Incidence and seasonality of Kawasaki disease in children in the Philippines, and its association with ambient air temperature

BackgroundDespite an unknown cause, Kawasaki disease (KD) is currently the primary leading cause of acquired heart disease in developed countries in children and has been increasing in recent years. Research efforts have explored environmental factors related to KD, but they are still unclear especially in the tropics. We aimed to describe the incidence of KD in children, assess its seasonality, and determine its association with ambient air temperature in the National Capital Region (NCR), Philippines from January 2009 to December 2019.MethodsMonthly number of KD cases from the Philippine Pediatric Society (PPS) disease registry was collected to determine the incidence of KD. A generalized linear model (GLM) with quasi-Poisson regression was utilized to assess the seasonality of KD and determine its association with ambient air temperature after adjusting for the relevant confounders.ResultsThe majority of KD cases (68.52%) occurred in children less than five years old, with incidence rates ranging from 14.98 to 23.20 cases per 100,000 population, and a male-to-female ratio of 1.43:1. Seasonal variation followed a unimodal shape with a rate ratio of 1.13 from the average, peaking in March and reaching the lowest in September. After adjusting for seasonality and long-term trend, every one-degree Celsius increase in the monthly mean temperature significantly increased the risk of developing KD by 8.28% (95% CI: 2.12%, 14.80%). Season-specific analysis revealed a positive association during the dry season (RR: 1.06, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.11), whereas no evidence of association was found during the wet season (RR: 1.10, 95% CI: 0.95, 1.27).ConclusionWe have presented the incidence of KD in the Philippines which is relatively varied from its neighboring countries. The unimodal seasonality of KD and its linear association with temperature, independent of season and secular trend, especially during dry season, may provide insights into its etiology and may support enhanced KD detection efforts in the country

Evaluation of the effect of reduced-dose pneumococcal conjugate vaccine schedules on vaccine serotype carriage in children and their caretakers in a naïve population in Vietnam: Protocol for a cluster randomized non-inferiority trial [version 1; peer review: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations]

Introduction: The WHO currently recommends giving pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) as three doses – either three doses in infancy with Pentavalent vaccine (3p+0), or two doses in infancy followed by a booster around 12 months (2p+1). However, their high price is a barrier to introduction and sustainability in low and middle-income countries. We hypothesize that a schedule with a single priming and a booster dose (1p+1) may maintain similar levels of protection for the community by sustaining herd immunity, once circulation of vaccine types has been controlled. Methods and analysis: We will conduct a cluster randomized trial with four intervention arms (1p+1, 0p+1, 2p+1, 3p+0) and three unvaccinated clusters in the 27 communes of Nha Trang, central Vietnam. A PCV catch-up vaccination campaign to all children under three years of age will be performed at the start of the trial. The primary endpoint is non-inferiority of the1p+1 schedule if compared to the WHO standard 2p+1 and 3p+0 schedules in reducing vaccine serotype carriage prevalence in infants. We will also explore impact of 0p+1 schedule. A baseline and annual pneumococcal carriage surveys of 6480 participants per survey covering infants, toddlers and their mothers will be conducted. Ethics and dissemination: Ethical approvals were obtained from the ethical review committees of Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University (151203149-2) and the Ministry of Health, Vietnam (1915/QD-BYT). The results, interpretation and conclusions will be presented at national and international conferences, and published in peer-reviewed open access journals. Trial registration number: NCT0296123

Reasons for Increased Caesarean Section Rate in Vietnam: A Qualitative Study among Vietnamese Mothers and Health Care Professionals.

