The Role of Community Health Workers Within the Continuum of Services for HIV,Viral Hepatitis,and Other STIs Amongst Men Who Have Sex with Men in Europe

Journal of Community Health - Little is known about Community Health Workers (CHWs) who work in non-clinical settings to provide sexual health support around HIV, viral hepatitis, and other...     

Vaccination with chimeric protein induces protection in murine model against ascariasis

An estimated 400 million people are infected by parasites of the genus Ascaris and the existing control measures are inefficient. Vaccine development using B cell antigens is a promising strategy for increased protection against this parasite. The present study aimed at developing a chimeric protein capable of conferring protection against infection by Ascaris sp. For this purpose, we performed B-cell epitope predictions on previously described vaccine candidate proteins from Ascaris suum and the corresponding peptides were used to construct a chimeric protein. Female BALB / c mice were immunized subcutaneously in three doses at 10 day intervals with a vaccine formulation comprised of the chimeric protein together with monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA). Control groups included protein alone, MPLA, or PBS. After challenge infection, animals vaccinated with chimeric protein plus MPLA showed a reduction of 73.54% of larval load in the lung compared to control group animals. Animals immunized with chimeric protein plus MPLA also display higher IgG response and a reduction in lung inflammation. Our study highlights how chimeric proteins containing more than one B cell epitope can enhance immune protection against helminthic infection and offer new approaches to the development of Ascaris vaccines.     

Healthcare Workers’ (HCWs) attitudes towards mandatory influenza vaccination: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Influenza is a disease responsible for thousands of deaths every year. Although healthcare workers (HCWs) represent a way of contagion for patients, vaccination coverage among them is low. Mandatory vaccination has been proposed, but controversies remain. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to assess the acceptance of mandatory vaccination by HCWs, and to investigate associated characteristics. MEDLINE, Scopus, Embase, PsycInfo, CINAHL and Web of Science were used to search for studies assessing the topic. PRISMA statements were followed. Of the 13,457 univocal records found, 52 studies were included in the systematic review and 40 in the meta-analysis. The pooled proportion of HCWs accepting the policy was of 61% (95% CI: 53%- 68%) but with great heterogeneity between continents (from 54% in Europe to 69% in Asia) and in different professionals (from 40% in nurses to 80% in students). Vaccinated HCWs agreed more frequently with mandatory vaccination than non-vaccinated ones. More studies that consider mandatory vaccination acceptance as the main outcome are needed, but the results of this study confirm that in some settings the majority of HCWs favour mandatory vaccination. This, combined with effects that a flu epidemic could have if overlapped to pandemics with similar symptoms, requires renewed considerations on mandatory vaccination.     

Identifying the minimal important difference in patient-reported outcome measures in the field of people with severe mental illness: a pre–post-analysis of the Illness Management and Recovery Programme

Quality of Life Research - Complementary interventions for persons with severe mental illness (SMI) focus on both personal recovery and illness self-management. This paper aimed to identify the...     

Enhancing the multi-dimensional assessment of quality of life: introducing the WHOQOL-Combi

Quality of Life Research - We revisited the global concept of subjective quality of life (QoL) as assessed by the WHOQOL-BREF to investigate whether it could be elaborated into a conceptually more...     

Association between food patterns and difficulties in falling asleep among adolescents in Norway — a descriptive Young-Hunt3 study

Journal of Public Health - Adolescents’ sleep duration has decreased over the past century; this is mainly caused by problems with falling asleep. Short sleep duration, poor sleep quality,...