhan, China

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) led to the outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan. The virus is highly infectious. Patients with cancer might be susceptible to the viral infection beca...

Authors: Shi-Hui Song, Tie-Long Chen, Li-Ping Deng, Yong-Xi Zhang, Ping-Zheng Mo, Shi-Cheng Gao, Wen-Jia Hu, Yong Xiong and Zhi-Yong Ma

Health-education to prevent COVID-19 in schoolchildren: a call to action

There is currently considerable international debate around school closures/openings and the role of children in the transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Whilst evidence suggests that children ...

Authors: Darren J. Gray, Johanna Kurscheid, Mary Lorraine Mationg, Gail M. Williams, Catherine Gordon, Matthew Kelly, Kinley Wangdi and Donald P. McManus

Association between obesity and clinical prognosis in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2

It is well established that obesity is a disease of sustained low-grade inflammation. However, it is currently unknown if obesity plays a role in the clinical manifestations and prognosis of severe acute respi...

Authors: Shao-Hang Cai, Wei Liao, Shu-Wei Chen, Li-Li Liu, Si-Yao Liu and Zhi-Dan Zheng

Epidemiologically characteristics of human brucellosis and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of Brucella melitensis in Hinggan League of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China

Hinggan League is located in the Northeast of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the historically endemic area of animal and human brucellosis. In this study, the epidemiological characteristics of human br...

Authors: Hai-Tao Yuan, Cheng-Ling Wang, Li-Na Liu, Dan Wang, Dan Li, Zhen-Jun Li and Zhi-Guo Liu

Treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 in Shandong, China: a cost and affordability analysis

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is now a global public threat. Given the pandemic of COVID-19, the economic impact of COVID-19 is essential to add value to the policy-making process. We retrospectively con...

Authors: Xue-Zheng Li, Feng Jin, Jian-Guo Zhang, Yun-Feng Deng, Wei Shu, Jing-Min Qin, Xin Ma and Yu Pang

A close look at the biology of SARS-CoV-2, and the potential influence of weather conditions and seasons on COVID-19 case spread

There is sufficient epidemiological and biological evidence of increased human susceptibility to viral pathogens such as Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, respiratory syncytial virus, human metapne...

Authors: Kamoru A. Adedokun, Ayodeji O. Olarinmoye, Jelili O. Mustapha and Ramat T. Kamorudeen

COVID-19 seeding time and doubling time model: an early epidemic risk assessment tool

As COVID-19 makes its way around the globe, each nation must decide when and how to respond. Yet many knowledge gaps persist, and many countries lack the capacity to develop complex models to assess risk and r...

Authors: Lei Zhou, Jiang-Mei Liu, Xiao-Ping Dong, Jennifer M. McGoogan and Zun-You Wu

Very high baseline HIV viremia impairs efficacy of non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor-based ART: a long-term observation in treatment-naïve patients

It is not completely clear whether a very high pre-therapy viral load (≥ 500 000 copies/ml) can impair the virological response. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of very high baseline HIV-RNA...

Authors: Shuai Chen, Yang Han, Xiao-Jing Song, Yan-ling Li, Ting Zhu, Hong-Zhou Lu, Xiao-Ping Tang, Tong Zhang, Min Zhao, Yun He, Sheng-Hua He, Min Wang, Yong-Zhen Li, Shao-Biao Huang, Yong Li, Jing Liu…

Evaluation of serum-based real-time PCR to detect Schistosoma mansoni infection before and after treatment

To detect acute schistosomiasis, low-intensity infections, or to verify the success of treatment with praziquantel, highly sensitive test methods are required. The aim of this study was therefore to demonstrat...

Authors: Antje Fuss, Humphrey Deogratias Mazigo and Andreas Mueller

Spatial distribution of people diagnosed with tuberculosis through routine and active case finding: a community-based study in Kampala, Uganda

Routine tuberculosis (TB) notifications are geographically heterogeneous, but their utility in predicting the location of undiagnosed TB cases is unclear. We aimed to identify small-scale geographic areas with...

Authors: Katherine O. Robsky, Peter J. Kitonsa, James Mukiibi, Olga Nakasolya, David Isooba, Annet Nalutaaya, Phillip P. Salvatore, Emily A. Kendall, Achilles Katamba and David Dowdy

Asymptomatic and Pre-Symptomatic COVID-19 in China

Authors: Zunyou Wu and Jennifer M. McGoogan

Critical medical ecology and SARS-COV-2 in the urban environment: a pragmatic, dynamic approach to explaining and planning for research and practice

Practitioners and researchers in the midst of overwhelming coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreaks are calling for new ways of looking at such pandemics, with an emphasis on human behavior and holistic c...

