Cryptococcus gattii Infections in Multiple States Outside the US Pacific Northwest

Clonal VGII subtypes (outbreak strains) of Cryptococcus gattii have caused an outbreak in the US Pacific Northwest since 2004. Outbreak-associated infections occur equally in male and female patients (median age 56 years) and usually cause pulmonary disease in persons with underlying medical conditions. Since 2009, a total of 25 C. gattii infections, 23 (92%) caused by non–outbreak strain C. gattii, have been reported from 8 non–Pacific Northwest states. Sixteen (64%) patients were previously healthy, and 21 (84%) were male; median age was 43 years (range 15–83 years). Ten patients who provided information reported no past-year travel to areas where C. gattii is known to be endemic. Nineteen (76%) patients had central nervous system infections; 6 (24%) died. C. gattii infection in persons without exposure to known disease-endemic areas suggests possible endemicity in the United States outside the outbreak-affected region; these infections appear to differ in clinical and demographic characteristics from outbreak-associated C. gattii. Clinicians outside the outbreak-affected areas should be aware of locally acquired C. gattii infection and its varied signs and symptoms.     

Epidemiology of Cryptococcus gattii, British Columbia, Canada, 1999�C2007

British Columbia, Canada, has the largest reported population of Cryptococcus gattii–infected persons worldwide. To assess the impact of illness, we retrospectively analyzed demographic and clinical features of reported cases, hospitalizations, and deaths during 1999–2007. A total of 218 cases were reported (average annual incidence 5.8 per million persons). Most persons who sought treatment had respiratory illness (76.6%) or lung cryptococcoma (75.4%). Persons without HIV/AIDS hospitalized with cryptococcosis were more likely than those with HIV/AIDS to be older and admitted for pulmonary cryptococcosis. The 19 (8.7%) persons who died were more likely to be older and to have central nervous system disease and infection from the VGIIb strain. Although incidence in British Columbia is high, the predominant strain (VGIIa) does not seem to cause greater illness or death than do other strains. Further studies are needed to explain host and strain characteristics for regional differences in populations affected and disease outcomes.     

Projecting Global Occurrence of Cryptococcus gattii

Cryptococcus gattii and C. neoformans cause pulmonary and systemic cryptococcosis. Recently, C. gattii was recognized as a distinct pathogen of humans and animals. We analyzed information from 400 publications (1948–2008) to examine whether the fungus occurs globally. Known distribution of C. gattii is possibly limited because specialized reagents for differentiation from C. neoformans are not readily available and not always used, and environmental surveys are patchy. However, autochthonous reports of C. gattii cryptococcosis have now been recognized from tropical and temperate regions. An ongoing outbreak in western Canada strengthens the case that the range of the pathogen has expanded. A few studies have highlighted differences in cryptococcosis between C. gattii and C. neoformans. More than 50 tree species have yielded C. gattii especially from decayed hollows suggesting a possible ecologic niche. This pathogen merits more attention so its environmental occurrence and role in cryptococcosis can be accurately determined.     

Lodgepole Pine Cambium (Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud. var. latifolia Engelm. ex S. Wats.): A Springtime First Peoples’ Food in British Columbia

Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) is a tree species utilized for succulent edible cambium and secondary phloem in the spring by Interior First Peoples of the Pacific Northwest. In this article we present a nutritional analysis of this food based on a pooled sample of 17 trees harvested in the Chilcotin region of British Columbia. We also present enzymatic sugar analysis of raw, dried, and cooked lodgepole pine cambium harvested from the Chilcotin and Okanagan regions in British Columbia. In the discussion we interpret the nutrient values of raw lodgepole pine cambium in comparison to dried and cooked cambium, results from other nutritional studies of pine cambium, and nutrients in some other traditional and nontraditional foods.     

Secondary School Students' Attitudes and Beliefs about Breastfeeding

The incidence and prevalence of breastfeeding has increased in the United States and Canada in the past decade, but in spite of its known benefits it is often abandoned before infants are two months of age. Society lacks the attitudes and knowledge necessary for breastfeeding success. A survey of the knowledge, beliefs and attitudes of 409 secondary school students in British Columbia, Canada, revealed misconceptions about the nature of breastfeeding. A high percentage felt it was unacceptable in social situations. The findings point to a need for the integration of information about breastfeeding into school health programs, biology, home economics/nutrition and family life/sexuality courses. Increased knowledge and discussion to foster positive attitudes could increase breastfeeding duration among parents in the future.     

