Drug-related mutational patterns in hepatitis B virus (HBV) reverse transcriptase proteins from Iranian treatment-Naïve chronic HBV patients

Background: Immunomodulators and Nucleotide analogues have been used globally for the dealing of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. However, the development of drug resistance is a major limitation to their long-term effectiveness. Objectives: The aim of this study was to characterize the hepatitis B virus reverse transcriptase (RT) protein variations among Iranian chronic HBV carriers who did not receive any antiviral treatments. Materials and Methods: Hepatitis B virus partial RT genes from 325 chronic in active carrier patients were amplified and directly sequenced. Nucleotide/amino acid substitutions were identified compared to the sequences obtained from the database. Results: All strains belonging to genotype D.365 amino-acid substitutions were found. Mutations related to lamivudine, adefovir, telbivudine, and entecavir occurred in (YMDD) 4% (n = 13), (SVQ) 17.23% (n = 56), (M204I/V + L180M) 2.45% (n = 8) and (M204I) 2.76% (n = 9) of patients, respectively. Conclusions: RT mutants do occur naturally and could be found in HBV carriers who have never received antiviral therapy. However, mutations related to drug resistance in Iranian treatment-naïve chronic HBV patients were found to be higher than other studies published formerly. Chronic HBV patients should be monitored closely prior the commencement of therapy to achieve the best regimen option. © 2013, KOWSAR Corp

Drug-drug interactions in repeat prescriptions at village dispensaries (bereg) in Malta

Inappropriate treatments and drug-drug interactions (DDIs) are known to occur in settings where repeat prescriptions are issued. In view of this, a study was carried out to document any such problematic drug prescribing and propose changes that would enhance patient safety. A random sample of 100 clients who requested a repeat prescription at a group of peripheral village dispensaries (bere©) in southern Malta was chosen and following anonymisation, the drugs requested for such prescriptions were entered into a database. A freely available online DDI checker was used in the analysis of the results and these were rechecked through the appropriate section of the British National Formulary. The resulting DDIs were then grouped according to type, potential effect or disease for which the drugs were used. A total of 255 DDIs were detected in the prescriptions of 53 clients. Drug combinations with a potential for increased hypotensive effect were the most common cause of DDIs (49.8%) in this sample, but other categories of DDIs were found. These included DDIs which could affect the management of diabetic patients (27.3%), patients on psychiatric treatment (7%) and anticoagulants (4.8%) as well as DDIs that affected serum potassium levels (2.2%). The results obtained indicate that DDIs are common at a number of peripheral village dispensaries in Malta, and these could affect disease management in some patients. Other DDIs can be potentially harmful. Awareness, knowledge and vigilance by the prescribers involved remains crucial to address the issues raised by DDIs. Suggestions for addressing these issues on an administrative level are proposed.peer-reviewe

The processes of reform in Victoria’s alcohol and other drug sector, 2011-2014

This paper explores issues and concerns related to the 2014 alcohol and other drug sector recommissioning process in Victoria. Overview In mid-2014, the Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association approached the Drug Policy Modelling Program, at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales to undertake a project exploring and describing issues and concerns related to the 2014 alcohol and other drug sector recommissioning process in Victoria. This project commenced in July 2014 and concluded in November 2014. Policy documents and allied material were reviewed, and 20 stakeholders from 18 alcohol and other drug sector organisations were consulted. These stakeholders were CEOs/senior managers during the reform period

Detecting a signal in the noise : Monitoring the global spread of novel psychoactive substances using media and other open source information

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. Date of Acceptance: 16/02/2015To determine the feasibility and utility of using media reports and other open-source information collected by the Global Public Health Intelligence Network (GPHIN), an event-based surveillance system operated by the Public Health Agency of Canada, to rapidly detect clusters of adverse drug events associated with ‘novel psychoactive substances’ (NPS) at the international levelPeer reviewedFinal Published versio

Drug Management Reviews in District Drug Management Unit and General Hospital

Drug is one of the essential elements in healthcare that should be effectively and efficiently managed. Following the decentralization in 2001 in Indonesia, drug management has changed in district drug management units and also in District General Hospitals. Certainly this condition influences the sustainability of drug access in primary health care such as in Community Health Center and District General Hospital, especially in drug financing policy. A cross sectional descriptive study to obtain information on drug management in public healthcare in district had been carried out between July and December 2006 in 10 District Public Drug Management Units from 10 district health offices and 9 district general hospitals as samples. Data were collected by interviewing heads of Drug Section in District Health Offices and heads of Hospital Pharmacies using structured questionnaires and observing drug storage in District Drug Management Units, Community Health Centers, and Hospital Pharmacies. Results of the study show that drug planning in District Health Offices and General Hospitals did not meet the basic real need in some districts nor District Hospitals. The minimum health service standards had not been achieved yet. Furthermore, drug procurement, storage and recording as well as reporting was not good enough either, such as shown by the existence of expired drugs. Lead time for drug delivery to community health centers in some districts was longer than the average of lead time in the past 3 years

