Report of the Sydney Women and Sexual Health (SWASH) Survey 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014

The Sydney Women and Sexual Health (SWASH) survey is a comprehensive survey of important health issues relevant to lesbian, bisexual and queer (LBQ) women including sexual health and wellbeing, violence, mental health, tobacco use, illicit drug use, alcohol consumption, and cancer screening behaviours. This report presents results from surveys conducted at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Fair Day and other community events and venues during the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras seasons in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014. It highlights several health issues of particular concern – many of which have persisted over time – where mainstream preventive health interventions that are inclusive of this group or targeted to LBQ, are needed.ACON (formerly the AIDS Council of NSW) is NSW’s leading health promotion organisation specialising in HIV prevention, care and support, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) health

Women in contact with the gay and lesbian community in Sydney: Report of the Sydney Women and Sexual Health (SWASH) Survey 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012

The Sydney Women and Sexual Health (SWASH) survey is run by a collaboration of ACON and researchers at the University of Sydney (prior to 2009, researchers were based at the University of New South Wales). It was first carried out in 1996, initiated by workers from two ACON projects, Women Partners of Gay and Bisexual Men and the Gay and Lesbian Injecting Drug Use Project, who were faced with a lack of empirical evidence on which to base their intervention work. The survey is regularly revised to reflect the needs of the community and knowledge deficits identified through research literature. Over its lifetime, SWASH has become a comprehensive survey of sexual health and wellbeing, violence, mental health and levels of psychological distress, and a number of other important health issues relevant to lesbian, bisexual and queer (LBQ) women, such as tobacco use, illicit drug use, alcohol consumption, and cancer screening behaviours. Where possible, questions have been used from established national surveys such as the Australian Health Survey, National Drug Strategy Household Survey, Australian Study of Health and Relationships, and Australian Longitudinal Survey of Women’s Health. While research on LBQ women’s health and wellbeing has increased since the birth of the survey, epidemiological data on sexual health, mental health, experiences of abuse and violence and behaviours such as screening, illicit drug use, alcohol and smoking that can leave women vulnerable to adverse health outcomes, is still inconsistent. Moreover, as long as the inclusion of sexuality questions in large epidemiological surveys remains patchy or data is reported only by sexuality and not by sexuality and gender, SWASH provides a unique and important source of health-related information about Australian LBQ women. This report presents results from surveys conducted at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Fair Day and other community events and venues during the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras seasons in 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012

Whole Genome Sequence Analysis of a Large Isoniazid-Resistant Tuberculosis Outbreak in London: A Retrospective Observational Study

BACKGROUND: A large isoniazid-resistant tuberculosis outbreak centred on London, United Kingdom, has been ongoing since 1995. The aim of this study was to investigate the power and value of whole genome sequencing (WGS) to resolve the transmission network compared to current molecular strain typing approaches, including analysis of intra-host diversity within a specimen, across body sites, and over time, with identification of genetic factors underlying the epidemiological success of this cluster. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We sequenced 344 outbreak isolates from individual patients collected over 14 y (2 February 1998-22 June 2012). This demonstrated that 96 (27.9%) were indistinguishable, and only one differed from this major clone by more than five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The maximum number of SNPs between any pair of isolates was nine SNPs, and the modal distance between isolates was two SNPs. WGS was able to reveal the direction of transmission of tuberculosis in 16 cases within the outbreak (4.7%), including within a multidrug-resistant cluster that carried a rare rpoB mutation associated with rifampicin resistance. Eleven longitudinal pairs of patient pulmonary isolates collected up to 48 mo apart differed from each other by between zero and four SNPs. Extrapulmonary dissemination resulted in acquisition of a SNP in two of five cases. WGS analysis of 27 individual colonies cultured from a single patient specimen revealed ten loci differed amongst them, with a maximum distance between any pair of six SNPs. A limitation of this study, as in previous studies, is that indels and SNPs in repetitive regions were not assessed due to the difficulty in reliably determining this variation. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that (1) certain paradigms need to be revised, such as the 12 SNP distance as the gold standard upper threshold to identify plausible transmissions; (2) WGS technology is helpful to rule out the possibility of direct transmission when isolates are separated by a substantial number of SNPs; (3) the concept of a transmission chain or network may not be useful in institutional or household settings; (4) the practice of isolating single colonies prior to sequencing is likely to lead to an overestimation of the number of SNPs between cases resulting from direct transmission; and (5) despite appreciable genomic diversity within a host, transmission of tuberculosis rarely results in minority variants becoming dominant. Thus, whilst WGS provided some increased resolution over variable number tandem repeat (VNTR)-based clustering, it was insufficient for inferring transmission in the majority of cases