The Caesarean section rate in urban Vietnam is 43% in 2014, which is more than twice the recommended rate (10%-15%) by the World Health Organization. This qualitative study aims to identify the perceptions of pregnant mothers and health care professionals on the medical and social factors related to the increased Caesarean section rate in Vietnam. A qualitative descriptive study was conducted among pregnant mothers and healthcare professionals at two public hospitals in Nha Trang city. A content analysis was adopted in order to identify social and medical factors. As a result, 29 pregnant women and 19 health care professionals were invited to participate in the qualitative interviews. Private interviews were conducted with 10 women who wished to have a Caesarean section, and the others participated in focus group interviews. The main themes of the social factors were 'request for Caesarean section,' 'mental strain of obstetricians,' and 'decision-making process.' To conclude, this qualitative study suggests that there were unnecessary caesarean sections without a clear medical indication, which were requested by women and family members. Psychological fear occurred among women and family, and doctors were the main determinants for driving the requests for Caesarean section, which implies that education and emotional encouragement is necessary by midwives. In addition, a multi-faced approach including a mandatory reporting system in clinical fields and involving family members in antenatal education is important

Role of temperature, influenza and other local characteristics in seasonality of mortality: a population-based time-series study in Japan

Objectives: To investigate the extent to which temperature and influenza explained seasonality of mortality in Japan and to examine the association of the seasonality with prefecture-specific characteristics.Design: We conducted time-series analysis to estimate the seasonal amplitude before and after adjusting for temperature and/or influenza-like illness (ILI). Next, we applied linear mixed effect models to investigate the association of seasonal amplitudes with each indicator on prefecture-specific characteristics on climate, demographic and socioeconomic factors and adaptations.Setting: 47 prefectures in JapanParticipants: Deaths for all-cause, circulatory, and respiratory disease between 1999 and 2015.Outcome measures: Peak-to-trough ratio (PTR, a measure of seasonal amplitude).Results: The nationwide unadjusted-PTRs for all-cause, circulatory and respiratory mortality were 1.29 (95% CIs: 1.28 to 1.31), 1.55 (95% CI: 1.52 to 1.57) and 1.45 (95% CI: 1.43 to 1.48), respectively. These PTRs reduced substantially after adjusting for temperature but very little after a separate adjustment for ILI. Furthermore, seasonal amplitudes varied between prefectures. However, there was no strong evidence for the associations of PTR with the indicators on prefecture-specific characteristics.Conclusions: Seasonality of mortality is primarily driven by temperature in Japan. The spatial variation in seasonal amplitudes was not associated with prefecture-specific characteristics. Although further investigations are required to confirm our findings, this study can help us gain a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying seasonality of mortality

Evolutionary dynamics of influenza B strains detected from paediatric acute respiratory infections in central Vietnam

Influenza virus B belongs to the family Orthomyxoviridae with segmented negative-sense RNA genomes. Since 1970s, influenza B has diverged intoVictoria and Yamagata, which differs in antigenic and evolutionary characteristics. Yet, molecular-epidemiological information of influenza B from developing nations is limited. In central Vietnam, influenza A subtype-specific circulation pattern and clinical characteristics were previously described. However, molecular evolutionary characteristics of influenza B has not been discussed to date. We utilized the influenza B positives obtained from paediatric ARI surveillance during 2007?2013. Influenza B HA and NA genes were amplified, sequenced, and phylogenetic/molecular evolutionary analysis was performed using Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian MCMC. Phylodynamics analysis was performed with Bayesian Skyline Plot (BSP). Furthermore, we performed selection pressure analysis and estimated N-glycosylation sites. In the current study, overall positive rate for influenza B was 3.0%, and Victoria lineage immediately became predominant in post-A/H1N1pdm09 period. The noticeable shift in Victoria lineage WHO Group occurred. With respect to the evolutionary rate (substitutions/site/year), Victoria lineage HA gene was evolving faster than Yamagata lineage (2.43 × 10?3 vs 2.00 × 10?3). Furthermore, the evolutionary rate of Victoria Group 5 was greater than Group 1. BSP presented the rapid growth in Effective Population Size (EPS) of Victoria lineage occurred soon after the 1st A/H1N1pdm09 case was detected whereas the EPS of Yamagata lineage was stable for both genes. N-glycosylation pattern between lineages and among WHO Groups were slightly different, and HA gene had a total of 6 amino acid substitutions under positive section pressure (4 for Victoria and 2 for Yamagata). The current results highlight the importance of Victoria lineage in post-A/H1N1pdm09 period. Difference in evolutionary characteristics and phylodynamics may indicate lineage and WHO Group-specific evolutionary dynamics. It is necessary to further continue the molecular-epidemiological surveillance in local setting to gain a better understanding of local evolutionary characteristics of influenza B strains