Drug Possession Arrests Reported in Alaska, 1986–2017

Underlying data is available in both Excel and PDF format. (Download below.)This fact sheet presents data on drug sale possession arrests reported by Alaska law enforcement agencies for the 32-year period 1986 to 2017. Overall, the drug possession arrest rate plateaued be-tween 1998 and 2010, consistently declined from 2010 to 2016, and slightly increased in 2017. The lowest recorded overall drug possession arrest rate was in 1990. Rates increased from 1986 through 1998, then de-clined for all populations from 2010 to 2016. The adult and male populations drive the overall trend in arrest rates, accounting for roughly four out of every five arrestees during this 32-year period. The trend shows less discrepancy in arrest rates be-tween males and females, as well as between adults and juveniles after 2010. Data is drawn from the annual Crime in Alaska report of the Alaska Department of Public Safety, which represents the State of Alaska's contribution to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) program.Drug possession arrests / Overall drug possession arrest rates / Arrest rates by sex / Arrest rates by age / Summary / Note

Drug Possession Arrests Reported in Alaska, 1986–2017 — Drug Types by Sex

Underlying data is available in both Excel and PDF format. (Download below.)This fact sheet presents data on drug possession arrests by type of drug and sex of arrestee as reported by Alaska law enforcement agencies for the 32-year period 1986 to 2017. Types of drugs include narcotics, synthetic narcotics, marijuana, and other non-narcotic drugs. Overall, males comprise roughly four out of five drug possession arrests in the state of Alaska. The female and male rates parallel one another in that they rise and fall at the same points in most years. In 2002, the synthetic narcotics and other non-narcotics possession arrest rates sharply increased for both males and females until the mid-2000s before a sharp decline and subsequent increase. Marijuana possession, the offense with the highest arrest rates, peaked at 90.4 per 100,000 female residents and 324.9 per 100,000 male residents. Synthetic narcotics possession, the offense with the lowest arrest rates, peaked at 13.8 per 100,000 female residents and 29.8 per 100,000 male residents. Narcotics possession is the only offense that peaked before 2000. Data is drawn from the annual Crime in Alaska report of the Alaska Department of Public Safety, which represents the State of Alaska's contribution to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) program.Drug possession arrests / Narcotics arrest rates by sex / Marijuana arrest rates by sex / Synthetic narcotics arrest rates by sex / Other non-narcotics arrest rates by sex / Summary / Note

Provenance-Centered Dataset of Drug-Drug Interactions

Over the years several studies have demonstrated the ability to identify potential drug-drug interactions via data mining from the literature (MEDLINE), electronic health records, public databases (Drugbank), etc. While each one of these approaches is properly statistically validated, they do not take into consideration the overlap between them as one of their decision making variables. In this paper we present LInked Drug-Drug Interactions (LIDDI), a public nanopublication-based RDF dataset with trusty URIs that encompasses some of the most cited prediction methods and sources to provide researchers a resource for leveraging the work of others into their prediction methods. As one of the main issues to overcome the usage of external resources is their mappings between drug names and identifiers used, we also provide the set of mappings we curated to be able to compare the multiple sources we aggregate in our dataset.Comment: In Proceedings of the 14th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC) 201

Drug Sale and Manufacture Arrests Reported in Alaska, 1986–2017 — Drug Types by Sex

Underlying data is available in both Excel and PDF format. (Download below.)This fact sheet presents data on drug sale and manufacture arrests by type of drug and sex of arrestee as reported by Alaska law enforcement agencies for the 32-year period 1986 to 2017. Types of drugs include narcotics, synthetic narcotics, marijuana, and other non-narcotic drugs. Overall, males comprise roughly three-fourths of the total drug sale and manufacture arrests in the state of Alaska. The female and male rates parallel one another in that they rise and fall at the same points in most years. For all drugs, the difference between female and male arrest rates in 2017 are smaller than in 1986. Data is drawn from the annual Crime in Alaska report of the Alaska Department of Public Safety, which represents the State of Alaska's contribution to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) program.Drug sale and manufacture arrests / Narcotics arrest rates by sex / Marijuana arrest rates by sex / Synthetic narcotics arrest rates by sex / Other non-narcotics arrest rates by sex / Summary / Note