scholarly journals Spatial dynamics and vaccine-induced fitness changes of Bordetella pertussis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noemie Lefrancq ◽  
Valerie Bouchez ◽  
Nadia Fernandes ◽  
Alex-Mikael Barkoff ◽  
Thijs Bosch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bordetella Pertussis ◽  
Spatial Dynamics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Host Population ◽  
Relative Fitness ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Local Diversity ◽  
Acellular Vaccines ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
Immunogenic Properties

Competitive interactions between pathogen strains drive infection risk. Vaccines are thought to perturb strain diversity through shifts in immune pressures, however, this has rarely been measured due to inadequate data and analytical tools. Bordetella pertussis (B. pertussis), responsible for 160,000 deaths annually, provides a rare natural experiment as many countries have switched from whole cell vaccines to acellular vaccines, which have very different immunogenic properties. Here we use 3,344 sequences from 23 countries and build phylogenetic models to reveal that B. pertussis has substantial diversity within communities, with the relative fitness of local genotypes changing in response to switches in vaccine policy. We demonstrate that the number of transmission chains circulating within subnational regions is strongly associated with host population size. It takes 5-10 years for individual lineages to be homogeneously distributed throughout Europe or the United States. Increased fitness of pertactin-deficient strains following implementation of acellular vaccines, but reduced fitness otherwise, can explain long-term genotype dynamics. These findings highlight the role of national vaccine policies in shifting local diversity of a pathogen that still poses a large burden on global public health.

scholarly journals Immunodominance in Mouse and Human CD4+ T-Cell Responses Specific for the Bordetella pertussis Virulence Factor P.69 Pertactin

2008 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 896-903 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel M. Stenger ◽  
Martien C. M. Poelen ◽  
Ed E. Moret ◽  
Betsy Kuipers ◽  
Sven C. M. Bruijns ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cell ◽  
Bordetella Pertussis ◽  
Cell Epitope ◽  
T Cell Response ◽  
T Cell Epitopes ◽  
Cell Responses ◽  
Cell Immunity ◽  
Hla Dq ◽  
Natural Variants ◽  
Acellular Vaccines

ABSTRACT P.69 pertactin (P.69 Prn), an adhesion molecule from the causative agent of pertussis, Bordetella pertussis, is present in cellular and most acellular vaccines that are currently used worldwide. Although both humoral immunity and cellular immunity directed against P.69 Prn have been implicated in protective immune mechanisms, the identities of CD4+ T-cell epitopes on the P.69 Prn protein remain unknown. Here, a single I-Ad-restricted B. pertussis conserved CD4+ T-cell epitope at the N terminus of P.69 Prn was identified by using a BALB/c T-cell hybridoma. The epitope appeared immunodominant among four other minor strain-conserved P.69 Prn epitopes recognized after vaccination and B. pertussis infection, and it was capable of evoking a Th1/Th17-type cytokine response. B. pertussis P.69 Prn immune splenocytes did not cross-react with natural variants of the epitope as present in Bordetella parapertussis and Bordetella bronchiseptica. Finally, it was found that the immunodominant P.69 Prn epitope is broadly recognized in the human population by CD4+ T cells in an HLA-DQ-restricted manner. During B. pertussis infection, the epitope was associated with a Th1-type CD4+ T-cell response. Hence, this novel P.69 Prn epitope is involved in CD4+ T-cell immunity after B. pertussis vaccination and infection in mice and, more importantly, in humans. Thus, it may provide a useful tool for the evaluation of the type, magnitude, and maintenance of B. pertussis-specific CD4+ T-cell mechanisms in preclinical and clinical vaccine studies.