Authors: Timothy De Ver Dye, Erin Muir, Lorne Farovitch, Shazia Siddiqi and Saloni Sharma

A COVID-19 case report from asymptomatic contact: implication for contact isolation and incubation management

As of 2 March, 2020, at least 80 151 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases were reported in China. Most of the patients had a history of visiting Hubei Province or contacting with people who had ever staye...

Authors: Chang-Qiang Zhu, Shi-Ding Gao, Yan Xu, Xiao-Hong Yang, Fu-Qiang Ye, Le-Le Ai, Rui-Chen Lv, Bin Zhang, Yin Li, Heng Lv, Yun-Sheng Liu, Chun-Meng Shi, Chun-Hui Wang and Wei-Long Tan

Estimating the daily trend in the size of the COVID-19 infected population in Wuhan

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a pandemic causing global health problem. We provide estimates of the daily trend in the size of the epidemic in Wuhan based on detailed informati...

Authors: Qiu-Shi Lin, Tao-Jun Hu and Xiao-Hua Zhou

Mozambique’s response to cyclone Idai: how collaboration and surveillance with water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions were used to control a cholera epidemic

Cyclone Idai, which hit Mozambique in March 2019, was one of the worst climate-related natural disasters on record in the Southern Hemisphere causing massive destruction of housing and disruption to vital infr...

Authors: Joaquim Domingos Lequechane, Arlete Mahumane, Falume Chale, Crescêncio Nhabomba, Cristolde Salomão, Clemente Lameira, Sérgio Chicumbe and Cynthia Semá Baltazar

Evaluation of morbidity in Schistosoma mansoni-positive primary and secondary school children after four years of mass drug administration of praziquantel in western Kenya

World Health Organization guidelines recommend preventive chemotherapy with praziquantel to control morbidity due to schistosomiasis. The primary aim of this cross-sectional study was to determine if 4 years o...

Authors: Bernard O. Abudho, Bernard Guyah, Bartholomew N. Ondigo, Eric M. Ndombi, Edmund Ireri, Jennifer M. Carter, Diana K. Riner, Nupur Kittur, Diana M. S. Karanja and Daniel G. Colley

Misdiagnosis of a multi-organ involvement hematogenous disseminated tuberculosis as metastasis: a case report and literature review

Tuberculosis (TB) is a great mimicker and diagnostic chameleon, and prone to be diagnosed as malignancy. Even though many reports have described the differences between pulmonary TB and lung cancer, the atypic...

Authors: Tian-Xing Hang, Gang Fang, Yan Huang, Chun-Mei Hu and Wei Chen

Rising challenge of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in China: a predictive study using Markov modeling

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is on the rise in China. This study used a dynamic Markov model to predict the longitudinal trends of MDR-TB in China by 2050 and to assess the effects of alternative ...

Authors: Bing-Ying Li, Wen-Pei Shi, Chang-Ming Zhou, Qi Zhao, Vinod K Diwan, Xu-Bin Zheng, Yang Li, Sven Hoffner and Biao Xu

Effect of household water treatment with chlorine on diarrhea among children under the age of five years in rural areas of Dire Dawa, eastern Ethiopia: a cluster randomized controlled trial

Diarrheal disease is a leading cause of child mortality and morbidity worldwide. Household water treatment with chlorine significantly reduces morbidity due to waterborne diseases. However, the effect of point...

Authors: Ephrem Tefera Solomon, Sirak Robele, Helmut Kloos and Bezatu Mengistie

Surveillance-based evidence: elimination of schistosomiasis as a public health problem in the Peoples’ Republic of China

A steady progress on schistosomiasis control in the Peoples’ Republic of China (P.R. China) was achieved and broadened into the twelve-year medium and long term national plan (MLNP) which marled the implementa...

Authors: Jing Xu, Shi-Zhu Li, Li-Juan Zhang, Robert Bergquist, Hui Dang, Qiang Wang, Shan Lv, Tian-Ping Wang, Dan-Dan Lin, Jian-Bing Liu, Guang-Hui Ren, Kun Yang, Yang Liu, Yi Dong, Shi-Qing Zhang and Xiao-Nong Zhou

Factors associated with mobile phone ownership and potential use for rabies vaccination campaigns in southern Malawi

Rabies is a fatal but preventable viral disease, which causes an estimated 59 000 human deaths globally every year. The vast majority of human rabies cases are attributable to bites from infected domestic dogs...

