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Digital technologies are being harnessed to support the public-health response to COVID-19 worldwide, including population surveillance, case identification, contact tracing and evaluation of interventions on the basis of mobility data and communication with the public. These rapid responses leverage billions of mobile phones, large online datasets, connected devices, relatively low-cost computing resources and advances in machine learning and natural language processing. This Review aims to capture the breadth of digital innovations for the public-health response to COVID-19 worldwide and their limitations, and barriers to their implementation, including legal, ethical and privacy barriers, as well as organizational and workforce barriers. The future of public health is likely to become increasingly digital, and we review the need for the alignment of international strategies for the regulation, evaluation and use of digital technologies to strengthen pandemic management, and future preparedness for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an accelerated development of applications for digital health, including symptom monitoring and contact tracing. Their potential is wide ranging and must be integrated into conventional approaches to public health for best effect.

Objectives Acute respiratory tract infections (ARI), including COVID-19, are a significant global health challenge with pandemic potential. Understanding factors influencing ARI susceptibility and severity in different populations is crucial for pandemic preparedness and mitigation. We investigated epidemiological risk factors for COVID-19 susceptibility and severity in the Israeli population. Methods Participants who took a COVID-19 PCR test between July 2021 and August 2022 completed an online survey including demographics, comorbidities, infection and vaccination status. We identified factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection and disease severity using logistic regression and compared our results with the global literature. Results We included 2128 participants. Of these 823 participants were tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Individuals without COPD and BMI > 30 had higher infection odds (aOR = 6.21, 95% CI:1.42–27.25 and aOR = 1.54, 95% CI:1.02–2.32; respectively). High school-level education was associated with increased susceptibility and severity compared to higher education (aOR = 1.55, 95% CI:1.1–2.18 and aOR = 2.80, 95% CI 1.62–4.86; respectively). Hospitalization was associated with older age ( p  < 0.001). Vaccination with 3 doses significantly reduced infection and hospitalization risk compared to unvaccinated (aOR = 0.024, 95% CI:0.016–0.04 and aOR = 0.37, 95% CI: 0.17–0.81; respectively, p  < 0.05). Compared to Arab participants, Jewish ones were less likely to be infected (aOR = 1.48, 95% CI:1.02–2.15, p  < 0.05). Conclusions Identified risk factors are consistent with meta-analyses of studies from other countries. Similar to other countries, minority groups were found to be at higher risk, therefore risk models predicting ARI susceptibility and severity have to take this into account.

To date, over 1340 gene therapy clinical trials have been completed, are ongoing or have been approved worldwide. In 1997 we set up a database to bring together global information on gene therapy clinical trials as comprehensively as possible. The data are compiled and regularly updated from official agency sources, published literature, conference presentations and posters and from information kindly provided by investigators or trial sponsors themselves. This review updates our descriptive overview of the data in 2004 1, presenting our analysis of the clinical trials that, to the best of our knowledge, have been or are being performed worldwide. As of July 30 2007, we have stored entries on 1309 trials in 28 countries. We have analyzed the geographical distribution of trials, the disease indications (or other reasons) for trials, the proportions to which different vector types are used, and which genes have been transferred. Details of the analyses presented, and our interactive, searchable database can be found on The Journal of Gene Medicine Gene Therapy Clinical Trials Worldwide website at: http://www.wiley.co.uk/genmed/clinical. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

As of July 2021, there has been more than 185 million documented cases of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infections and more than 4 million deaths globally. Despite more than 90% of documented cases being classified as \"recovered\" from SARS-CoV-2 infection, a proportion of patients reported a wide variety of persisting symptoms after the initial onset or acute phase of the infection, often referred to as \"Long Covid\". As data on the symptomatology of post-acute SARS-CoV-2 infection gradually becomes available, there is an urgent need to organise and synthesise the data in order to define what constitutes Long Covid and assist with its management in clinical and community settings. This protocol follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) guidelines. A comprehensive literature search strategy will be developed in accordance with the Cochrane highly sensitive search guidelines. The following electronic databases will be searched for studies to include in the systematic review and meta-analysis: MEDLINE (via PubMed), Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science (Web of Knowledge), Science direct, EMBASE, Mednar, Psych INFO, and EBSCOhost. Dual screening will be applied at every screening stage. Two reviewers will independently screen titles, abstracts and full text of potentially eligible studies following the predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria in order to select studies to include in the review. As heterogeneity is anticipated between the included studies, data will be pooled in a meta-analysis using a random effects model. A clustering analytic approach will be applied to identify symptoms groupings and assign the symptoms into clusters. R statistical software will be used for the meta-analysis. Highly heterogenous data will be synthesised narratively. The studies will be assessed, for quality using quality assessment tools appropriate for each study design. Two reviewers will independently undertake the quality of studies assessments. Findings of the systematic review will be disseminated through a peer-reviewed publication and presentation of findings at conferences, workshops and government and private sector stakeholder engagement meetings. PROSPERO registration number: CRD4202126589. https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD4202126589.