DNAPlotter: circular and linear interactive genome visualization

Summary: DNAPlotter is an interactive Java application for generating circular and linear representations of genomes. Making use of the Artemis libraries to provide a user-friendly method of loading in sequence files (EMBL, GenBank, GFF) as well as data from relational databases, it filters features of interest to display on separate user-definable tracks. It can be used to produce publication quality images for papers or web pages

Individual-specific changes in the human gut microbiota after challenge with enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli and subsequent ciprofloxacin treatment

Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank Mark Stares, Richard Rance, and other members of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute’s 454 sequencing team for generating the 16S rRNA gene data. Lili Fox Vélez provided editorial support. Funding IA, JNP, and MP were partly supported by the NIH, grants R01-AI-100947 to MP, and R21-GM-107683 to Matthias Chung, subcontract to MP. JNP was partly supported by an NSF graduate fellowship number DGE750616. IA, JNP, BRL, OCS and MP were supported in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, award number 42917 to OCS. JP and AWW received core funding support from The Wellcome Trust (grant number 098051). AWW, and the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Aberdeen, receive core funding support from the Scottish Government Rural and Environmental Science and Analysis Service (RESAS).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Implementing a Substances of Abuse Outreach Program in the Rochester City School District.

Objective: This program aims to provide substances of abuse education to local high school students. Methods: An outreach program, modeled after the National Institute on Drug Abuse instructional materials, was developed by student pharmacists and faculty for delivery to the Rochester City School District. Strict regulations prevented admittance into any classrooms until the program was presented to all health teachers at a district-wide meeting. Approval was given to begin working in the classrooms in April 2011. The program was first adopted in two health education classes at Edison Tech (May 2011). Information was presented to students using lecture, small group discussion, and printed materials. The topic covered, marijuana, was based on the teacher\u27s preference. A formative assessment was used to address student perceptions of the program due to the small number of students in each of the classes (n = 5–7). The teacher of record in the classroom conducted the assessment interviews. Results: Student feedback included comments such as, “We liked them and appreciate the time they took to come in,” “I didn\u27t know about pharm parties” and, “I learned a lot”. Feedback from the teacher also reflected the positive impact of the program in his classroom: “There is a perception that the outside community does not care about urbanites and this program at the very root reverses that dynamic very clearly. My hope is that we can develop an ongoing relationship.” Conclusion: The timing of program approval by the school district impeded broad implementation for spring 2011; however, plans are in place for several schools in spring 2012. The opportunity to pilot the program with Edison Tech was beneficial and provided valuable feedback for improvement. Student pharmacists are in a unique position to provide this education and are viewed as approachable and non-threatening to high school–aged students

Genomic surveillance reveals low prevalence of livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in the East of England

Livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LA-MRSA) is an emerging problem in many parts of the world. LA-MRSA has been isolated previously from animals and humans in the United Kingdom (UK), but the prevalence is unknown. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and to describe the molecular epidemiology of LA-MRSA isolated in the East of England (broadly Cambridge and the surrounding area). We accessed whole genome sequence data for 2,283 MRSA isolates from 1,465 people identified during a 12-month prospective study between 2012 and 2013 conducted in the East of England, United Kingdom. This laboratory serves four hospitals and 75 general practices. We screened the collection for multilocus sequence types (STs) and for host specific resistance and virulence factors previously associated with LA-MRSA. We identified 13 putative LA-MRSA isolates from 12 individuals, giving an estimated prevalence of 0.82% (95% CI 0.47% to 1.43%). Twelve isolates were mecC-MRSA (ten CC130, one ST425 and one ST1943) and single isolate was ST398. Our data demonstrate a low burden of LA-MRSA in the East of England, but the detection of mecC-MRSA and ST398 indicates the need for vigilance. Genomic surveillance provides a mechanism to detect and track the emergence and spread of MRSA clones of human importance.Supported by grants from the UKCRC Translational Infection Research (TIR) Initiative, and the Medical Research Council (Grant Number G1000803) with contributions to the Grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research on behalf of the Department of Health, and the Chief Scientist Ofce of the Scottish Government Health Directorate (to Prof. Peacock); a Hospital Infection Society Major Research Grant, and by Wellcome Trust grant number 098051 awarded to the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Tis work was supported by the Wellcome Trust 201344/Z/16/Z. M.E.T. is a Clinician Scientist Fellow, supported by the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Health Foundation, and by the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre