Associations and community health workers: analysis and time trends over ten years of training-action

Objective To analyse the profile of the persons and associations that participated in the course, quantify peer education activities and analyse their evolution. Method A quantitative study using an analysis of the course records from 2009 to 2018 was designed for this purpose inside mihsalud program designed to promote health amongst persons in vulnerable situations in the city of Valencia (Spain). It offers a yearly training-action course of community health workers (CHW) that is attended by persons who have been proposed by associations. The associations were defined according to their population (immigrant, local or intercultural) and the CHWs according to gender, country of birth, year of course, association and continuity after training. Means and confidence intervals were calculated at 95% and a bivariate analysis was conducted in order to compare the activities that took place in 2009 to 2013 with those of 2014 to 2018. The time trends were analysed by applying linear regression models that included the different years studied as the dependent variable. Results 201 CHW of 31 nationalities were trained, 81.6% (95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 75.5-86.7] were women. Eighty-two associations participated, 51.2% (95% CI: 39.9-62.4] worked with culturally diverse populations. Participation by associations (p = .017) and CHWs (p = .377) increased in a statistically significant manner over the years. After the course, 35.3% (95% CI: 28.7-42.4] of the CHWs continued to collaborate voluntarily in the associations. Conclusions The results of the CHW training-action course improve over time given that a significant increase in participation by associations and women can be seen, along with a greater number of activities completed during the training. One effect of this is that CHWs are contracted or carry out voluntary activities in the associations

Spread of a SARS-CoV-2 variant through Europe in the summer of 2020.

Following its emergence in late 2019, the spread of SARS-CoV-21,2 has been tracked by phylogenetic analysis of viral genome sequences in unprecedented detail3–5. Although the virus spread globally in early 2020 before borders closed, intercontinental travel has since been greatly reduced. However, travel within Europe resumed in the summer of 2020. Here we report on a SARS-CoV-2 variant, 20E (EU1), that was identified in Spain in early summer 2020 and subsequently spread across Europe. We find no evidence that this variant has increased transmissibility, but instead demonstrate how rising incidence in Spain, resumption of travel, and lack of effective screening and containment may explain the variant’s success. Despite travel restrictions, we estimate that 20E (EU1) was introduced hundreds of times to European countries by summertime travellers, which is likely to have undermined local efforts to minimize infection with SARS-CoV-2. Our results illustrate how a variant can rapidly become dominant even in the absence of a substantial transmission advantage in favourable epidemiological settings. Genomic surveillance is critical for understanding how travel can affect transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and thus for informing future containment strategies as travel resumes. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited

Evolución de los principales diagnósticos al alta hospitalaria de la población penitenciaria de la provincia de Valencia, 2000-2009 Evolution of the main diagnoses of hospital discharges amongst the prison population in Valencia, 2000-2009

El objetivo de nuestro trabajo ha sido cuantificar la demanda hospitalaria de origen penitenciario y caracterizar los principales diagnósticos como una medida de prevalencia y las patologías transmisibles y su evolución durante el periodo 2000-09. A partir del registro de altas del Consorcio Hospital General Universitario que atiende por convenio la demanda hospitalaria de los centros penitenciarios de Valencia provincia, se realizo un estudio transversal de las frecuencias de los diagnósticos y su distribución de acuerdo a las características personales. Se recuperaron 2.415 altas que tras la eliminación de inconsistencias aportaron 2.332 episodios de hospitalización. La edad media de los sujetos evolucionó desde 32,8 a 39,7 años. Los diagnósticos principales y secundarios agrupados (tabla 2) más frecuentes fueron: 1º. VIH (34,05%), 2º. Hepatitis C (14,67%), 3º. Dependencia Drogas (10,25%), 4º. Neumonías (8,58%), 5º. TBC (7,46%). A lo largo de la década se ha producido un cambio en el patrón infeccioso de la población penitenciaria que podemos considerar relacionado con: el envejecimiento relativo de la población reclusa, la sustitución de la vía intravenosa por otras vías no invasivas, el cambio relativo del origen nacional de los reclusos y los avances terapéuticos en el tratamiento de la infección por VIH.<br>The aim of our study was to quantify the hospital demand originating from prisons and describe the main diagnoses as a measure of prevalence, as well as communicable diseases and their evolution during the period 2000-09. Using the discharge records of the University General Hospital under the terms of an agreement that meets the demand for hospitals from prisons in the province of Valencia, we carried out a cross-sectional study of the frequency distribution of diagnoses and their distribution according to personal characteristics. More than 2,415 discharges were recovered, which, after the removal of inconsistencies, provided 2,332 episodes of hospitalization. The average age of the subject ranged from 32.8 to 39.5 years. The most common grouped primary and secondary diagnoses (table 2) were: 1. HIV (34.05%), 2. Hepatitis C (14.67%), 3 º. Drug dependence (10.25%), 4 º. Pneumonia (8.58%), 5. TBC (7.46%). In the last decade there has been a change in the patterns of infection in the prison population. This may be related to: the relative aging of the prison population, the replacement of intravenous use by other non-invasive means, the change of nationality of prisoners and therapeutic advances in the treatment of HIV infection