Spread of Virulent Group A Streptococcus Type emm59 from Montana to Wyoming,USA

Full-genome sequencing showed that a recently emerged and hypervirulent clone of group A Streptococcus type emm59 active in Canada and parts of the United States has now caused severe invasive infections in rural northeastern Wyoming. Phylogenetic analysis of genome data indicated that the strain was likely introduced from Montana.     

Occurrence of Butyltin Compounds in Tissues of Water Birds and Seaducks from the United States and Canada

Tributyltin and its breakdown products, mono- and di-butyltin, were determined in water birds collected from Lake Huron (the Great Lakes), marine coastal United States, and the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. Concentrations of butyltins in the liver of birds collected from Lake Huron were ≤ 27 ng/g, wet wt, whereas those from marine coastal areas contained up to 90 ng/g. Relatively higher concentrations were found in seaducks collected from coastal British Columbia, with concentrations as great as 1,100 ng/g. Mollusk-feeding seaducks seemed to accumulate greater concentrations of butyltins than predatory birds feeding on fish, other birds and small mammals. Hepatic concentration ranges of butyltins in birds from the United States and Canada were compared with those reported for the UK, Netherlands, Japan, and Poland. Exposure of birds to butyltin compounds continues to occur in harbors and marinas where TBT is used on vessels greater than 25 m in length. Received: 20 August 1997/Accepted: 28 November 1997     

Spread of Cryptococcus gattii in British Columbia, Canada, and detection in the Pacific Northwest, USA

Cryptococcus gattii, emergent on Vancouver Island, British Columbia (BC), Canada, in 1999, was detected during 2003-2005 in 3 persons and 8 animals that did not travel to Vancouver Island during the incubation period; positive environmental samples were detected in areas outside Vancouver Island. All clinical and environmental isolates found in BC were genotypically consistent with Vancouver Island strains. In addition, local acquisition was detected in 3 cats in Washington and 2 persons in Oregon. The molecular profiles of Oregon isolates differed from those found in BC and Washington. Although some microclimates of the Pacific Northwest are similar to those on Vancouver Island, C. gattii concentrations in off-island environments were typically lower, and human cases without Vancouver Island contact have not continued to occur. This suggests that C. gattii may not be permanently colonized in off-island locations.     

Climatic Influences on Cryptoccoccus gattii Populations,Vancouver Island,Canada, 2002–2004

Vancouver Island, Canada, reports the world’s highest incidence of Cryptococcus gattii infection among humans and animals. To identify key biophysical factors modulating environmental concentrations, we evaluated monthly concentrations of C. gatti in air, soil, and trees over a 3-year period. The 2 study datasets were repeatedly measured plots and newly sampled plots. We used hierarchical generalized linear and mixed effect models to determine associations. Climate systematically influenced C. gattii concentrations in all environmental media tested; in soil and on trees, concentrations decreased when temperatures were warmer. Wind may be a key process that transferred C. gattii from soil into air and onto trees. C. gattii results for tree and air samples were more likely to be positive during periods of higher solar radiation. These results improve the understanding of the places and periods with the greatest C. gattii colonization. Refined risk projections may help susceptible persons avoid activities that disturb the topsoil during relatively cool summer days.     

Detection of ‘Candidatus Ehrlichia khabarensis’ in rodents and ticks removed from rodents in British Columbia,Canada

‘Candidatus Ehrlichia khabarensis’ was first described from rodents and insectivores in the Far East territory of Khabarovsk on the Russian Pacific Coast. Here we report the detection of DNA from this microorganism in rodents and fed ticks collected from rodents in British Columbia, Canada in 2013–2014. ‘Candidatus Ehrlichia khabarensis’ was detected in (i) a female Ixodes angustus tick collected from a Peromyscus maniculatus; (ii) a female Dermacentor andersoni tick collected from a Perognathus parvus; (iii) a pool of 2 larval Ixodes pacificus ticks collected from a single P. maniculatus; and (iv) a pool of 3 nymphal I. pacificus ticks collected from a single P. maniculatus. Three of these four rodents (2 P. maniculatus and 1 P. parvus) with infected ticks also had evidence of ‘Candidatus Ehrlichia khabarensis’ in at least one tissue type. The infected P. maniculatus and Ixodes ticks came from the Vancouver area in western British Columbia and the P. parvus and Dermacentor tick from an inland site in central British Columbia. Although it remains to be determined whether ‘Candidatus Ehrlichia khabarensis’ has any negative impacts on wildlife, domestic animals or humans, we note that all three tick species found to contain the DNA of this microorganism are known to bite humans. Future detection of this microorganism either in ticks collected from rodents and allowed to molt to the next life stage prior to being tested, or from host-seeking ticks, is required to determine if it can survive the tick’s molt after being ingested via an infectious blood meal.     

