The health and economic impact of acute gastroenteritis in Belgium, 2010-2014

Acute gastroenteritis (AGE) remains a common condition in both low- and high-income countries. In Belgium, however, there is currently a lack of information on the societal health and economic impact of AGE. We conducted a retrospective study using mortality and cause-of-death data, hospital data, primary care data, health interview survey data and other published data. We estimated the burden of illness during a 5-year period (2010–2014) in Belgium in terms of deaths, patients admitted to hospitals, patients consulting their general practitioner (GP) and cases occurring in the community. We further quantified the health impact in terms of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and the economic impact in terms of cost-of-illness estimates. We estimated 343 deaths, 27 707 hospitalised patients, 464 222 GP consultations and 10 058 741 episodes occurring in the community (0.91 cases/person) on average per year. AGE was associated with 11 855 DALYs per year (107 DALY per 100 000 persons). The economic burden was estimated to represent direct costs of €112 million, indirect costs of €927 million (90% of the total costs) and an average total cost of €103 per case and €94 per person. AGE results in a substantial health and economic impact in Belgium, justifying continued mitigation efforts

Prevalence of chronic HCV infection in EU/EEA countries in 2019 using multiparameter evidence synthesis

Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s)Background: Epidemiological data are crucial to monitoring progress towards the 2030 Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) elimination targets. Our aim was to estimate the prevalence of chronic HCV infection (cHCV) in the European Union (EU)/European Economic Area (EEA) countries in 2019. Methods: Multi-parameter evidence synthesis (MPES) was used to produce national estimates of cHCV defined as: π = πrecρrec + πexρex + πnonρnon; πrec, πex, and πnon represent cHCV prevalence among recent people who inject drugs (PWID), ex-PWID, and non-PWID, respectively, while ρrec, ρex, and ρnon represent the proportions of these groups in the population. Information sources included the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) national operational contact points (NCPs) and prevalence database, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction databases, and the published literature. Findings: The cHCV prevalence in 29 of 30 EU/EEA countries in 2019 was 0.50% [95% Credible Interval (CrI): 0.46%, 0.55%]. The highest cHCV prevalence was observed in the eastern EU/EEA (0.88%; 95% CrI: 0.81%, 0.94%). At least 35.76% (95% CrI: 33.07%, 38.60%) of the overall cHCV prevalence in EU/EEA countries was associated with injecting drugs. Interpretation: Using MPES and collaborating with ECDC NCPs, we estimated the prevalence of cHCV in the EU/EEA to be low. Some areas experience higher cHCV prevalence while a third of prevalent cHCV infections was attributed to PWID. Further efforts are needed to scale up prevention measures and the diagnosis and treatment of infected individuals, especially in the east of the EU/EEA and among PWID. Funding: ECDC.Peer reviewe

The health and economic impact of acute gastroenteritis in Belgium, 2010-2014

Acute gastroenteritis (AGE) remains a common condition in both low- and high-income countries. In Belgium, however, there is currently a lack of information on the societal health and economic impact of AGE. We conducted a retrospective study using mortality and cause-of-death data, hospital data, primary care data, health interview survey data and other published data. We estimated the burden of illness during a 5-year period (2010-2014) in Belgium in terms of deaths, patients admitted to hospitals, patients consulting their general practitioner (GP) and cases occurring in the community. We further quantified the health impact in terms of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and the economic impact in terms of cost-of-illness estimates. We estimated 343 deaths, 27 707 hospitalised patients, 464 222 GP consultations and 10 058 741 episodes occurring in the community (0.91 cases/person) on average per year. AGE was associated with 11 855 DALYs per year (107 DALY per 100 000 persons). The economic burden was estimated to represent direct costs of €112 million, indirect costs of €927 million (90% of the total costs) and an average total cost of €103 per case and €94 per person. AGE results in a substantial health and economic impact in Belgium, justifying continued mitigation efforts.status: publishe

Interventions for preventing or controlling healthcare-associated infection amongst healthcare workers or patients within primary care facilities: a scoping review