Conjunctival Sac Microbiome in Infectious Conjunctivitis

Acute bacterial conjunctival infections are common, and this study identified the conjunctival bacterial community in infectious conjunctivitis cases seen at the outpatient clinic of Khanh Hoa General Hospital in Nha Trang, Vietnam from October 2016 through December 2017. Conjunctival swabs were collected and tested using conventional culture, PCR, and 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing. The study included 47 randomly selected patients. More than 98% of all DNA reads represented five bacterial phyla. Three of these phyla constituted 92% of all sequences (Firmicutes (35%), Actinobacteria (31%), and Proteobacteria (26%)). At the genus level, there were 12 common genera that constituted about 61% of all sequence reads. Seven of those genera were common (Streptococcus (10%), Cutibacterium (10%), Staphylococcus (7%), Nocardioides (7%), Corynebacterium 1 (5%), Anoxybacillus (5%), and Acinetobacter (5%)), which encompassed 49% of all reads. As for diversity analysis, there was no difference on PERMANOVA analysis (unweighted UniFrac) for sex (p = 0.087), chemosis (p = 0.064), and unclassified eyedrops (p = 0.431). There was a significant difference in cases with bilateral conjunctivitis (p = 0.017) and for using antibiotics (p = 0.020). Of the predominant phyla, Firmicutes had the highest abundance in bacterial conjunctivitis in this study. Pseudomonas as a resident commensal microbiota may have an important role in the prevention of infection

Characteristics of Patent Ductus Arteriosus in Congenital Rubella Syndrome

This study investigated the characteristics of congenital rubella syndrome (CRS)-associated cardiac complications, particularly patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). We reviewed the medical records of patients with CRS who were admitted to the Children’s Hospital 1 in Vietnam between December 2010 and December 2012, and patients with CRS who underwent PDA transcatheter occlusion therapy at the cardiology department between December 2009 and December 2015. We compared the characteristics of PDA treated with transcatheter closure between children with CRS (CRS-PDA) and those without CRS (non-CRS-PDA) who underwent PDA transcatheter closure between July 2014 and December 2015. One-hundred-and-eight children with CRS were enrolled. Cardiac defects (99%), cataracts (72%), and hearing impairment (7%) were detected. Fifty CRS-PDA and 290 non-CRS-PDA patients were examined. CRS-PDA patients had smaller median birthweight (p < 0.001), more frequent pulmonary (p < 0.001) and aortic stenosis (p < 0.001), higher main pulmonary artery pressure, and higher aortic pressure in systole/diastole (p < 0.001 for each) than did non-CRS-PDA patients. The proportion of tubular-type PDA was higher in CRS-PDA patients (16%) than in non-CRS-PDA patients (3%) (p = 0.020). Tubular-type PDA was frequently seen in patients with CRS and accompanied by pulmonary/systemic hypertension and pulmonary/aortic stenosis; in these patients, more cautious device selection is needed for transcatheter PDA closure

Influenza B associated paediatric acute respiratory infection hospitalization in central vietnam