Insights into origins of Human T-cell Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 based on new strains from aboriginal people of Canada

The causes of the worldwide distribution of Human T-cell Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 (HTLV-1) remain incompletely understood, with competing hypotheses regarding the number and timing of events leading to intercontinental spread on historical and prehistoric timescales. Ongoing discovery of this virus in aboriginal populations of Asia and the Americas has been the main source of evidence for the latter. We conducted molecular phylogenetic and dating analyses for 13 newly reported HTLV-1 strains from Canada. We analyzed two full-length proviral genomes from aboriginal residents of Nunavut (an autonomous territory in Northern Canada including most of the Canadian Arctic), 11 long-terminal-repeat (LTR) sequences from aboriginal residents of British Columbia’s Pacific coast, and 2 LTR sequences from non-aboriginal Canadians. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated a well-supported affinity between the two Nunavut strains and two East Asian strains, suggesting the presence of an Asian–American sublineage within the widespread “transcontinental” subgroup A clade of HTLV-1 Cosmopolitan subtype a. This putative sublineage was estimated to be 5400–11,900 years in age, consistent with a long-term presence of HTLV-1 in aboriginal populations of the Canadian Arctic. Phylogenetic affinities of the other 11 Canadian HTLV-1 aboriginal strains were diverse, strengthening earlier evidence for multiple incursions of this virus into coastal aboriginal populations of British Columbia. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis of ancient presence of HTLV-1 in aboriginal populations of North America.     

Experiences of self‐care during the COVID‐19 pandemic among individuals with rheumatoid arthritis: A qualitative study

ObjectivesThis study aimed to explore the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic on self‐care of individuals living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).MethodsGuided by a constructivist, qualitative design, we conducted one‐to‐one in‐depth telephone interviews between March and October 2020 with participants with RA purposively sampled for maximum variation in age, sex and education, who were participating in one of two ongoing randomized‐controlled trials. An inductive, reflexive thematic analysis approach was used.ResultsTwenty‐six participants (aged 27–73 years; 23 females) in British Columbia, Canada were interviewed. We identified three themes: (1) Adapting to maintain self‐care describes how participants took measures to continue self‐care activities while preventing virus transmissions. While spending more time at home, some participants reported improved self‐care. (2) Managing emotions describes resilience‐building strategies such as keeping perspective, positive reframing and avoiding negative thoughts. Participants described both letting go and maintaining a sense of control to accommodate difficulties and emotional responses. (3) Changing communication with health professionals outlined positive experiences of remote consultations with health professionals, particularly if good relationships had been established prepandemic.ConclusionThe insights gained may inform clinicians and researchers on ways to support the self‐care strategies of individuals with RA and other chronic illnesses during and after the COVID‐19 pandemic. The findings reveal opportunities to further examine remote consultations to optimize patient engagement and care.Patient or Public ContributionThis project is jointly designed and conducted with patient partners in British Columbia, Canada. Patient partners across the United Kingdom also played in a key role in providing interpretations of themes during data analysis.     

Income-Related Health Inequalities in Canada and the United States: A Decomposition Analysis