Rhetorical Federalism: The Role of State Resistance in Health Care Decision-Making

2011 ◽  
Vol 39 (S1) ◽  
pp. 73-76
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Weeks Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Administrative Capacity ◽  
Limited Government ◽  
Local Diversity ◽  
Patient Protection ◽  
Health Care Regulation ◽  
State Resistance

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) represents the most significant reform of the United States health care system in decades. ACA also substantially amplifies the federal role in health care regulation. Among other provisions, ACA expands government health care programs, imposes detailed federal standards for commercial health insurance policies, creates national requirements on employers and individuals, and enlists state administrative capacity to implement various federal reforms. In response, a persistent voice in the protracted, contentious debate surrounding ACA was, and continues to be, resistance from states. The rhetoric of federalism — states’ rights, reserved powers, state sovereignty, limited government, and local diversity — resonates deeply even around provisions of ACA that do not specifically implicate state interests. For example, the loudest and most persistent state objections target the new mandate that individuals maintain health insurance, a requirement imposed by ACA and enforced through federal tax penalties.

scholarly journals Linking rattiness, geography and environmental degradation to spillover Leptospira infections in marginalised urban settings: an eco-epidemiological community-based cohort study in Brazil

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max T Eyre ◽  
Fábio N Souza ◽  
Ticiana S. A. Carvalho-Pereira ◽  
Nivison Nery ◽  
Daiana de Oliveira ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Health Intervention ◽  
Spatial Modelling ◽  
The United States ◽  
Infection Risk ◽  
Human Infection ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Entire Study ◽  
Urban Settings ◽  
Public Health Burden

Background: Zoonotic spillover from animal reservoirs is responsible for a significant global public health burden, but the processes that promote spillover events are poorly understood in complex urban settings. Endemic transmission of Leptospira, the agent of leptospirosis, in marginalised urban communities occurs through human exposure to an environment contaminated by bacteria shed in the urine of the rat reservoir. However, it is unclear to what extent transmission is driven by variation in the distribution of rats or by the dispersal of bacteria in rainwater runoff and overflow from open sewer systems. <br /><br />Methods: We conducted an eco-epidemiological study in a high-risk community in Salvador, Brazil, by prospectively following a cohort of 1,401 residents to ascertain serological evidence for leptospiral infections. A concurrent rat ecology study was used to collect information on the fine-scale spatial distribution of ‘rattiness’, our proxy for rat abundance and exposure of interest. We developed and applied a novel geostatistical framework for joint spatial modelling of multiple indices of disease reservoir abundance and human infection risk. <br /><br />Results: The estimated infection rate was 51.4 (95\%CI 40.4, 64.2) infections per 1,000 follow-up events. Infection risk increased with age until 30 years of age and was associated with male gender. Rattiness was positively associated with infection risk for residents across the entire study area, but this effect was stronger in higher elevation areas (OR 3.27 95\%CI 1.68, 19.07) than in lower elevation areas (OR 1.14 95\%CI 1.05, 1.53). <br /><br />Conclusions: These findings suggest that, while frequent flooding events may disperse bacteria in regions of low elevation, environmental risk in higher elevation areas is more localised and directly driven by the distribution of local rat populations. The modelling framework developed may have broad applications in delineating complex animal-environment-human interactions during zoonotic spillover and identifying opportunities for public health intervention.<br /><br />Funding: This work was supported by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation and Secretariat of Health Surveillance, Brazilian Ministry of Health, the National Institutes of Health of the United States (grant numbers F31 AI114245, R01 AI052473, U01 AI088752, R01 TW009504 and R25 TW009338); the Wellcome Trust (102330/Z/13/Z), and by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado da Bahia (FAPESB/JCB0020/2016). M.T.E is supported by an MRC doctorate studentship. F.N.S. participated in this study under a FAPESB doctorate scholarship.

Assessing Local “Diversity”: A Nationally Representative Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 232949652110216
Author(s):  
Neeraj Rajasekar ◽  
Evan Stewart ◽  
Joseph Gerteis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Racial Difference ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Ideology ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Local Diversity ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Diversity Discourse

The meanings and definition of “diversity” can change across different applications and contexts, but many such meanings have implications for racial difference and racial ideology in the United States. We provide a nationally representative analysis of how everyday Americans assess “diversity” in their own communities. We test how county-level racial, religious, economic, and political heterogeneity predict the view that one lives in a highly diverse locale; we also test how individual-level factors predict such a view. Among the four indicators of local difference, racial difference is most strongly and consistently associated with Americans’ assessments of local diversity. Individual-level factors do not weaken this relationship; rather, local context and individual-level factors conjointly predict assessments of local diversity. Despite the flexible, hyperinclusive nature of diversity discourse, local racial difference is salient in Americans’ assessments of “diversity” in their communities, and this pattern is not simply a product of individual-level factors. Our findings illustrate another dimension of the flexible-yet-racialized nature of diversity discourse in the United States. We also show that Americans are particularly aware of racial difference in their locale, which has implications for social and ideological responses to changing communities and a changing nation.