Studies have demonstrated a potential correlation between low vitamin D status and both an increased risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2 and poorer clinical outcomes. This retrospective study examines if, and to what degree, a relationship exists between pre-infection serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) level and disease severity and mortality due to SARS-CoV-2. The records of individuals admitted between April 7th, 2020 and February 4th, 2021 to the Galilee Medical Center (GMC) in Nahariya, Israel, with positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) were searched for historical 25(OH)D levels measured 14 to 730 days prior to the positive PCR test. Patients admitted to GMC with COVID-19 were categorized according to disease severity and level of 25(OH)D. An association between pre-infection 25(OH)D levels, divided between four categories (deficient, insufficient, adequate, and high-normal), and COVID-19 severity was ascertained utilizing a multivariable regression analysis. To isolate the possible influence of the sinusoidal pattern of seasonal 25(OH)D changes throughout the year, a cosinor model was used. Of 1176 patients admitted, 253 had records of a 25(OH)D level prior to COVID-19 infection. A lower vitamin D status was more common in patients with the severe or critical disease (<20 ng/mL [87.4%]) than in individuals with mild or moderate disease (<20 ng/mL [34.3%] p < 0.001). Patients with vitamin D deficiency (<20 ng/mL) were 14 times more likely to have severe or critical disease than patients with 25(OH)D ≥40 ng/mL (odds ratio [OR], 14; 95% confidence interval [CI], 4 to 51; p < 0.001). Among hospitalized COVID-19 patients, pre-infection deficiency of vitamin D was associated with increased disease severity and mortality.

Social science research has been central in documenting and analyzing community discovery of environmental exposure and consequential processes. Collaboration with environmental health science through team projects has advanced and improved our understanding of environmental health and justice. We sought to identify diverse methods and topics in which social scientists have expanded environmental health understandings at multiple levels, to examine how transdisciplinary environmental health research fosters better science, and to learn how these partnerships have been able to flourish because of the support from National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). We analyzed various types of social science research to investigate how social science contributes to environmental health. We also examined NIEHS programs that foster social science. In addition, we developed a case study of a community-based participation research project in Akwesasne in order to demonstrate how social science has enhanced environmental health science. Social science has informed environmental health science through ethnographic studies of contaminated communities, analysis of spatial distribution of environmental injustice, psychological experience of contamination, social construction of risk and risk perception, and social impacts of disasters. Social science-environmental health team science has altered the way scientists traditionally explore exposure by pressing for cumulative exposure approaches and providing research data for policy applications. A transdisciplinary approach for environmental health practice has emerged that engages the social sciences to paint a full picture of the consequences of contamination so that policy makers, regulators, public health officials, and other stakeholders can better ameliorate impacts and prevent future exposure. Hoover E, Renauld M, Edelstein MR, Brown P. 2015. Social science collaboration with environmental health. Environ Health Perspect 123:1100-1106; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1409283.

Background The Ultra-Orthodox Jewish (UO) population has been affected by pertussis, polio, and measles outbreaks. Safed, a deprived, undervaccinated city in Israel’s North, has a large UO population concentrated in specific neighborhoods. We determined whether in Safed UO population concentration was associated with DTP- containing and MMRV1 vaccines coverage, timeliness and drop-out rates. Method For each of Safed’s statistical areas, we estimated UO population based on the proportion of votes for UO political parties in Israel’s 2020 general elections. We determined whether this proportion was associated with timely and delayed MMRV1 and DTP vaccine coverage for children born 2017–2022 using simple linear regression. We compared DTP and MMRV1 coverage and drop-out rates in UO areas (> 50% vote for UO parties) to others, using chi-square tests. Results All eligible 4385 children residing in Safed were included in the MMRV1 and DTP analyses. Vaccine coverage was significantly lower in UO areas compared to non-UO for all doses of DTP and MMRV1 at expected age (-11.8, -15.8, -16.6, -11.8 and − 7.1% points (pp) respectively, P  < 0.005) - and at 36 months old (-0.5, -3.9, -6.2, -9.3 and − 2% points respectively, P  < 0.005). Gaps narrowed more for MMRV1 (from 7.1 to2 pp), than for DTP4 (from 11.8 to9.3 pp). Increasing UO vote was associated with decreased timely coverage for DTP but not MMRV. DTP1-4 drop-out rates were larger in the UO areas than in non-UO areas (26.2% vs. 18%). Conclusions Vaccine coverage was lower in UO neighborhoods, even in a peripheral city where coverage in non-UO areas is already low. Coverage differences between UO and non-UO populations decreased with time for MMRV1 but not DTP. Our findings suggest timeliness should be considered alongside non-vaccination, and vaccination behavior may be vaccine-specific in the UO population.

Migrant populations are one of several underimmunised groups in the EU or European Economic Area (EU/EEA), yet little is known about their involvement in outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. This information is vital to develop targeted strategies to improve the health of diverse migrant communities. We did a systematic review (PROSPERO CRD42019157473; Jan 1, 2000, to May 22, 2020) adhering to PRISMA guidelines, to identify studies on vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks (measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, pertussis, polio, hepatitis A, varicella, Neisseria meningitidis, and Haemophilus influenzae) involving migrants residing in the EU/EEA and Switzerland. We identified 45 studies, reporting on 47 distinct vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks across 13 countries. Most reported outbreaks involving migrants were of measles (n=24; 6496 cases), followed by varicella (n=11; 505 cases), hepatitis A (n=7; 1356 cases), rubella (n=3; 487 cases), and mumps (n=2; 293 cases). 19 (40%) outbreaks, predominantly varicella and measles, were reported in temporary refugee camps or shelters. Of 11 varicella outbreaks, nine (82%) were associated with adult migrants. Half of measles outbreaks (n=11) were associated with migrants from eastern European countries. In conclusion, migrants are involved in vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks in Europe, with adult and child refugees residing in shelters or temporary camps at particular risk, alongside specific nationality groups. Vulnerability varies by disease, setting, and demographics, highlighting the importance of tailoring catch-up vaccination interventions to specific groups in order to meet regional and global vaccination targets as recommended by the new Immunisation Agenda 2030 framework for action. A better understanding of vaccine access and intent in migrant groups and a greater focus on co-designing interventions is urgently needed, with direct implications for COVID-19 vaccine delivery.