Authors: Orla Marron, Gareth Thomas, Jordana L. Burdon Bailey, Dagmar Mayer, Paul O. Grossman, Frederic Lohr, Andy D. Gibson, Luke Gamble, Patrick Chikungwa, Julius Chulu, Ian G. Handel, Barend M. de C Bronsvoort, Richard J. Mellanby and Stella Mazeri

Impact of a community-based intervention on Aedes aegypti and its spatial distribution in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Several studies highlighted the impact of community-based interventions whose purpose was to reduce the vectors’ breeding sites. These strategies are particularly interesting in low-and-middle-income countries...

Authors: Emmanuel Bonnet, Florence Fournet, Tarik Benmarhnia, Samiratou Ouedraogo, Roch Dabiré and Valéry Ridde

Human rabies in China: evidence-based suggestions for improved case detection and data gathering

China still suffers heavily from rabies, although reported human cases continue to decrease year over year. There are far fewer laboratory-confirmed human cases than clinically diagnosed cases, which is a big ...

Authors: Hao Li, Jia-Jia Liu, Shu-Jun Ding, Liang Cai, Yun Feng, Peng-Cheng Yu, Shu-Qing Liu, Xue-Xin Lu, Xiao-Yan Tao and Wu-Yang Zhu

Local adaptive evolution of two distinct clades of Beijing and T families of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Chongqing: a Bayesian population structure and phylogenetic study

Beijing sub-pedigree 2 (BSP2) and T sub-lineage 6 (TSL6) are two clades belonging to Beijing and T family of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), respectively, defined by Bayesian population structure analysis based...

Authors: Peng-Kuan Liang, Chao Zheng, Xiao-Fang Xu, Zhe-Ze Zhao, Chang-Song Zhao, Chang-He Li, David Couvin, Yann Reynaud, Thierry Zozio, Nalin Rastogi and Qun Sun

Psychological status and behavior changes of the public during the COVID-19 epidemic in China

A cluster of pneumonia cases were reported by Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, China in December 2019. A novel coronavirus was eventually identified, and became the COVID-19 epidemic that affected public hea...

Authors: Xi Liu, Wen-Tao Luo, Ying Li, Chun-Na Li, Zhong-Si Hong, Hui-Li Chen, Fei Xiao and Jin-Yu Xia

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis transmission among middle school students in Zhejiang Province, China

Despite significant advancements in the treatment and diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) over the past decade, drug-resistant TB remains an increasing threat to public health. TB outbreaks are most commonly report...

Authors: Yu Zhang, Lin Zhou, Zheng-Wei Liu, Cheng-Liang Chai, Xiao-Meng Wang, Jian-Min Jiang and Song-Hua Chen

Tuberculosis infection prevention and control: why we need a whole systems approach

Infection prevention and control (IPC) measures to reduce transmission of drug-resistant and drug-sensitive tuberculosis (TB) in health facilities are well described but poorly implemented. The implementation ...

Authors: Karina Kielmann, Aaron S. Karat, Gimenne Zwama, Christopher Colvin, Alison Swartz, Anna S. Voce, Tom A. Yates, Hayley MacGregor, Nicky McCreesh, Idriss Kallon, Anna Vassall, Indira Govender, Janet Seeley and Alison D. Grant

Brucellosis in China: history, progress and challenge

Brucellosis is a neglected zoonosis. It causes acute febrile illness and a potentially debilitating chronic infection in humans, and livestock infection has substantial socioeconomic impact. Over the past two ...

Authors: Hai Jiang, David O’Callaghan and Jia-Bo Ding

Pretreatment HIV drug resistance in adults initiating antiretroviral therapy in China, 2017

After the scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV infected people, increasing numbers of patients have pretreatment drug resistance (PDR). In this study, the prevalence of PDR was evaluated in adults ...

Authors: Rui-Hua Kang, Shu-Jia Liang, Yan-Ling Ma, Shu Liang, Lin Xiao, Xin-Hui Zhang, Hong-Yan Lu, Xiao-Qin Xu, Shui-Bin Luo, Xiao-Guang Sun, Lin Chen, Jian-Mei He, Guo-Hui Wu, Ling-Jie Liao, Hui Xing, Yi-Ming Shao…

Disability progression among leprosy patients released from treatment: a survival analysis

Leprosy can be cured, but physical disability (PD) as a result of the infection can progress in the post-release from treatment phase. This study evaluated the likelihood of, and factors associated with, the p...