The Geography of Law: Understanding the Origin of State and Federal Redistricting Cases

2021 ◽  
pp. 106591292110297
Author(s):  
James G. Gimpel ◽  
Tristan M. Hightower ◽  
Patrick C. Wohlfarth
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
Population Change ◽  
Spatial Dynamics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Federal Courts ◽  
Original Dataset ◽  
Geographic Origins ◽  
Political Environments ◽  
Partisan Competition

Knowing where legal complaints arise can tell us something about them and reveal clues about their conditions of origin. In this paper, we examine the geographic origins of litigation challenging the boundaries of electoral districts—an increasingly salient and prominent source of political conflict. We construct an original dataset of all redistricting cases in state and federal courts nationwide, from 1960 to 2019. We show that redistricting litigation surfaces not just in states where there are regions undergoing rapid population change or that have a greater proportion of aggrieved racial minority groups but also in areas where there is close partisan competition. The filing of redistricting litigation is highly responsive to hypercompetitive political environments, suggesting that parties pursue judicial intervention vigorously when political power hangs in the balance and not simply due to demographic changes associated with decennial population measurement. These findings have important implications for understanding the temporal and spatial dynamics of redistricting politics and the consequences of intense partisan electoral competition in the United States.

Bordetella infection

2020 ◽  
pp. 1073-1076
Author(s):  
Cameron C. Grant
Keyword(s):  
Bordetella Pertussis ◽  
Whooping Cough ◽  
Severe Disease ◽  
Diagnostic Methods ◽  
Illness Onset ◽  
Young Infants ◽  
Adolescents And Adults ◽  
Risk Of Exposure ◽  
Acellular Vaccines ◽  
Infectious Organism

Bordetella are small Gram-negative coccobacilli, of which Bordetella pertussis is the most important human pathogen. Bordetella pertussis is the cause of whooping cough, which remains one of the 10 leading causes of death among children less than five years old. Transmission of this highly infectious organism is primarily by aerosolized droplets. The preferred diagnostic methods are polymerase chain reaction detection from nasopharyngeal samples and serology (IgG antibodies to pertussis toxin). Macrolide antibiotics are recommended if started within four weeks of illness onset. Preventing severe disease in young children remains the primary goal, hence schedules consist of a three-dose infant series and subsequent booster doses. Acellular vaccines enable immunization schedules to include adolescents and adults. Acellular pertussis vaccine given to pregnant women reduces the risk of pertussis in young infants. Antibiotic prophylaxis is given when there is an infant at risk of exposure.

scholarly journals An Epidemiological Model of Rift Valley Fever with Spatial Dynamics

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianchan Niu ◽  
Holly D. Gaff ◽  
Yiannis E. Papelis ◽  
David M. Hartley
Keyword(s):  
Rift Valley ◽  
Rift Valley Fever ◽  
Rift Valley Fever Virus ◽  
Mosquito Species ◽  
Horizontal Transmission ◽  
Spatial Dynamics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Trade Restrictions ◽  
Valley Fever ◽  
Supply Chain Disruptions

As a category A agent in the Center for Disease Control bioterrorism list, Rift Valley fever (RVF) is considered a major threat to the United States (USA). Should the pathogen be intentionally or unintentionally introduced to the continental USA, there is tremendous potential for economic damages due to loss of livestock, trade restrictions, and subsequent food supply chain disruptions. We have incorporated the effects of space into a mathematical model of RVF in order to study the dynamics of the pathogen spread as affected by the movement of humans, livestock, and mosquitoes. The model accounts for the horizontal transmission of Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) between two mosquito and one livestock species, and mother-to-offspring transmission of virus in one of the mosquito species. Space effects are introduced by dividing geographic space into smaller patches and considering the patch-to-patch movement of species. For each patch, a system of ordinary differential equations models fractions of populations susceptible to, incubating, infectious with, or immune to RVFV. The main contribution of this work is a methodology for analyzing the likelihood of pathogen establishment should an introduction occur into an area devoid of RVF. Examples are provided for general and specific cases to illustrate the methodology.

