Epidemiological trends in tuberculosis in Ukraine at the beginning of the COVID­-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 36-42
Author(s):  
Yu.M. Valetskyi ◽  
R.O. Valetska ◽  
L.A. Hryshchuk ◽  
M.I. Sakhelashvili ◽  
V.M. Zahorulko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Questionnaire Survey ◽  
Care Service ◽  
Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis ◽  
Active Tuberculosis ◽  
Entire Population ◽  
Day Hospitals ◽  
Rate Of Decline ◽  
Epidemiological Trends ◽  
Epidemiological Situation ◽  
Telephone Questionnaire

Objective — to examine the tendencies of the epidemiological situation on tuberculosis in Ukraine at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Materials and methods. The analysis of the data of official statistics in 2015—2020, a survey of 157 medical experts and a telephone questionnaire survey of 69 residents of the Volyn region. Results and discussion. It was established that the disease of COVID-19 has found its imprint on the epidemiological situation of tuberculosis and on the functioning of the TB care service. In 2020, the rate of decline in the incidence of pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis was significantly more intensive than in previous years. However, the incidence of tuberculosis among contacts with bacterial excretion in tuberculosis foci increased 1.85 times in each year. The frequency of tuberculosis recurrences is steadily decreasing.The prevalence and mortality from all forms of active tuberculosis among the entire population of Ukraine has a tendency similar to a decrease in morbidity.The effectiveness of treatment of patients of all categories is proportional to the severity of the tuberculosis process, but still insufficient. Mortality in TB care institutions increased in the previous year against the decrease of this indicator in previous years. Against the background of the inaccessibility of the population to TB care, day hospitals are underused, and the sanatorium network needs to be reorganized. The surgical method of treatment of patients is extremely insufficiently realized. Conclusions. The dispensary contingent of TB care institutions is decreasing every year. There is a reduction in the infrastructure of the TB care service, and in each year, the largest reduction was in the bed stock of TB care institutions and sanatoriums, as well as a decrease in the number of TB doctors.

Recent epidemiological trends in extrapulmonary TB in Galicia, Spain

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 373-381
Author(s):  
L. Ferreiro ◽  
A. Ruano-Raviña ◽  
R. Otero-Mallo ◽  
C. Pou-Álvarez ◽  
V. Riveiro-Blanco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Retrospective Cohort ◽  
Prevention And Control ◽  
Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis ◽  
Absolute Number ◽  
Incidence Rates ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Number Of Patients ◽  
Epidemiological Trends ◽  
And Control ◽  
Epidemiological Characteristics

OBJECTIVE: To describe the epidemiological trends and characteristics of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) in Galicia, Spain, from 2000 to 2019.METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study based on data from the Galician TB information system.RESULTS: Of the total number of TB cases (n = 15,871), 5,428 (34.2%) had EPTB. The absolute number of cases and incidence of EPTB decreased dramatically (from 480 cases and 17.8 cases/100,000 in 2000, to 172 and 6.4 cases/100,000 in 2019, respectively), with a mean annual decrease of respectively 64% and 4.7% for absolute cases and incidence rates. The risk for EPTB was higher in men than in women (RR 3.86, 95% CI 3.66–4.07). The most frequent age group was 15–44 years (2,234 patients, 41.2%); overall reductions per age group were 82% (0–14 years), 75% (15–44 years), 44% (45–64 years) and 63% (≥65 years), with statistically significant differences. The most frequently locations were the pleura (1,916 cases; 35.3%) and the lymph nodes (1,504; 27.7%).CONCLUSION: The incidence of EPTB in Galicia has decreased significantly in the last 20 years. The epidemiological characteristics have not changed, except for the number of patients with risk factors. This improvement of EPTB epidemiological trends coincides with the implementation of the programme for the prevention and control of TB, which suggests that it has been very effective in the control of the EPTB.

scholarly journals The study of the prevalence of articular syndrome and pathology of the musculoskeletal system through a telephone questionnaire survey

2012 ◽  
Vol 93 (3) ◽  
pp. 519-521
Author(s):  
D G Krechikova ◽  
Sh F Erdes ◽  
V A Milyagin
Keyword(s):  
Rheumatic Disease ◽  
Questionnaire Survey ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Knee Joints ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Study Results ◽  
High Prevalence ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Telephone Questionnaire ◽  
Linear Nature