Objectives. We examined income-related inequalities in self-reported health in the United States and Canada and the extent to which they are associated with individual-level risk factors and health care system characteristics.Methods. We estimated income inequalities with concentration indexes and curves derived from comparable survey data from the 2002 to 2003 Joint Canada–US Survey of Health. Inequalities were then decomposed by regression and decomposition analysis to distinguish the contributions of various factors.Results. The distribution of income accounted for close to half of income-related health inequalities in both the United States and Canada. Health care system factors (e.g., unmet needs and health insurance status) and risk factors (e.g., physical inactivity and obesity) contributed more to income-related health inequalities in the United States than to those in Canada.Conclusions. Individual-level health risk factors and health care system characteristics have similar associations with health status in both countries, but they both are far more prevalent and much more concentrated among lower-income groups in the United States than in Canada.Increasing evidence indicates that the roots of health inequalities lie in an array of social, economic, and political attributes of nation-states.^1–4 Nations differ both in their average levels of population health and in the extent to which health is distributed unequally by socioeconomic status. Income-related inequalities in mortality, which are relatively stable in Canada,⁵ have been increasing steadily in the United States. In the early 1980s, the life expectancy gap in the United States between the poorest and most affluent decile was 2.8 years. By the late 1990s, this gap had increased to 4.5 years.⁶ The socioeconomic distribution of infant mortality in the two countries is also different, with declines across socioeconomic groups in Canada over recent decades,⁵ but widening gaps in the United States that are attributable to relatively higher declines for the affluent.⁷What are the underlying causes of these disparities? Are determinants of population health distributed differently by income in these neighboring countries? Or is the association between these determinants and health stronger in the United States than in Canada? We aimed to identify the potential influence of health care and other policies on income-related inequalities in health by decomposing those inequalities in both the United States and Canada into relative contributions from a set of known determinants of health.     

Ciprofloxacin-Resistant Campylobacter spp. in Retail Chicken,Western Canada

During 2005–2010, the Canadian Integrated Program for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance identified increased prevalence of ciprofloxacin (a fluororquinolone) resistance among Campylobacter isolates from retail chicken in British Columbia (4%–17%) and Saskatchewan (6%–11%), Canada. Fluoroquinolones are critically important to human medicine and are not labeled for use in poultry in Canada.     

Foodborne Botulism in Canada, 1985–2005

During 1985–2005, a total of 91 laboratory-confirmed outbreaks of foodborne botulism occurred in Canada; these outbreaks involved 205 cases and 11 deaths. Of the outbreaks, 75 (86.2%) were caused by Clostridium botulinum type E, followed by types A (7, 8.1%) and B (5, 5.7%). Approximately 85% of the outbreaks occurred in Alaska Native communities, particularly the Inuit of Nunavik in northern Quebec and the First Nations population of the Pacific coast of British Columbia. These populations were predominantly exposed to type E botulinum toxin through the consumption of traditionally prepared marine mammal and fish products. Two botulism outbreaks were attributed to commercial ready-to-eat meat products and 3 to foods served in restaurants; several cases were attributed to non-Native home-prepared foods. Three affected pregnant women delivered healthy infants. Improvements in botulism case identification and early treatment have resulted in a reduction in the case-fatality rate in Canada.     

The Lived Experience of Women Pregnant (Including Preconception) Post In Vitro Fertilization Through the Lens of Virtual Communities

In this study, researchers explore and describe the experience of pregnancy via in vitro fertilization (IVF). The lived experience portrayed herein represents the experience of women from at least seven different countries (the United States, Australia, England, Ireland, Canada, Columbia, and Borneo). Professionals from multiple disciplines may use insights gained from this study to better understand emotional, psychological, and physical health needs of women pregnant post IVF.     

Building community involvement in cross-cultural Indigenous health programs.

OBJECTIVE: To gain preliminary knowledge about issues identified by Native health investigators who would encourage greater community involvement in Indigenous health programs and research in Canada, Pacific Rim, and the United States. DESIGN: A pilot/feasibility study, August 2001-April 2002. SETTING: Indigenous health agencies and institutions in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the United States. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-six health professionals from rural and urban health centers participated, which resulted in 10 group and four individual interviews. Subjects included program managers, clinical physicians, and health researchers. Approximately 58% of the subjects self-identified as Indigenous. RESULTS: Three overarching themes emerged from the interview data: (i) integration of cultural values of family and community into health provision; (ii) emphasis on health education and prevention programs for Indigenous youth; and (iii) indigenous recognition and self-determination in health delivery and research. CONCLUSIONS: To improve and promote community involvement in primary health programs and services for Indigenous people involves a long-term social and political commitment to health protection on a national and an international level, as well as the understanding that research methodologies and health interventions must explicitly involve culturally appropriate values and behaviors that are implemented by Indigenous people.     

Sharp-device injuries to hospital staff nurses in 4 countries.

