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A total of 2,618,862 participants reported their potential symptoms of COVID-19 on a smartphone-based app. Among the 18,401 who had undergone a SARS-CoV-2 test, the proportion of participants who reported loss of smell and taste was higher in those with a positive test result (4,668 of 7,178 individuals; 65.03%) than in those with a negative test result (2,436 of 11,223 participants; 21.71%) (odds ratio = 6.74; 95% confidence interval = 6.31–7.21). A model combining symptoms to predict probable infection was applied to the data from all app users who reported symptoms (805,753) and predicted that 140,312 (17.42%) participants are likely to have COVID-19. Analysis of data from a smartphone-based app designed for large-scale tracking of potential COVID-19 symptoms, used by over 2.5 million participants in the United Kingdom and United States, shows that loss of taste and smell sensations is predictive of potential SARS-CoV-2 infection.

After South Korea raised its infectious disease alert to the highest level in response to coronavirus disease emergence, tuberculosis notification during the first 18 weeks of 2020 decreased significantly from the same period for each year during 2015-2019. Adequate measures to diagnose, control, and prevent tuberculosis need to be maintained.

Background Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health problem, and understanding the geographic distribution of the disease is critical in planning and evaluating intervention strategies. This manuscript illustrates the application of Group-Based Trajectory Modeling (GBTM), a statistical method that analyzes the evolution of an outcome over time to identify groups with similar trajectories. Specifically, we apply GBTM to identify the evolution of the number of TB notifications over time across various geographic locations, aiming to identify groups of locations with similar trajectories. Locations sharing the same trajectory may be considered geographic TB clusters, indicating areas with similar TB notifications. We used data abstracted from clinic records in Limpopo province, South Africa, treating the clinics as a proxy for the spatial location of their respective catchment areas. Methods Data for this analysis were obtained as part of a cluster-randomized trial involving 56 clinics to evaluate two active TB patient-finding strategies in South Africa. We utilized GBTM to identify groups of clinics with similar trajectories of the number of TB patients. Results We identified three trajectory groups: Groups 1, comprising 57.8% of clinics; Group 2, 33.9%; and Group 3, 8.3%. These groups accounted for 30.8%, 44.4%, and 24.8% of total TB-diagnosed patients, respectively. The estimated mean number of TB-diagnosed patients was highest in trajectory group 3 followed by trajectory group 2 across the 12 months, with no overlap in the corresponding 95% confidence intervals. The estimated mean number of TB-diagnosed patients over time was fairly constant for trajectory groups 1 and 2 with exponentiated slopes of 0.979 (95% CI: 0.950, 1.004) and 1.004 (95% CI: 0.977, 1.044), respectively. In contrast, there was a statistically significant 3.8% decrease in the number of TB patients per month for trajectory group 3 with an exponentiated slope of 0.962 (95% CI: 0.901, 0.985) per month. Conclusions GBTM is a powerful tool for identifying geographic clusters of varying levels of TB notification when longitudinal data on the number of TB diagnoses are available. This analysis can inform the planning and evaluation of intervention strategies.

Many actors in the response to COVID-19 are holding out for a vaccine to be developed. But in the meantime, tried and tested public-health measures for controlling outbreaks can be implemented. A scorecard can be used to assess governments’ responses to the outbreak.

For decades after the identification of mpox in humans in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 1970, the disease was largely confined to the rural areas of Central and West Africa and thus did not garner broad attention. On August 13, 2024, mpox was declared a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security (PHECS) by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), a notice that was followed the next day by a declaration of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) by the World Health Organization. In this study we analyzed all mpox cases and deaths, based on clinical or laboratory diagnosis, that were reported to the Africa CDC from January 1, 2022, to October 30, 2024, to identify temporal variations, geographic distributions, and epidemiologic trends. From January 1, 2022, to August 18, 2024, a total of 45,652 mpox cases were clinically diagnosed and laboratory-confirmed in 12 African countries. These cases resulted in 1492 deaths (case fatality rate, 3.3%). From 2022 to 2024, weekly laboratory-confirmed mpox cases increased by a factor of 2.8 (from 176 to 489 cases), whereas all weekly reported cases (including those with a clinical diagnosis) increased by a factor of 4.3 (from 669 to 2900 cases). The DRC, which had reported approximately 88% of mpox cases in Africa in 2024, had 19,513 cases before the emergency declaration, with a case fatality rate of 3.1% - a weekly average of 591 cases as compared with 281 in 2023. In 2024, six African countries reported their first imported mpox infections, with Burundi also reporting local transmission. The high mpox disease burden in Africa, especially in the DRC - with a rising number of cases, high case fatality rate, and high degree of spread to other previously mpox-free African countries - is cause for increased international concern. Case detection, contact tracing, public health measures, and affordable vaccines are needed to implement interventions in the DRC to reduce the risk of global spread of the virus.