Articles

China’s practice to prevent and control COVID-19 in the context of large population movement

The emerging infectious disease, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), poses a serious threat in China and worldwide. Challenged by this se...

Authors: Tie-Long Xu, Mei-Ying Ao, Xu Zhou, Wei-Feng Zhu, He-Yun Nie, Jian-He Fang, Xin Sun, Bin Zheng and Xiao-Fan Chen

Cross-reaction of POC-CCA urine test for detection of Schistosoma mekongi in Lao PDR: a cross-sectional study

The point-of-care circulating cathodic antigen (POC-CCA) test is increasingly used as a rapid diagnostic method for Schistosoma mansoni infection. The test has good sensitivity, although false positive results ha...

Authors: Anousin Homsana, Peter Odermatt, Phonesavanh Southisavath, Aya Yajima and Somphou Sayasone

Psychological impact of COVID-19 on medical care workers in China

Medical care workers experienced unprecedented levels of workload and pressure since the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Little is known about its exact impact on medical care workers and rela...

Authors: Ming-Yu Si, Xiao-You Su, Yu Jiang, Wen-Jun Wang, Xiao-Fen Gu, Li Ma, Jing Li, Shao-Kai Zhang, Ze-Fang Ren, Ran Ren, Yuan-Li Liu and You-Lin Qiao

Coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic in impoverished area: Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture as an example

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had spread worldwide. Although the world has intensively focused on the epidemic center during this period of time, it is imperative to emphasize that more a...

Authors: Ru-Jun Liao, Chun-Nong Ji-Ke, Tao Zhang, Qiang Liao, Ling Li, Tian-Yu Zhu and Shao-Yong Bian

Temporal trends in areas at risk for concomitant tuberculosis in a hyperendemic municipality in the Amazon region of Brazil

Although preventable and curable, tuberculosis (TB) still occurs in poor or developing countries, mainly in metropolitan regions of larger cities. The disease is a serious public health problem, and is directl...

Authors: Alexandre Tadashi Inomata Bruce, Thais Zamboni Berra, Felipe Lima dos Santos, Yan Mathias Alves, Ludmilla Leidianne Limirio Souza, Antônio Carlos Vieira Ramos, Luiz Henrique Arroyo, Juliane de Almeida Crispim, Ione Carvalho Pinto, Pedro Fredemir Palha, Aline Aparecida Monroe, Mellina Yamamura, Regina Célia Fiorati, Ana Carolina Scarpel Moncaio, Dulce Maria de Oliveira Gomes and Ricardo Alexandre Arcêncio

Fatal case of newborn Lassa fever virus infection mimicking late onset neonatal sepsis: a case report from northern Nigeria

Lassa fever is a zoonotic viral infection endemic to the West Africa countries. It is highly fatal during pregnancy and as such reports of neonatal onset Lassa fever infections are rare in scientific literatur...

Authors: Taofik Oluwaseun Ogunkunle, Surajudeen Oyeleke Bello, Chinwe Immaculata Anderson, Rashida Musa, Rasaq Olaosebikan and Abdulazeez Imam

Massive migration promotes the early spread of COVID-19 in China: a study based on a scale-free network

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic met coincidentally with massive migration before Lunar New Year in China in early 2020. This study is to investigate the relationship between the massive migrat...

Authors: Wen-Yu Song, Pan Zang, Zhong-Xing Ding, Xin-Yu Fang, Li-Guo Zhu, Ya Zhu, Chang-Jun Bao, Feng Chen, Ming Wu and Zhi-Hang Peng

Abnormal immunity of non-survivors with COVID-19: predictors for mortality

The number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases has rapidly increased all over the world. Specific information about immunity in non-survivors with COVID-19 is scarce. This study aimed to analyse the c...

Authors: Yang Zhao, Han-Xiang Nie, Ke Hu, Xiao-Jun Wu, Yun-Ting Zhang, Meng-Mei Wang, Tao Wang, Zhi-Shui Zheng, Xiao-Chen Li and Shao-Lin Zeng

Different approaches to characterize artificial breeding sites of Aedes aegypti using generalized linear mixed models

As no globally accepted dengue vaccines or specific antiviral therapies are currently available, controlling breeding sites of Aedes aegypti is a target to prevent dengue outbreaks. The present study aimed to cha...

Authors: Nicolás Flaibani, Adriana A. Pérez, Ignacio M. Barbero and Nora E. Burroni

Prevalence of severe Plasmodium knowlesi infection and risk factors related to severe complications compared with non-severe P. knowlesi and severe P. falciparum malaria: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Plasmodium knowlesi is a potential cause of severe and fatal malaria, but comprehensive studies of its pooled prevalence and risk factors are lacking. This study aimed to explore the prevalence and risk factors r...