Aim. To establish the prevalence of complaints of joint swelling and arthralgia among the population of Smolensk city, to assess their correlation with the presence of rheumatic diseases. Methods. A cross-sectional telephone questionnaire survey of residents of six therapeutic districts of two municipal polyclinics of Smolensk city was conducted. Interviewed were 2737 people (64.8% females and 35.2% males). The average age of respondents was 49.1±17.6 years. Results. Swelling of the joints at the time of the survey was revealed in 665 (24.3%) of respondents, in the majority of which (583 people, 21.3%) the symptoms persisted for more than the last 12 months. Pain in the knee joints was observed in 1141 (41.7%) residents, including arthralgia lasting more than a year - in 1012 (37.0%) people. The relationship between both of the symptoms and the gender (the predominance of women) and age (an increasing linear nature of the frequency of complaints in males and non-linear with a peak in the group of 70-80-year-olds - in females) was revealed. It was established that only 41.3% of respondents with joints swelling and 30.9% with arthralgia had a previously established diagnosis of rheumatic disease. Conclusion. The study results suggest that there is high prevalence of rheumatic complaints among residents of Smolensk city with a predominance of articular disease in women and individuals of older age groups; revealed was the fact of low awareness of the population of the existing rheumatic disease.

scholarly journals Development and Evaluation of a Smart Contract–Enabled Blockchain System for Home Care Service Innovation: Mixed Methods Study

10.2196/15472 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. e15472
Author(s):  
Shuchih Ernest Chang ◽  
YiChian Chen ◽  
MingFang Lu ◽  
Hueimin Louis Luo
Keyword(s):  
Home Care ◽  
Questionnaire Survey ◽  
Care Service ◽  
Home Care Services ◽  
Home Care Service ◽  
Smart Contracts ◽  
Process Automation ◽  
Traceability System ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Smart Contract

Background In the home care industry, the assignment and tracking of care services are controlled by care centers that are centralized in nature and prone to inefficient information transmission. A lack of trust among the involved parties, information opaqueness, and large manual manipulation result in lower process efficiency. Objective This study aimed to explore and demonstrate the application of blockchain and smart contract technologies to innovate/renovate home care services for harvesting the desired blockchain benefits of process transparency, traceability, and interoperability. Methods An object-oriented analysis/design combined with a unified modeling language tool was used to construct the architecture of the proposed home care service system. System feasibility was evaluated via an implementation test, and a questionnaire survey was performed to collect opinions from home care service respondents knowledgeable about blockchain and smart contracts. Results According to the comparative analysis results, the proposed design outperformed the existing system in terms of traceability, system efficiency, and process automation. Moreover, for the questionnaire survey, the quantitative analysis results showed that the proposed blockchain-based system had significantly (P<.001) higher mean scores (when compared with the existing system) in terms of important factors, including timeliness, workflow efficiency, automatic notifications, insurance functionality, and auditable traceability. In summary, blockchain-based home care service participants will be able to enjoy improved efficiency, better transparency, and higher levels of process automation. Conclusions Blockchain and smart contracts can provide valuable benefits to the home care service industry via distributed data management and process automation. The proposed system enhances user experiences by mitigating human intervention and improving service interoperability, transparency/traceability, and real-time response to home care service events. Efforts in exploring and integrating blockchain-based home care services with emerging technologies, such as the internet of things and artificial intelligence, are expected to provide further benefits and therefore are subject to future research.

scholarly journals Evaluation of the Characteristics of the Enzyme-Linked Immunospot Assay for Diagnosis of Active Tuberculosis in China

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 510-515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linchuan Wang ◽  
Yan Yu ◽  
Wei Chen ◽  
Jin Feng ◽  
Jinyuan Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Positive Predictive Value ◽  
Likelihood Ratio ◽  
Roc Curve ◽  
Predictive Value ◽  
Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis ◽  
Positive Likelihood Ratio ◽  
Negative Likelihood Ratio ◽  
Median Number ◽  
Active Tuberculosis ◽  
Sensitivity Specificity

