Creating the conditions for scaling up the integration of reproductive health services for men in health and family welfare centers in Bangladesh

An operations research study, supported by the Population Council’s Frontiers in Reproductive Health (FRONTIERS) program, showed that reproductive health services for men could be feasibly and acceptably integrated within the Health and Family Welfare Centres in Bangladesh, which have been primarily women-centered health facilities. Given these findings, a follow-up study was implemented to create the conditions for scaling up the model through identifying and piloting the operational details to consider when taking the intervention to scale. The findings presented in this report suggest that this model of service delivery and training can be scaled up countrywide, preferably in stages. To ensure compliance with systematic screening by all providers, the report recommends instituting supportive supervision, especially during the early stages of expansion, and holding clinical training in a facility where many RTI/STI cases are treated (such as a district hospital)

Bioinformatics and system biology approaches to identify the diseasome and comorbidities complexities of SARS-CoV-2 infection with the digestive tract disorders

Abstract Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), although most commonly demonstrates respiratory symptoms, but there is a growing set of evidence reporting its correlation with the digestive tract and faeces. Interestingly, recent studies have shown the association of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection with gastrointestinal symptoms in infected patients but any sign of respiratory issues. Moreover, some studies have also shown that the presence of live SARS-CoV-2 virus in the faeces of patients with COVID-19. Therefore, the pathophysiology of digestive symptoms associated with COVID-19 has raised a critical need for comprehensive investigative efforts. To address this issue we have developed a bioinformatics pipeline involving a system biological framework to identify the effects of SARS-CoV-2 messenger RNA expression on deciphering its association with digestive symptoms in COVID-19 positive patients. Using two RNA-seq datasets derived from COVID-19 positive patients with celiac (CEL), Crohn’s (CRO) and ulcerative colitis (ULC) as digestive disorders, we have found a significant overlap between the sets of differentially expressed genes from SARS-CoV-2 exposed tissue and digestive tract disordered tissues, reporting 7, 22 and 13 such overlapping genes, respectively. Moreover, gene set enrichment analysis, comprehensive analyses of protein–protein interaction network, gene regulatory network, protein–chemical agent interaction network revealed some critical association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and the presence of digestive disorders. The infectome, diseasome and comorbidity analyses also discover the influences of the identified signature genes in other risk factors of SARS-CoV-2 infection to human health. We hope the findings from this pathogenetic analysis may reveal important insights in deciphering the complex interplay between COVID-19 and digestive disorders and underpins its significance in therapeutic development strategy to combat against COVID-19 pandemic.</jats:p

Syndromic survey de-identified data in SPSS

De-identified syndromic survey data made available in SPSS format. This supports the PLOS ONE paper, "An epidemic of chikungunya in northwestern Bangladesh in 2011" and is hosted on Figshare

An epidemic of chikungunya in northwestern Bangladesh in 2011.

BackgroundIn November 2011, a government hospital physician in Shibganj sub-district of Bangladesh reported a cluster of patients with fever and joint pain or rash. A multi-disciplinary team investigated to characterize the outbreak; confirm the cause; and recommend control and prevention measures.MethodsShibganj's residents with new onset of fever and joint pain or rash between 1 September and 15 December 2011 were defined as chikungunya fever (CHIKF) suspect cases. To estimate the attack rate, we identified 16 outpatient clinics in 16 selected wards across 16 unions in Shibganj and searched for suspect cases in the 80 households nearest to each outpatient clinic. One suspect case from the first 30 households in each ward was invited to visit the nearest outpatient clinic for clinical assessment and to provide a blood sample for laboratory testing and analyses.ResultsWe identified 1,769 CHIKF suspect cases from among 5,902 residents surveyed (30%). Their median age was 28 (IQR:15-42) years. The average attack rate in the sub-district was 30% (95% CI: 27%-33%). The lowest attack rate was found in children ConclusionThe consistently high attack rate by age groups suggested recent introduction of chikungunya in this community. Mosquito control efforts should be enhanced to reduce the risk of continued transmission and to improve global health security

De-identified symptom duration data in SPSS

De-identified symptom duration data published to support the paper, "An epidemic of chikungunya in northwestern Bangladesh in 2011"

De-identified clinical survey data in SPSS

Data from suspect case from each of the first 30 households visited in each ward. Data published to support the paper, "An epidemic of chikungunya in north-western Bangladesh in 2011"