Authors: Manas Kotepui, Kwuntida Uthaisar Kotepui, Giovanni D. Milanez and Frederick R. Masangkay

Imported Mansonella perstans infection in Spain

Mansonella perstans infection can be considered one of the most neglected tropical infectious diseases. Very few studies have reported on the clinical picture caused by infection with this nematode. Therefore, ou...

Authors: Sabino Puente, Mar Lago, Mercedes Subirats, Ismael Sanz-Esteban, Marta Arsuaga, Belén Vicente, Montserrat Alonso-Sardon, Moncef Belhassen-Garcia and Antonio Muro

The role of isolation rooms, facemasks and intensified hand hygiene in the prevention of nosocomial COVID-19 transmission in a pulmonary clinical setting

From December 25, 2019 to January 31, 2020, 33 cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) were identified in the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine of Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan Univers...

Authors: Gu-Qin Zhang, Hua-Qin Pan, Xing-Xing Hu, Shao-Jun He, Yi-Fei Chen, Chao-Jie Wei, Lan Ni, Li-Ping Zhang, Zhen-Shun Cheng and Jiong Yang

Impact of continuous low water stage on the breeding environment of Oncomelania hupensis: a case study of Poyang Lake area in China

Oncomelania hupensis is the only intermediate host of Schistosoma japonicum and plays a decisive role in its transmission. The variation of water level greatly affects the reproduction and growth of snails. There...

Authors: Fei Hu, Qi-Yue Li, Xiao-Feng Dai, Zhao-Jun Li, Shang-Biao Lv, Chun-Fang Lu, Yi-Feng Li, Min Yuan, Yue-Ming Liu, Ying Liu and Dan-Dan Lin

Climate change induced vulnerability and adaption for dengue incidence in Colombo and Kandy districts: the detailed investigation in Sri Lanka

Assessing the vulnerability of an infectious disease such as dengue among endemic population is an important requirement to design proactive programmes in order to improve resilience capacity of vulnerable com...

Authors: Lahiru Udayanga, Nayana Gunathilaka, M. C. M. Iqbal and W. Abeyewickreme

Human brucellosis: recent advances and future challenges

Authors: David O’Callaghan

Saliva as a diagnostic specimen for detection of SARS-CoV-2 in suspected patients: a scoping review

From the begging months of 2020 a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2, also called 2019-nCoV) caused a devastating global outbreak. At present, the diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (...

Authors: Omid Fakheran, Mandana Dehghannejad and Abbasali Khademi

Biological, clinical and epidemiological features of COVID-19, SARS and MERS and AutoDock simulation of ACE2

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused a public catastrophe and global concern. The main symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, cough, myalgia, fatigue and lower respiratory tract infection si...

Authors: Xue-Yan Zhang, Hao-Jie Huang, Dong-Lin Zhuang, Moussa Ide Nasser, Ming-Hua Yang, Ping Zhu and Ming-Yi Zhao

Social innovation for health: engaging communities to address infectious diseases

Universal health coverage emphasises the value of the community-based delivery of health services to ensure that underserved populations have access to care. In areas where infectious diseases are endemic, the...

Authors: Phyllis Dako-Gyeke, Uche V. Amazigo, Beatrice Halpaap and Lenore Manderson

Treatment quality and outcome for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patients in four regions of China: a cohort study

China incurs an extremely low treatment coverage of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). This study aimed to understand the experience of MDR-TB patients on quality of health care, and the clinical impac...

Authors: Xu-Bin Zheng, Vinod K. Diwan, Qi Zhao, Yi Hu, Judith Bruchfeld, Wei-Li Jiang, Sven Hoffner and Biao Xu

Estimation of exponential growth rate and basic reproduction number of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Africa

Since the first case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Africa was detected on February 14, 2020, the cumulative confirmations reached 15 207 including 831 deaths by April 13, 2020. Africa has been desc...

Authors: Salihu S. Musa, Shi Zhao, Maggie H. Wang, Abdurrazaq G. Habib, Umar T. Mustapha and Daihai He

Inference and prediction of malaria transmission dynamics using time series data

Disease surveillance systems are essential for effective disease intervention and control by monitoring disease prevalence as time series. To evaluate the severity of an epidemic, statistical methods are widel...

Authors: Benyun Shi, Shan Lin, Qi Tan, Jie Cao, Xiaohong Zhou, Shang Xia, Xiao-Nong Zhou and Jiming Liu

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

Bioinformatics analysis of epitope-based vaccine design against the novel SARS-CoV-2

An outbreak of infection caused by SARS-CoV-2 recently has brought a great challenge to public health. Rapid identification of immune epitopes would be an efficient way to screen the candidates for vaccine dev...

Authors: Hong-Zhi Chen, Ling-Li Tang, Xin-Ling Yu, Jie Zhou, Yun-Feng Chang and Xiang Wu

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