Monitoring of Influenza Vaccination Coverage among Pregnant Women in Germany Based on Nationwide Outpatient Claims Data: Findings for Seasons 2014/15 to 2019/20

Pregnant women and their infants are at increased risk for severe influenza-related complications. A decade has passed since influenza vaccination was first recommended for pregnant women in Germany in 2010; however, monitoring of vaccination coverage (VC) has not yet been implemented for this target group. Using nationwide outpatient claims data, we here provide results on influenza VC among pregnant women in Germany for seasons 2014/15 to 2019/20. For any given season, pregnant women were defined as women who had undergone prenatal health care in at least two consecutive quarters within a season. VC increased from 9.0% in season 2014/15 to 16.6% in 2019/20 (+84%), while most of the increase occurred from season 2016/17 (VC: 9.9%) onwards (+68%). Consistently across seasons, women in east Germany were 40 to 60% more likely to be vaccinated compared to women residing in west Germany. According to age, the highest VC was observed among women aged 35 to <40 years (2019/20: 18.2%). Despite noticeable increases in influenza VC during recent years, overall coverage remains low among pregnant women. Starting with this analysis, VC among pregnant women in Germany will be monitored on a yearly basis in order to detect trends and identify immunization gaps.Peer Reviewe

Directed PCR-free engineering of highly repetitive DNA sequences

Background: Highly repetitive nucleotide sequences are commonly found in nature e.g. in telomeres, microsatellite DNA, polyadenine (poly(A)) tails of eukaryotic messenger RNA as well as in several inherited human disorders linked to trinucleotide repeat expansions in the genome. Therefore, studying repetitive sequences is of biological, biotechnological and medical relevance. However, cloning of such repetitive DNA sequences is challenging because specific PCR-based amplification is hampered by the lack of unique primer binding sites resulting in unspecific products.Results: For the PCR-free generation of repetitive DNA sequences we used antiparallel oligonucleotides flanked byrestriction sites of Type IIS endonucleases. The arrangement of recognition sites allowed for stepwise and seamless elongation of repetitive sequences. This facilitated the assembly of repetitive DNA segments and open reading frames encoding polypeptides with periodic amino acid sequences of any desired length. By this strategy wecloned a series of polyglutamine encoding sequences as well as highly repetitive polyadenine tracts. Such repetitive sequences can be used for diverse biotechnological applications. As an example, the polyglutamine sequences were expressed as His6-SUMO fusion proteins in Escherichia coli cells to study their aggregation behavior in vitro. The His6-SUMO moiety enabled affinity purification of the polyglutamine proteins, increased their solubility, and allowed controlled induction of the aggregation process. We successfully purified the fusions proteins and provide an example for their applicability in filter retardation assays.Conclusion: Our seamless cloning strategy is PCR-free and allows the directed and efficient generation of highlyrepetitive DNA sequences of defined lengths by simple standard cloning procedures

Disentangling coastal groundwater level dynamics on a global data set

This study aims to identify common hydrogeological patterns and to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying similarities and their link to physiographic, climatic, and anthropogenic controls of coastal groundwater. The most striking aspects of GWL dynamics and their controls were identified through a combination of statistical metrics, calculated from about 8,000 groundwater hydrographs, and pattern recognition, classification, and explanation using machine learning techniques and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP). Overall, four different GWL dynamics patterns emerge, independent of the different seasons, time series lengths, and periods. We show in this study that similar GWL dynamics can be observed around the world with different combinations of site characteristics, but also that the main factors differentiating these patterns can be identified. Three of the identified patterns exhibit high short-term and interannual variability and are most common in regions with low terrain elevation and shallow groundwater depth. Climate and soil characteristics are most important in differentiating these patterns. This study provides new insights into the hydrogeological behavior of groundwater in coastal regions and guides systematic and holistic groundwater monitoring and modelling, motivating to consider various aspects of GWL dynamics when, for example, estimating climate-driven GWL changes &ndash; especially when information on potential controls is limited.</p