Background: Influenza B is one of the major etiologies for acute respiratory infections (ARI) among children worldwide; however, its clinical-epidemiological information is limited. We aimed to investigate the hospitalization incidence and clinical-epidemiological characteristics of influenza B-associated paediatric ARIs in central Vietnam. Methods: We collected clinical-epidemiological information and nasopharyngeal swabs from ARI children hospitalized at Khanh Hoa General Hospital, Nha Trang, Vietnam from February 2007 through June 2013. Nasopharyngeal samples were screened for 13 respiratory viruses using Multiplex-PCRs. Influenza B-confirmed cases were genotyped by Haemagglutinin gene sequencing. We analyzed the clinical-epidemiological characteristics of influenza B Lineages (Victoria/Yamagata) and WHO Groups. Results: In the pre-A/H1N1pdm09 period, influenza B-associated ARI hospitalization incidence among children under five was low, ranging between 14.7 and 80.7 per 100 000 population. The incidence increased to between 51.4 and 330 in the post-A/H1N1pdm09. Influenza B ARI cases were slightly older with milder symptoms. Both Victoria and Yamagata lineages were detected before the A/H1N1pdm09 outbreak; however, Victoria lineage became predominant in 2010-2013 (84% Victoria vs 16% Yamagata).Victoria and Yamagata lineages did not differ in demographic and clinical characteristics. In Victoria lineage, Group1 ARI cases were clinically more severe compared to Group5, presenting a greater proportion of wheeze, tachypnea, and lower respiratory tract infection. Conclusions: The current results highlight the increased incidence of influenza B-related ARI hospitalization among children in central Vietnam in the post-A/H1N1pdm09 era. Furthermore,the difference in clinical severity between Victoria lineage Group1 and 5 implies the importance of influenza B genetic variation on clinical presentation

Phylogenetic inference of pneumococcal transmission from cross-sectional data, a pilot study.

Background: Inference on pneumococcal transmission has mostly relied on longitudinal studies which are costly and resource intensive. Therefore, we conducted a pilot study to test the ability to infer who infected whom from cross-sectional pneumococcal sequences using phylogenetic inference. Methods: Five suspected transmission pairs, for which there was epidemiological evidence of who infected whom, were selected from a household study. For each pair, Streptococcus pneumoniae full genomes were sequenced from nasopharyngeal swabs collected on the same day. The within-host genetic diversity of the pneumococcal population was used to infer the transmission direction and then cross-validated with the direction suggested by the epidemiological records. Results: The pneumococcal genomes clustered into the five households from which the samples were taken. The proportion of concordantly inferred transmission direction generally increased with increasing minimum genome fragment size and single nucleotide polymorphisms. We observed a larger proportion of unique polymorphic sites in the source bacterial population compared to that of the recipient in four of the five pairs, as expected in the case of a transmission bottleneck. The only pair that did not exhibit this effect was also the pair that had consistent discordant transmission direction compared to the epidemiological records suggesting potential misdirection as a result of false-negative sampling. Conclusions: This pilot provided support for further studies to test if the direction of pneumococcal transmission can be reliably inferred from cross-sectional samples if sequenced with sufficient depth and fragment length

The seroprevalence, waning rate, and protective duration of anti-diphtheria toxoid IgG antibody in Nha Trang, Vietnam

Background: Diphtheria cases reported in Central Vietnam since 2013 were mainly in children aged 6-15 years, which may reflect an immunity gap. There is little information on population immunity against diphtheria in countries without a school-entry booster dose. We aimed to measure the age-stratified seroprevalence of anti-diphtheria toxoid antibodies, quantify the change in antibody levels in individuals over time, and estimate the length of protective immunity after vaccination in well-vaccinated communities in Vietnam.Methods: An age-stratified seroprevalence survey among individuals aged 0-55 years was conducted at Nha Trang, Vietnam. The same participants were followed up after two years to quantify the change in antibody levels. IgG was measured using ELISA. The length of protective immunity after vaccination was estimated using a mixed-effect linear regression model with random intercept.Results: Overall seroprevalence was 26% (95%CI:20-32%). Age-stratified seroprevalence was 68% (95%CI:4-11%), 7% (95%CI:4-11%), 12% (95%CI:7-19%), 33% (95%CI:27-40%), and 28% (95%CI:17-43%) among those aged ≤5, 6-15,16-25, 26-35, and 36-55 years, respectively. The antibody levels declined by 47% (95%CI:31-59%) over two years, and the predicted duration of vaccine-derived protective immunity after receiving four doses was 4.3 years (95%CI:3.5–5.3) among participants aged six years or younger.Conclusion: Given the low seroprevalence and short period of vaccine protection, a school-entry booster dose (5-7 years) is recommended in Vietnam