Occupational illnesses in the 2009 Zambian labour force survey

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Occupational health has received limited research attention in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Much of the published data in this region come from South Africa and little has been reported north of the Limpopo. The present study was conducted to estimate the burden of occupational illnesses in Zambia and assess factors associated with their occurrence.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data were obtained from the Zambian Labour Force Survey of 2009. Frequencies were used to estimate the prevalence of occupational diseases. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine the associations between demographic, social and economic factors and reported illness resulting from occupational exposures. Odds ratios (OR) from bivariate analyses and adjusted odds ratios (AOR) from the multivariate analysis together with their 95% Confidence Intervals (CI) are reported.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Data on 59,118 persons aged 18 years or older were available for analysis, of which 29805 (50.4%) were males. The proportions of the sample that reported to have suffered from an occupational illness were 12.7% among males and 10.4% among females (p < 0.001). Overall the proportions of respondents who reported suffering from fatigue, fever and chest infections were 38.8%, 21.7% and 17.1%, respectively. About two thirds (69.7%) of the study participants had stayed away from work due to the illness suffered at work; there was no sex differences (p = 0.216). Older age, being male, lower education level, married/cohabiting or once married (separated/divorced/widowed), and paid employee or employer/self employed were positively associated with having suffered from illness.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The findings from this study call for urgent effort for specific measures to prevent and mitigate the effects of occupational injuries. These interventions may include: public health campaigns, enforcement or change in work policies and regulations. Special attention may have to be made towards those who were more likely to suffer from occupational illnesses.</p

Stage-Specific Inhibition of MHC Class I Presentation by the Epstein-Barr Virus BNLF2a Protein during Virus Lytic Cycle

gamma-herpesvirus Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) persists for life in infected individuals despite the presence of a strong immune response. During the lytic cycle of EBV many viral proteins are expressed, potentially allowing virally infected cells to be recognized and eliminated by CD8+ T cells. We have recently identified an immune evasion protein encoded by EBV, BNLF2a, which is expressed in early phase lytic replication and inhibits peptide- and ATP-binding functions of the transporter associated with antigen processing. Ectopic expression of BNLF2a causes decreased surface MHC class I expression and inhibits the presentation of indicator antigens to CD8+ T cells. Here we sought to examine the influence of BNLF2a when expressed naturally during EBV lytic replication. We generated a BNLF2a-deleted recombinant EBV (ΔBNLF2a) and compared the ability of ΔBNLF2a and wild-type EBV-transformed B cell lines to be recognized by CD8+ T cell clones specific for EBV-encoded immediate early, early and late lytic antigens. Epitopes derived from immediate early and early expressed proteins were better recognized when presented by ΔBNLF2a transformed cells compared to wild-type virus transformants. However, recognition of late antigens by CD8+ T cells remained equally poor when presented by both wild-type and ΔBNLF2a cell targets. Analysis of BNLF2a and target protein expression kinetics showed that although BNLF2a is expressed during early phase replication, it is expressed at a time when there is an upregulation of immediate early proteins and initiation of early protein synthesis. Interestingly, BNLF2a protein expression was found to be lost by late lytic cycle yet ΔBNLF2a-transformed cells in late stage replication downregulated surface MHC class I to a similar extent as wild-type EBV-transformed cells. These data show that BNLF2a-mediated expression is stage-specific, affecting presentation of immediate early and early proteins, and that other evasion mechanisms operate later in the lytic cycle

Organizational practices across cultures: An exploration in six cultural contexts

This study examined organizational practices in a sample of 1239 employees from various organizations in Argentina, Brazil, Malaysia, New Zealand, Turkey, and the United States. Twenty-four items measuring employee-orientation, formalization, and innovation practices showed a clear factorial structure across all samples, along with good reliabilities. Significant organizational position differences were found for employee-orientation and innovation practices. Sector differences were found for formalization and innovation practices. Cultural differences were found for employee-orientation and innovation practices, which can be explained using macroeconomic indicators,tightness–looseness, and individualism. Our study demonstrates the importance of individual, organizational, economic, and cultural level for understanding perceptions of organizational practices across a wider range of societies

Unexpected combination of acute croup and myocarditis: Case report

BACKGROUND: Lower vaccination coverage among foreign-born children is of concern because they live in households and communities characterized by more intense exposure to infectious diseases. Because of their higher prevalence rates, there is an increasing occurrence of infectious diseases imported into developed countries. This case report emphasizes the emerging necessity for new clinicians and pathologists of having competence with old infectious disease pathology. CASE PRESENTATION: A three and a half year old girl, who presented with croup history of 5 days and has been in severe respiratory distress, was admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit in shock and acute respiratory failure. The patient was immediately intubated, and a grayish nonadherent membrane extending through the glottis down into the larynx was apparent during the procedure. Echocardiographic findings, which were consistent with acute myocarditis, confirmed poor left ventricular contractility despite escalating high doses of inotropes. Autopsy showed numerous strains of toxigenic corynobacterium diphtheriae, which also grew on the Loeffler cultures of membranes received during the intubation. CONCLUSION: It is critical that new generations of clinicians and bio-pathologists not only be trained in the subspecialty of infectious disease pathology, but that they also be willing participants in the diagnosis and investigation of infectious diseases

