The feasibility of a school-based VI polysaccharide vaccine mass immunization campaign in Hue City, central Vietnam: streamlining a typhoid fever preventive strategy

We report the coverage, safety, and logistics of a school-based typhoid fever immunization campaign that took place in Hue City, central Vietnam; a typhoid fever endemic area. A cluster-randomized evaluation-blinded controlled trial was designed where 68 schools (cluster) were randomly allocated the single dose Vi polysaccharide vaccine (Typherix) or the active control hepatitis A vaccine (Havrix). A safety surveillance system was implemented. A total of 32,267 children were immunized with a coverage of 57.5%. Strong predictors for vaccination were attending primary schools, peri-urban location of the school, and low family income. Human resources were mainly schoolteachers and the campaign was completed in about 1 month. Most adverse events reported were mild. Safe injection and safe sharp-waste disposal practices were followed. A typhoid fever school-based immunization campaign was safe and logistically possible. Coverage was moderate and can be interpreted as the minimum that could have been achievable because individual written informed consent procedures were sought for the first time in Hue City and the trial nature of the campaign. The lessons learned, together with cost-effectiveness results to be obtained by the end of follow-up period, will hopefully accelerate the introduction of Vi typhoid fever vaccine in Vietnam.     

NEONATAL OUTCOME IN MECONIUM STAINED DELIVERIES — A PROSPECTIVE STUDY

This prospective study analyzes the neonatal outcome in deliveries complicated by meconium stained amniotic fluid. In a study of 1000 live born deliveries, meconium staining of amniotic fluid was seen in 50 (5%) deliveries. Out of these, 20 newborns (40%) developed classical signs of meconium aspiration syndrome and were managed according to a predetermined protocol. Multiparity, term deliveries, use of sedatives in mother, intrauterine growth retardation and prolonged labour were some of the risk factors for development of meconium aspiration syndrome in newborns. This study highlights the need for review of management protocol in newborns after meconium staining of the amniotic fluid, including the use of prophylactic antibiotics.KEY WORDS: Amniotic fluid, Delivery, Meconium aspiration, Respiratory distress syndrome     

A Vietnamese human genetic variation database

Large scale human genome projects have created tremendous human genome databases for some well‐studied populations. Vietnam has about 95 million people (the 14th largest country by population in the world) of which more than 86% are Kinh people. To date, genetic studies for Vietnamese people mostly rely on genetic information from other populations. Building a Vietnamese human genetic variation database is a must for properly interpreting Vietnamese genetic variants. To this end, we sequenced 105 whole genomes and 200 whole exomes of 305 unrelated Kinh Vietnamese (KHV) people. We also included 101 other previously published KHV genomes to build a Vietnamese human genetic variation database of 406 KHV people. The KHV database contains 24.81 million variants (22.47 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 2.34 million indels) of which 0.71 million variants are novel. It includes more than 99.3% of variants with a frequency of >1% in the KHV population. Noticeably, the KHV database revealed 107 variants reported in the human genome mutation database as pathological mutations with a frequency above 1% in the KHV population. The KHV database (available at https://genomes.vn ) would be beneficial for genetic studies and medical applications not only for the Vietnamese population but also for other closely related populations.     

Fas分子与肝细胞凋亡

近年来细胞分子生物学领域中的两个重要进展,即细胞凋亡概念的提出和Ｆａｓ分子的分离与鉴定对肝病的研究有重要影响,加深了人们对肝细胞损伤与死亡的认识．１９９３年Ｏｇａｓａｗａｒａｅｔａｌ［１］进行的Ｆａｓ单抗毒性实验证实了Ｆａｓ分子系统在肝细胞凋亡或损伤...     

Human amniotic IgA inhibits natural IgG autoantibodies of maternal or unrelated origin

We show that the natural autoantibody activity of amniotic IgG dramatically increases after purification, and that the IgG-depleted fraction can suppress the activity of IgG natural antibodies from amniotic fluid or from the maternal serum. This suppression is also observed towards serum IgG from unrelated adults but does not impair the tetanus antitoxin activity of serum-derived IgG. Absorption experiments and immunoglobulin separation by gel permeation demonstrate that this suppression is due to monomeric immunoglobulins of the IgA isotype. The inhibition is associated with an anti-F(ab ′ )₂ activity of the amniotic IgA, involving hypervariable regions of the IgG as demonstrated by different reactivities towards monoclonal IgG sharing the same family of V_H and Vκ domains. These results indicate that the inhibition of natural autoantibodies not only occurs with fetal and adult serum IgM, as reported by other groups, but also with amniotic IgA, suggesting a general and important phenomenon. In the case of the amniotic fluid, IgA could protect the fetus against maternal IgG autoantibodies without interfering with simultaneously translocated antigen-induced IgG antibodies to pathogens.     

Safety of pregnancy after cerebral venous thrombosis: systematic review update

Journal of Neurology -