12 research outputs found
MICROBIAL ALDOLASES AND TRANSKETOLASES:New Biocatalytic Approaches to Simple and Complex Sugars
Development and Validation of a Modified Version of the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale in a Flemish Palliative Care Population
An empirical study of the predictive validity of number grades in medical school using 3 decades of longitudinal data: implications for a grading system
Hereditary triosephosphate isomerase (TPI) deficiency: two severely affected brothers one with and one without neurological symptoms
Host, weather and virological factors drive norovirus epidemiology: Time-series analysis of laboratory surveillance data in England and Wales
UNLABELLED: Norovirus, the most commonly identified cause of both sporadic cases and outbreaks of infectious diarrhoea in developed countries, exhibits a complex epidemiology and has a strong wintertime seasonality. Viral populations are dynamic and evolve under positive selection pressure. METHODS: Time series-adapted Poisson regression models were fitted to daily counts of laboratory reports of norovirus in England and Wales from 1993 to 2006. FINDINGS: Inverse linear associations with daily temperature over the previous seven weeks (rate ratio (RR) = 0.85; 95% CI: 0.83 to 0.86 for every 1 degrees C increase) and relative humidity over the previous five weeks (RR = 0.980; 95% CI: 0.973 to 0.987 for every 1% increase) were found, with temperature having a greater overall effect. The emergence of new norovirus variants (RR = 1.16; 95% CI: 1.10 to 1.22) and low population immunity were also associated with heightened norovirus activity. Temperature and humidity, which may be localised, had highly consistent effects in each region of England and Wales. CONCLUSIONS: These results point to a complex interplay between host, viral and climatic factors driving norovirus epidemic patterns. Increases in norovirus are associated with cold, dry temperature, low population immunity and the emergence of novel genogroup 2 type 4 antigenic variants