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 visual word form area engages in processing Braille in expert visual readers

In the ventral occipito-temporal cortex (vOTC) reside numerous areas specialized to identify different categories of stimuli. Among them, the visual word form area (VWFA) preferentially responds to written words. What drives this selectivity for orthographic material remains debated. One account suggests that VWFA’s selectivity builds on the intrinsic selectivity for low-level features shared among most orthographic systems, like specific line junctions (e.g. T, L, Y). Alternatively, the VWFA could be sensitive to any alphabetic material, irrespective of these specific low-level features. We present evidence showing that VWFA, in expert visual readers, engages in processing Braille, a script developed for touch that does not share some low-level characteristic of classical alphabets like line junctions. We first show that, in expert visual Braille readers only, the region of vOTC showing preferential activity for roman-based French word over control stimuli, also showed preferential response to Braille words over control Braille stimuli. Second, we presented to the participants stimuli with four decreasing levels of linguistic properties: real words, pseudo-words, non-words, and a fake-script condition, for both Braille and roman-based alphabets. Multivariate analyses on patterns of activity from VWFA revealed that the differences between words and word-like stimuli show a dissimilarity pattern within Braille stimuli that resembles the one within roman-based French. These results indicate that typical visual features of scripts are not mandatory characteristics in the activation of VWFA for linguistic material. Rather, linguistic information itself, invariant across scripts, seems to play an important role in determining the response of this word-selective brain area

The visual word form area engages in processing Braille in expert visual readers

In the ventral occipito-temporal cortex (vOTC) reside numerous areas specialized to identify different categories of stimuli. Among them, the visual word form area (VWFA) preferentially responds to written words. What drives this selectivity for orthographic material remains debated. One account suggests that VWFA’s selectivity builds on the intrinsic selectivity for low-level features shared among most orthographic systems, like specific line junctions (e.g. T, L, Y). Alternatively, the VWFA could be sensitive to any alphabetic material, irrespective of these specific low-level features. We present evidence showing that VWFA, in expert visual readers, engages in processing Braille, a script developed for touch that does not share some low-level characteristic of classical alphabets like line junctions. We first show that, in expert visual Braille readers only, the region of vOTC showing preferential activity for roman-based French word over control stimuli, also showed preferential response to Braille words over control Braille stimuli. Second, we presented to the participants stimuli with four decreasing levels of linguistic properties: real words, pseudo-words, non-words, and a fake-script condition, for both Braille and roman-based alphabets. Multivariate analyses on patterns of activity from VWFA revealed that the differences between words and word-like stimuli show a dissimilarity pattern within Braille stimuli that resembles the one within roman-based French. These results indicate that typical visual features of scripts are not mandatory characteristics in the activation of VWFA for linguistic material. Rather, linguistic information itself, invariant across scripts, seems to play an important role in determining the response of this word-selective brain area