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of the T-SPOT.TB test for the diagnosis of active tuberculosis (ATB) and to distinguish ATB from other diseases using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. A total of 535 patients with suspected active tuberculosis were enrolled in the study and divided into ATB and nonactive tuberculosis (NATB) groups, as well as pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) subgroups. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, positive likelihood ratio, and negative likelihood ratio of the T-SPOT.TB test for the diagnosis of ATB were 84.95%, 85.12%, 82.94%, 86.93%, 5.71, and 0.18, respectively. The median number of spot-forming cells (SFCs) in the ATB group was higher than that in the NATB group (71 versus 1;P< 0.0001). The sensitivities in the PTB and EPTB subgroups were 92.31% and 81.77%. The areas under the curve (AUC) for the diagnosis of ATB using the T-SPOT.TB, early secreted antigenic target 6 (ESAT-6), and culture filtrate protein 10 (CFP-10) were 0.906, 0.884, and 0.877, respectively. A cutoff of 42.5 SFCs for ATB yielded a positive predictive value of 100%. Our study shows that the T-SPOT.TB test is useful for the diagnosis of ATB. Utilizing an ROC curve to select an appropriate cutoff made it possible to discriminate ATB from NATB.

scholarly journals Development and Evaluation of a Smart Contract–Enabled Blockchain System for Home Care Service Innovation: Mixed Methods Study (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuchih Ernest Chang ◽  
YiChian Chen ◽  
MingFang Lu ◽  
Hueimin Louis Luo
Keyword(s):  
Home Care ◽  
Questionnaire Survey ◽  
Care Service ◽  
Home Care Services ◽  
Home Care Service ◽  
Smart Contracts ◽  
Process Automation ◽  
Traceability System ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Smart Contract

BACKGROUND In the home care industry, the assignment and tracking of care services are controlled by care centers that are centralized in nature and prone to inefficient information transmission. A lack of trust among the involved parties, information opaqueness, and large manual manipulation result in lower process efficiency. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to explore and demonstrate the application of blockchain and smart contract technologies to innovate/renovate home care services for harvesting the desired blockchain benefits of process transparency, traceability, and interoperability. METHODS An object-oriented analysis/design combined with a unified modeling language tool was used to construct the architecture of the proposed home care service system. System feasibility was evaluated via an implementation test, and a questionnaire survey was performed to collect opinions from home care service respondents knowledgeable about blockchain and smart contracts. RESULTS According to the comparative analysis results, the proposed design outperformed the existing system in terms of traceability, system efficiency, and process automation. Moreover, for the questionnaire survey, the quantitative analysis results showed that the proposed blockchain-based system had significantly (<i>P</i>&lt;.001) higher mean scores (when compared with the existing system) in terms of important factors, including timeliness, workflow efficiency, automatic notifications, insurance functionality, and auditable traceability. In summary, blockchain-based home care service participants will be able to enjoy improved efficiency, better transparency, and higher levels of process automation. CONCLUSIONS Blockchain and smart contracts can provide valuable benefits to the home care service industry via distributed data management and process automation. The proposed system enhances user experiences by mitigating human intervention and improving service interoperability, transparency/traceability, and real-time response to home care service events. Efforts in exploring and integrating blockchain-based home care services with emerging technologies, such as the internet of things and artificial intelligence, are expected to provide further benefits and therefore are subject to future research.

scholarly journals CD38+CD27- on Mtb-specific CD4+ T cells distinguishes latent from active tuberculosis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muthya Pragun Acharya ◽  
Sai Pallavi Pradeep ◽  
Venkataramappa Srinivasa Murthy ◽  
Panduranga Chikkannaiah ◽  
Vivekanand Kambar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
Cd4 T Cells ◽  
Mononuclear Cells ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Correct Diagnosis ◽  
Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis ◽  
Cell Subset ◽  
Active Tuberculosis ◽  
Immune Biomarkers ◽  
Tnf Α