scholarly journals Pertactin-Negative Variants of Bordetella pertussis in the United States

2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (6) ◽  
pp. 583-584 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Marie Queenan ◽  
Pamela K. Cassiday ◽  
Alan Evangelista
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Bordetella Pertussis ◽  
The United States

Air pollution and your brain: what do you need to know right now

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (04) ◽  
pp. 329-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lilian Calderón-Garcidueñas ◽  
Ana Calderón-Garcidueñas ◽  
Ricardo Torres-Jardón ◽  
José Avila-Ramírez ◽  
Randy J. Kulesza ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Air Pollution ◽  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Fine Particles ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Health Providers ◽  
Parkinson’S Diseases ◽  
The Brain

Research links air pollution mostly to respiratory and cardiovascular disease. The effects of air pollution on the central nervous system (CNS) are not broadly recognized. Urban outdoor pollution is a global public health problem particularly severe in megacities and in underdeveloped countries, but large and small cities in the United States and the United Kingom are not spared. Fine and ultrafine particulate matter (UFPM) defined by aerodynamic diameter (&lt;2.5-μm fine particles, PM2.5, and &lt;100-nm UFPM) pose a special interest for the brain effects given the capability of very small particles to reach the brain. In adults, ambient pollution is associated to stroke and depression, whereas the emerging picture in children show significant systemic inflammation, immunodysregulation at systemic, intratechal and brain levels, neuroinflammation and brain oxidative stress, along with the main hallmarks of Alzheimer and Parkinson’s diseases: hyperphosphorilated tau, amyloid plaques and misfoldedα-synuclein. Animal models exposed to particulate matter components show markers of both neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. Epidemiological, cognitive, behavioral and mechanistic studies into the association between air pollution exposures and the development of CNS damage particularly in children are of pressing importance for public health and quality of life. Primary health providers have to include a complete prenatal and postnatal environmental and occupational history to indoor and outdoor toxic hazards and measures should be taken to prevent or reduce further exposures.

scholarly journals Emerging Antimicrobial-Resistant High-Risk Klebsiella pneumoniae Clones ST307 and ST147

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gisele Peirano ◽  
Liang Chen ◽  
Barry N. Kreiswirth ◽  
Johann D. D. Pitout
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Klebsiella Pneumoniae ◽  
The United States ◽  
Medical Community ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Public Health Burden ◽  
Worldwide Distribution

ABSTRACT There is an enormous global public health burden due to antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) Klebsiella pneumoniae high-risk clones. K. pneumoniae ST307 and ST147 are recent additions to the family of successful clones in the species. Both clones likely emerged in Europe during the early to mid-1990s and, in a relatively short time, became prominent global pathogens, spreading to all continents (with the exception of Antarctica). ST307 and ST147 consist of multiple clades/clusters and are associated with various carbapenemases (i.e., KPCs, NDMs, OXA-48-like, and VIMs). ST307 is endemic in Italy, Colombia, the United States (Texas), and South Africa, while ST147 is endemic in India, Italy, Greece, and certain North African countries. Both clones have been introduced into regions of nonendemicity, leading to worldwide nosocomial outbreaks. Genomic studies showed ST307 and ST147 contain identical gyrA and parC mutations and likely obtained plasmids with blaCTX-M-15 during the early to mid-2000s, which aided in their global distribution. ST307 and ST147 then acquired plasmids with various carbapenemases during the late 2000s, establishing themselves as important AMR pathogens in certain regions. Both clones are likely underreported due to restricted detection methodologies. ST307 and ST147 have the ability to become major threats to public health due to their worldwide distribution, ability to cause serious infections, and association with AMR, including panresistance. The medical community at large, especially those concerned with antimicrobial resistance, should be aware of the looming threat posed by emerging AMR high-risk clones such as K. pneumoniae ST307 and ST147.

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