Broad Clade 2 Cross-Reactive Immunity Induced by an Adjuvanted Clade 1 rH5N1 Pandemic Influenza Vaccine

The availability of H5N1 vaccines that can elicit a broad cross-protective immunity against different currently circulating clade 2 H5N1 viruses is a pre-requisite for the development of a successful pre-pandemic vaccination strategy. In this regard, it has recently been shown that adjuvantation of a recombinant clade 1 H5N1 inactivated split-virion vaccine with an oil-in-water emulsion-based adjuvant system also promoted cross-immunity against a recent clade 2 H5N1 isolate (A/Indonesia/5/2005, subclade 2.1). Here we further analyse the cross-protective potential of the vaccine against two other recent clade 2 isolates (A/turkey/Turkey/1/2005 and A/Anhui/1/2005 which are, as defined by WHO, representatives of subclades 2.2 and 2.3 respectively).Two doses of the recombinant A/Vietnam/1194/2004 (H5N1, clade 1) vaccine were administered 21 days apart to volunteers aged 18-60 years. We studied the cross-clade immunogenicity of the lowest antigen dose (3.8 microg haemagglutinin) given with (N = 20) or without adjuvant (N = 20). Immune responses were assessed at 21 days following the first and second vaccine doses and at 6 months following first vaccination. Vaccination with two doses of 3.8 microg of the adjuvanted vaccine induced four-fold neutralising seroconversion rates in 85% of subjects against A/turkey/Turkey/1/2005 (subclade 2.2) and 75% of subjects against A/Anhui/1/2005 (subclade 2.3) recombinant strains. There was no response induced against these strains in the non-adjuvanted group. At 6 months following vaccination, 70% and 60% of subjects retained neutralising antibodies against the recombinant subclade 2.2 and 2.3 strains, respectively and 40% of subjects retained antibodies against the recombinant subclade 2.1 A/Indonesia/5/2005 strain.In addition to antigen dose-sparing, adjuvantation of inactivated split H5N1 vaccine promotes broad and persistent cross-clade immunity which is a pre-requisite for a pre-pandemic vaccine.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00309634

Cross-Protection against Lethal H5N1 Challenge in Ferrets with an Adjuvanted Pandemic Influenza Vaccine

Background. Unprecedented spread between birds and mammals of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAI) of the H5N1 subtype has resulted in hundreds of human infections with a high fatality rate. This has highlighted the urgent need for the development of H5N1 vaccines that can be produced rapidly and in sufficient quantities. Potential

Effect of Gas Atmosphere on Catalytic Behaviour of Zirconia, Ceria and Ceria Zirconia Catalysts in Valeric Acid Ketonization

[EN] Ketonization of valeric acid, which can be obtained by lignocellulosic biomass conversion, was carried out in a fixed bed flow reactor over ZrO2, 5-20 % CeO2/ZrO2 and CeO2 both under hydrogen and nitrogen stream at 628 K and atmospheric pressure. Regardless gas-carrier 10 wt% CeO2/ZrO2 was found to show higher catalytic activity compared to zirconia per se as well as other ceria modified zirconia while ceria per se exhibited very low catalytic activity. All catalysts provided higher acid conversion in H-2 than in N-2 whereas selectivity to 5-nonanone was insensitive to gas atmosphere. XRD, FTIR, UV-Vis DRS, XPS, HRTEM methods were applied to characterize catalysts in reduced and unreduced states simulating corresponding reaction conditions during acid ketonization. XRD did not reveal any changes in zirconia and ceria/zirconia lattice parameters as well as crystalline phase depending on gas atmosphere while insertion of ceria in zirconia caused notable increase in lattice parameter indicating some distortion of crystalline structure. According to XPS, FTIR and UV-Vis methods, the carrier gas was found to affect catalyst surface composition leading to alteration in Lewis acid sites ratio. Appearance of Zr3+ cations was observed on the ZrO2 surface after hydrogen pretreatment whereas only Zr4+ cations were determined using nitrogen as a gas-carrier. These changes of catalyst's surface cation composition affected corresponding activity in ketonization probably being crucial for reaction mechanism involving metal cations catalytic centers for acid adsorption and COO- stabilization at the initial step.Financial support from the Russian Foundation of Basic Research (RFBR Grant No 11-03-94001-CSIC) is gratefully acknowledged. This work was supported by the Federal Program "Scientific and Educational Cadres of Russia'' (Grant No 2012-1.5-12-000-1013-002). The authors also wish to thank Dr. Evgeniy Gerasimov, Dr. Igor Prosvirin, Dr. Demid Demidov from the Department of Physicochemical Methods at the Boreskov Institute of Catalysis for TEM and XPS measurements.Zaytseva, YA.; Panchenko, VN.; Simonov, MN.; Shutilov, AA.; Zenkovets, GA.; Renz, M.; Simakova, IL.... (2013). Effect of Gas Atmosphere on Catalytic Behaviour of Zirconia, Ceria and Ceria Zirconia Catalysts in Valeric Acid Ketonization. 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