OBJECTIVE: To compare sharp-device injury rates among hospital staff nurses in 4 Western countries. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Acute-care hospital nurses in the United States (Pennsylvania), Canada (Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario), the United Kingdom (England and Scotland), and Germany. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 34,318 acute-care hospital staff nurses in 1998-1999. RESULTS: Survey-based rates of retrospectively-reported needlestick injuries in the previous year for medical-surgical unit nurses ranged from 146 injuries per 1,000 full-time equivalent positions (FTEs) in the US sample to 488 injuries per 1,000 FTEs in Germany. In the United States and Canada, very high rates of sharp-device injury among nurses working in the operating room and/or perioperative care were observed (255 and 569 injuries per 1,000 FTEs per year, respectively). Reported use of safety-engineered sharp devices was considerably lower in Germany and Canada than it was in the United States. Some variation in injury rates was seen across nursing specialties among North American nurses, mostly in line with the frequency of risky procedures in the nurses' work. CONCLUSIONS: Studies conducted in the United States over the past 15 years suggest that the rates of sharp-device injuries to front-line nurses have fallen over the past decade, probably at least in part because of increased awareness and adoption of safer technologies, suggesting that regulatory strategies have improved nurse safety. The much higher injury rate in Germany may be due to slow adoption of safety devices. Wider diffusion of safer technologies, as well as introduction and stronger enforcement of occupational safety and health regulations, are likely to decrease sharp-device injury rates in various countries even further.     

Hansen Disease among Micronesian and Marshallese Persons Living in the United States

An increasing proportion of Hansen disease cases in the United States occurs among migrants from the Micronesian region, where leprosy prevalence is high. We abstracted surveillance and clinical records of the National Hansen’s Disease Program to determine geographic, demographic, and clinical patterns. Since 2004, 13% of US cases have occurred in this migrant population. Although Hawaii reported the most cases, reports have increased in the central and southern states. Multibacillary disease in men predominates on the US mainland. Of 49 patients for whom clinical data were available, 37 (75%) had leprosy reaction, neuropathy, or other complications; 17 (37%) of 46 completed treatment. Comparison of data from the US mainland with Hawaii and country-of-origin suggests under-detection of cases in pediatric and female patients and with paucibacillary disease in the United States. Increased case finding and management, and avoidance of leprosy-labeled stigma, is needed for this population.At 11 cases per 10,000 population and 8 per 10,000, respectively, in 2007, the small Pacific Island nations of the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia have the highest prevalence of Hansen disease (HD), i.e., leprosy, in the world and have made little progress in the past decade toward the World Health Organization (WHO) leprosy elimination target of <1 per 10,000 (1,2). During the first quarter of 2010, 33 new cases were detected among the 54,000 residents of the Marshall Islands (3).HD has been present in the United States for more than a century; the number of patients has remained relatively constant at 150–200 per year (4).The US National Hansen’s Disease Program (NHDP) has noted an increasing number of cases among US-resident Marshall Islanders and Micronesians, including several persons with advanced disease. In 1996, the Hawaii HD program reported a cluster involving 16 (5%) of 321 persons screened from a Marshallese migrant community (5,6). In 2002, the US Army noted 3 cases in 1 month in soldiers from this region (7). The recent reporting of multiple cases among the Marshallese community in northwestern Arkansas (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, unpub. data, 2006) has drawn attention in a region unaccustomed to leprosy, with its stigmatizing historical connotations (8,9).Under the terms of the Compacts of Free Association (the legal documents governing the relationships between the United States, Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands), citizens of this former US Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands are not subject to usual immigration requirements but may freely enter, reside, and work in the United States for as long as they wish. They hold a unique legal status, are not classified as immigrants, and maintain their country-of-origin citizenship. Transportation data indicate net emigration of an average of 952 Marshallese and 1,443 Micronesians annually, with a total of 38,325 emigrants for 1991–2006; almost all of these persons are thought to have immigrated to the United States and its territories (10). The actual distribution of this population within the United States is unknown; a specific category included in the 2010 US Census should provide this information. As economic and climatologic pressure drive increasing emigration from this HD-endemic former US Trust Territory, the US HD case load is expected to continue to increase, worsening health disparities and requiring increased program and local resources, although this increased case load is unlikely to create a public health threat of transmission to the general population. Cultural and socioeconomic issues may affect case detection and long-term disease management in this population, including adherence to and completion of therapy.The objective of this report is to describe, on the basis of secondary analysis of existing program data, the epidemiology of HD among Marshallese and Micronesian persons residing in the United States. The intent is to assist in providing resources to address a health disparity that disproportionately affects a group of a particular national origin, while at the same time avoiding worsening of ethnic and disease-related stigma.