Colorectal cancer screening and subsequent incidence of colorectal cancer: Results from the 45 and Up Study

Objective: To investigate the association of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening history and subsequent incidence of CRC in New South Wales, Australia. Design, setting and participants: A total of 196 464 people from NSW recruited to the 45 and Up Study,

VacMap – Dashboard zum Impfgeschehen in Deutschland

Seit nahezu 20 Jahren wertet das Robert Koch-Institut Abrechnungsdaten der Kassenärztlichen Vereinigungen (KVen) für die Erfassung von Impfquoten in der Bevölkerung aus. Die KV-Impfsurveillance wurde zunächst als Gemeinschaftsprojekt mit allen KVen etabliert und im Zuge des Masernschutzgesetzes im Jahr 2020 gesetzlich verankert und verstetigt. Mit VacMap, einer interaktiven Visualisierung der Impfinanspruchnahme von Routineimpfungen, sollen die Ergebnisse der KV-Impfsurveillance für Akteurinnen und Akteure der Impfprävention und die breite Öffent-lichkeit anschaulich aufbereitet, einfach zugänglich und nachnutzbar gemacht werden

Inanspruchnahme der COVID-19-Impfung – Eine Sonderauswertung mit Daten bis Dezember 2021

Das Digitale Impfquotenmonitoring (DIM) wurde entwickelt, um die vollständige und zeitnahe Übermittlung der COVID-19-Impfdaten aus allen Impfstellen sicherzustellen. Es umfasst unter anderem das Meldeportal der kassenärztlichen Bundesvereinigung (KBV), über das Vertragsärztinnen und -ärzte täglich aggregierte Impfdaten übermitteln. Es ist nicht möglich, aus den KBV-Daten eine valide kleinräumige Impfquote zu berechnen und somit die tatsächliche Anzahl der in einem Landkreis ansässigen Geimpften zu bestimmen. Im vorliegenden Bericht wurde versucht, durch den Austausch der KBV-Daten gegen Abrechnungsdaten der Kassenärztlichen Vereinigungen (KVen) eine höhere Vollständigkeit der Impfdaten zu erreichen. Anschließend konnte erstmals die regionale Impfinanspruchnahme basierend auf dem Wohnort der Geimpften und in einer feineren Altersgliederung sowie nach Geschlecht aufgeschlüsselt dargestellt werden.Peer Reviewe

Effect of Fluid Intake on Hydration Status and Skin Barrier Characteristics in Geriatric Patients: An Explorative Study

Background/Aim: Inadequate fluid intake is assumed to be a trigger of water-loss dehydration, which is a major health risk in aged and geriatric populations. Thus, there is a need to search for easy to use diagnostic tests to identify dehydration. Our overall aim was to investigate whether skin barrier parameters could be used for predicting fluid intake and/or hydration status in geriatric patients. Methods: An explorative observational comparative study was conducted in a geriatric hospital including patients aged 65 years and older. We measured 3-day fluid intake, skin barrier parameters, Overall Dry Skin Score, serum osmolality, cognitive and functional health, and medications. Results: Forty patients were included (mean age 78.45 years and 65% women) with a mean fluid intake of 1,747 mL/day. 20% of the patients were dehydrated and 22.5% had an impending dehydration according to serum osmolality. Multivariate analysis suggested that skin surface pH and epidermal hydration at the face were associated with fluid intake. Serum osmolality was associated with epidermal hydration at the leg and skin surface pH at the face. Fluid intake was not correlated with serum osmolality. Diuretics were associated with high serum osmolality. Conclusions: Approximately half of the patients were diagnosed as being dehydrated according to osmolality, which is the current reference standard. However, there was no association with fluid intake, questioning the clinical relevance of this measure. Results indicate that single skin barrier parameters are poor markers for fluid intake or osmolality. Epidermal hydration might play a role but most probably in combination with other tests