Background: This review aimed to synthesize the evidence on infection prevention and control (IPC) interventions for the prevention of healthcare-associated infection (HAI) amongst healthcare workers (HCW) or patients within primary care facilities.Methods: PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE and CENTRAL databases were searched for quantitative studies published between 2011-2022. Study selection, data extraction and quality assessment using Cochrane and Joanna Briggs tools, were conducted by independent review with additional sensitivity checking performed on study selection.Results: Four studies were included. A randomized trial and a cross-sectional survey, respectively, found no statistical difference in laboratory-confirmed influenza in HCW wearing N95 versus medical masks (p=0.18) and a significant inverse association between the implementation of tuberculosis (TB) control measures and TB incidence (p=0.02). For the prevention of surgical site infections following minor surgery, randomized trials found non-sterile gloves (8.7%; 95% CI, 4.9%-12.6%) to be non-inferior to sterile gloves (9.3%; 95% CI, 7.4%-11.1%) and no significant difference between prophylactic antibiotics compared to placebo (p=0.064). All studies had a high risk of bias.Conclusion: Evidence for IPC interventions for prevention of HAI in primary care is very limited and insufficient to make practice recommendations. Nevertheless, the findings highlight the need for future research

Evaluating SARS-CoV-2 spike and nucleocapsid proteins as targets for antibody detection in severe and mild COVID-19 cases using a Luminex bead-based assay

Large-scale serosurveillance of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) will only be possible if serological tests are sufficiently reliable, rapid and affordable. Many assays are either labour-intensive and require specialised facilities (e.g. virus neutralization assays), or are expensive with suboptimal specificity (e.g. commercial ELISAs and RDTs). Bead-based assays offer a cost-effective alternative and allow for multiplexing to test for antibodies against multiple antigens and against other pathogens. Here, we compare the performance of spike (S) and nucleocapsid (NP) antigens for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 specific IgG, IgM and IgA antibodies in a panel of sera that includes recent (up to six weeks after symptom onset, severe n = 44; and mild cases n = 52) and old infections (five months after symptom onset, mild n = 104), using a Luminex-bead based assay and comparison to a virus neutralization test. While we show that neutralizing antibody levels are significantly lower in mild than in severe cases, we demonstrate that a combination of the recombinant nucleocapsid protein (NP) and receptor-binding domain (RBD) results in highly specific (99 %) IgG antibody detection five months after infection in 96 % of cases. Although most severe Covid-19 cases developed a clear IgM and IgA response, titers fell below the detection threshold in more than 20 % of mild cases in our bead-based assay. In conclusion, our data supports the use of RBD and NP for the development of SARS-CoV-2 serological IgG bead-based&nbsp;assays.</p

Prevalence of chronic HCV infection in EU/EEA countries in 2019 using multiparameter evidence synthesis

Abstract: Background Epidemiological data are crucial to monitoring progress towards the 2030 Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) elimination targets. Our aim was to estimate the prevalence of chronic HCV infection (cHCV) in the European Union (EU)/European Economic Area (EEA) countries in 2019. Methods Multi-parameter evidence synthesis (MPES) was used to produce national estimates of cHCV defined as: \u3c0 = \u3c0rec\u3c1rec + \u3c0ex\u3c1ex + \u3c0non\u3c1non; \u3c0rec, \u3c0ex, and \u3c0non represent cHCV prevalence among recent people who inject drugs (PWID), ex-PWID, and non-PWID, respectively, while \u3c1rec, \u3c1ex, and \u3c1non represent the proportions of these groups in the population. Information sources included the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) national operational contact points (NCPs) and prevalence database, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction databases, and the published literature. Findings The cHCV prevalence in 29 of 30 EU/EEA countries in 2019 was 0.50% [95% Credible Interval (CrI): 0.46%, 0.55%]. The highest cHCV prevalence was observed in the eastern EU/EEA (0.88%; 95% CrI: 0.81%, 0.94%). At least 35.76% (95% CrI: 33.07%, 38.60%) of the overall cHCV prevalence in EU/EEA countries was associated with injecting drugs. Interpretation Using MPES and collaborating with ECDC NCPs, we estimated the prevalence of cHCV in the EU/EEA to be low. Some areas experience higher cHCV prevalence while a third of prevalent cHCV infections was attributed to PWID. Further efforts are needed to scale up prevention measures and the diagnosis and treatment of infected individuals, especially in the east of the EU/EEA and among PWID