Authors: Aleksandra Rosendo dos Santos, Pãmela Rodrigues de Souza Silva, Peter Steinmann and Eliane Ignotti

The China tuberculosis clinical trials consortium network: a model for international TB clinical trials capacity building

With the second largest tuberculosis (TB) burden globally, China is committed to actively engage in international TB clinical trials to contribute to global TB research. However, lack of research capacity amon...

Authors: Yu-Hong Liu, Shu Chen, Jing-Tao Gao, Yao Zhang, Kimberly Booher, Xiao-Fen Ding, Wei Shu, Jian Du, Jing Bao, Richard Hafner, Carol D. Hamilton and Liang Li

CXCL9 and CXCL10 display an age-dependent profile in Chagas patients: a cohort study of aging in Bambui, Brazil

Chagas disease is endemic in Latin America and still represents an important public health problem in the region. Chronic cardiomyopathy is the most significant chronic form due to its association with morbidi...

Authors: Fernanda Fortes de Araújo, Karen Cecília Lima Torres, Sérgio Viana Peixoto, Antonio Luiz Pinho Ribeiro, Juliana Vaz Melo Mambrini, Vitor Bortolo Rezende, Maria Luiza Lima Silva, Antônio Ignácio Loyola Filho, Andréa Teixeira-Carvalho, Maria Fernanda Lima-Costa and Olindo Assis Martins-Filho

Improvement cues of lesion absorption using the adjuvant therapy of traditional Chinese medicine Qinbudan tablet for retreatment pulmonary tuberculosis with standard anti-tuberculosis regimen

China is the second highest pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) burden country worldwide. However, retreatment of PTB has often developed resistance to at least one of the four first-line anti-TB drugs. The cure rate...

Authors: Shao-Yan Zhang, Ji-You Fu, Xiao-Yan Guo, Ding-Zhong Wu, Tong Zhang, Cui Li, Lei Qiu, Chang-Rong Shao, He-Ping Xiao, Nai-Hui Chu, Qun-Yi Deng, Xia Zhang, Xiao-Feng Yan, Zhao-Long Wang, Zhi-Jie Zhang, Xin Jiang…

Determinants of delayed diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis in Cambodia: a mixed-methods study

Cambodia is among the 30 countries in the world with the highest burden of tuberculosis (TB), and it is estimated that 40% of people with TB remain undiagnosed. In this study, we aimed to investigate the deter...

Authors: Alvin Kuo Jing Teo, Chetra Ork, Sothearith Eng, Ngovlyly Sok, Sovannary Tuot, Li Yang Hsu and Siyan Yi

Estimated need for anthelminthic medicines to control soil-transmitted helminthiases in school-aged children, 2020–2030

Soil-transmitted helminthiases (STH) are part of the group of neglected tropical diseases traditionally treated with preventive chemotherapy interventions. In recent years, drug donations have been essential t...

Authors: Chiara Marocco, Fabrizio Tediosi, Mathieu Bangert, Denise Mupfasoni and Antonio Montresor

IL-6 and INF-γ levels in patients with brucellosis in severe epidemic region, Xinjiang, China

The incidence of brucellosis, which is caused by the Brucella species of bacteria, is rapidly rising worldwide; however, few studies have investigated the immune response to this pathogen and clinical biochemical...

Authors: Zhi-Qiang Lin, Guo-Yue Lin, Wen-Wen He, Chi Zhang, Rui Zhang, Yuan-Da Li, Fan Wang, Ying Qin, Li Duan, Dou-Dou Zhao, Xiao-Juan Qu, Hui Gao and Hai Jiang

Mannose-binding lectin 2 gene polymorphisms and their association with tuberculosis in a Chinese population

Immune- and inflammation-related genes (IIRGs) play an important role in the pathogenesis of tuberculosis (TB). However, the relationship between IIRG polymorphisms and TB risk remains unknown. In this study, ...

Authors: Jun-Xian Zhang, Wen-Ping Gong, Dong-Lin Zhu, Hui-Ru An, You-Rong Yang, Yan Liang, Jie Wang, Jing Tang, Wei-guo Zhao and Xue-Qiong Wu

Expression of the SARS-CoV-2 cell receptor gene ACE2 in a wide variety of human tissues

Since its discovery in December 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has infected more than 2 180 000 people worldwide and has caused more than 150 000 deaths as of April 16, 2020...

Authors: Meng-Yuan Li, Lin Li, Yue Zhang and Xiao-Sheng Wang

Preparedness for Chagas disease spreading worldwide

Chagas disease remains a serious problem for public health due to the high disease burden together with its global spreading patterns. However, current treatment and vector control are highly challenged by dru...

Authors: Qin Liu, Jin Chen and Xiao-Nong Zhou