RATIONALE. Early and accurate diagnosis followed by timely treatment are the key prerequisites to fight tuberculosis (TB) and reduce its global burden. Despite scientific advances, the rapid and correct diagnosis of both pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis remains a challenge due to traditional reliance on detection of the elusive bacilli. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb)-specific host immune activation and cytokine production has shown significant promise as an alternative means of detecting and distinguishing active disease from latent infection. OBJECTIVE. Phenotypic characteristics of Mtb-specific cytokine-producing immune cell subsets were investigated and queried for their diagnostic ability in identifying active tuberculosis. METHODS. Subjects belonging to the following groups were recruited - pulmonary, extrapulmonary, latent TB, cured TB, sick controls and healthy controls. Polychromatic flow cytometry was used to identify host immune biomarkers in an exploratory cohort comprising 56 subjects using peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Clinical performance of the identified biomarker was evaluated using whole blood in a blinded validation cohort comprising 165 individuals. FINDINGS. Frequencies of Mtb-specific CD4+ T cells of the phenotype CD38+CD27- clearly distinguished patients with active tuberculosis from individuals without the disease. CD38+CD27-CD4+ T cells secreting TNF-α upon stimulation with ESAT6/CFP10 peptides had the best diagnostic accuracy at a cut-off of 9.91% [exploratory: 96.67% specificity, 88.46% sensitivity; validation: 96.15% specificity, 90.16% sensitivity]. Additionally, this subset differentiated treatment-naive TB patients from individuals cured of TB following completion of anti-tuberculosis therapy. INTERPRETATION. Mtb-specific CD38+CD27-TNF-α+CD4+ T cell subset is a robust biomarker for TB diagnosis and can determine cure.

scholarly journals Glycolipids of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Strain H37Rv Are Potential Serological Markers for Diagnosis of Active Tuberculosis

2005 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 465-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. P. Tiwari ◽  
Dileep Tiwari ◽  
Sanjay K. Garg ◽  
Ramesh Chandra ◽  
Prakash S. Bisen
Keyword(s):  
Mycobacterium Tuberculosis ◽  
Diagnostic Tool ◽  
Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Screen Test ◽  
Tuberculosis Patient ◽  
Active Tuberculosis ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Strain H37rv ◽  
Common Infections

ABSTRACT A simple and cost-effective diagnostic tool (TB Screen Test) for the screening of patients with pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis and for differentiation of those individuals from individuals without tuberculosis, other common infections, and healthy controls has been developed. The serological responses of purified mycobacterial glycolipid antigens were examined by a liposome agglutination assay. The assay was able to detect very low antiglycolipid antibody concentrations in the infected individuals. The sera from the tuberculosis patient group had significantly higher concentrations of antiglycolipid antibody than the sera from uninfected control subjects, with 94% sensitivity and 98.3% specificity. Glycolipids of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv antigens were isolated, purified, and characterized. After interchelation with liposome particles, these purified antigens specifically bound to the antiglycolipid antibodies present in the sera of patients with tuberculosis, resulting in the formation of a blue agglutination. This protocol clearly differentiates healthy controls and M. bovis BCG-vaccinated subjects from those with active tuberculosis. The resultant diagnostic tool, the TB Screen Test, is more economical and rapid (4 min) than other currently available products and can be used for the mass screening of a heavily afflicted population.

PERCEIVED NUISANCE OF MOSQUITOES ON THE ISLE OF SHEPPEY, KENT, UK

2005 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 707-712 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROBERT A. HUTCHINSON ◽  
STEVE W. LINDSAY
Keyword(s):  
Questionnaire Survey ◽  
Emerging Diseases ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Telephone Questionnaire

Little is known about the biting nuisance of mosquitoes in the UK, despite the high numbers found in some locations. A telephone questionnaire survey was used to determine the perceived nuisance of biting insects on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, a place notorious for mosquitoes. Two hundred randomly selected individuals were interviewed and asked if they suffered from mosquito bites. If they answered yes, they were asked to describe where and when they were bitten, and what measures they took against mosquitoes. Forty-six per cent of respondents completed the questionnaire. Of those, 50% reported being bitten by mosquitoes, mostly outside during the summer. Seventy per cent said that most biting occurred during the evening and night. Of those respondents who protected themselves against biting (27), most used repellents (70%), with the remainder changing their behaviour to avoid mosquitoes, including closing or screening windows (33%), wearing thicker clothes (7%) and spraying insecticide (4%). One person slept under a bednet in summer (4%). This study provides evidence that on the Isle of Sheppey mosquitoes are considered a major nuisance by a sizeable proportion of the population. Since there is growing interest in the threat posed by new and emerging diseases in the UK, health authorities will need to make substantial efforts to inform and reassure the public about the threats posed by mosquitoes in areas where they are common.

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