Nationwide increases in anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies between October 2020 and March 2021 in the unvaccinated Czech population

Background: The aim of the nationwide prospective seroconversion (PROSECO) study was to investigate the dynamics of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies in the Czech population. Here we report on baseline prevalence from that study. Methods: The study included the first 30,054 persons who provided a blood sample between October 2020 and March 2021. Seroprevalence was compared between calendar periods, previous RT-PCR results and other factors. Results: The data show a large increase in seropositivity over time, from 28% in October/November 2020 to 43% in December 2020/January 2021 to 51% in February/March 2021. These trends were consistent with government data on cumulative viral antigenic prevalence in the population captured by PCR testing – although the seroprevalence rates established in this study were considerably higher. There were only minor differences in seropositivity between sexes, age groups and BMI categories, and results were similar between test providing laboratories. Seropositivity was substantially higher among persons with history of symptoms (76% vs. 34%). At least one third of all seropositive participants had no history of symptoms, and 28% of participants with antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 never underwent PCR testing. Conclusions: Our data confirm the rapidly increasing prevalence in the Czech population during the rising pandemic wave prior to the beginning of vaccination. The difference between our results on seroprevalence and PCR testing suggests that antibody response provides a better marker of past infection than the routine testing program

Best practice in estimating the costs of alcohol: recommendations for future studies.

This report aims to summarize best practice in estimating the attributable and avoidable costs of alcohol, and to make recommendations for making such estimates in future studies. It discusses the conceptual basis for such cost studies, and then goes through the conceptual and methodological challenges for each type of cost in turn. It recommends: 1. changes in the terminology used; 2. the consistent and explicit consideration of external costs; 3. more sophisticated modelling of the effect of policy on costs; 4. more robust attempts to quantify alcohol’s causal effect on harm and costs; 5. a demonstration project using new methodologies; 6. the use of scenarios rather than existing sensitivity analyses; 7. the importing of data from other studies rather than simply omitting certain types of cost; 8. consideration of future health and resource costs; and 9. not using the human capital method for valuing the labour costs of premature mortality within the main estimates

DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE OF MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE CLUSTERS IN THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA CORRIDOR 10 ZONE

In this paper, the authors strive to indicate some great possibilities for further development of rural areas in the wider zone of Corridor 10 in the Republic of Serbia. The significance of manufacturing and service clusters, networks and co-operations formed in rural areas, creating a large number of small and medium enterprises as a manner of running the entire industry through accelerated development of entrepreneurial initiative, is also stressed. A special kind of attention paid to the development of SMEs is a document from June 2008, adopted by the EU under the title:’’ A Small Business Act for Europe’’, with established principles and actions for operating in the section of small and medium-sized enterprises in the EU. The aspect of joining agricultural production and processing with service industry that could be implemented along the Corridor 10 is dominant in this paper. Clusters are networks of companies and institutions that complement each other creating cooperative supply chains, where food-service supply chains are especially stressed in the wider rural area of Corridor 10 with obligatory appliance of the European Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) standard, reaching over 7,000 notifications. Those notifications are related to potentially dangerous food or animal feeding and are issued by RASFF system founded by the European Commission

HIV/hepatitis coinfection in eastern Europe and new pan-European approaches to hepatitis prevention and management

Issues: HIV/hepatitis coinfection in Europe; WHO European clinical protocols on the management of people coinfected with HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B or C (HBV or HCV); stakeholder recommendations for better HCV services. Introduction: The increasing availability of highly active antiretroviral therapy throughout Europe and central Asia has changed comorbidity and mortality patterns among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) as liver disease has increasingly replaced AIDS as the cause of death in PLWHA in western European countries. The average prevalence of HCV among PLWHA is 40 per cent, and much higher in countries where the HIV epidemic is driven by injecting drug use. Access to hepatitis treatment for PLWHA and IDUs is still very limited in Europe due to a lack of clear clinical management guidelines for HIV/hepatitis coinfections, high costs and a national failure to recognise hepatitis as a critical health issue. Description: In October 2006, the WHO Regional Office for Europe issued protocols for the clinical management of HIV/HCV and HIV/HBV coinfections. They include diagnostic algorithms adjusted for resource availability, and guidelines for the management of patients who do not yet need treatment, those who need only hepatitis or only HIV/AIDS treatment, and those who need both. Though the protocols should provide practical guidelines for physicians and assist in the development of national treatment standards, there is still a need for targeted prevention, treatment and care interventions. To expand access to hepatitis prevention and treatment, public awareness needs to be raised and national political leaders need to address hepatitis as a public health issue. Effective public health measures include price reductions for anti-hepatitis drugs; targeted testing, counselling and prevention activities; increased access to hepatitis B and C treatment and to HBV vaccination for the populations most at risk. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved