Development of an optimized method for the detection of airborne viruses with real-time PCR analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Airborne viruses remain one of the major public health issues worldwide. Detection and quantification of airborne viruses is essential in order to provide information regarding public health risk assessment.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>In this study, an optimized new, simple, low cost method for sampling of airborne viruses using Low Melting Agarose (LMA) plates and a conventional microbial air sampling device has been developed. The use of LMA plates permits the direct nucleic acids extraction of the captured viruses without the need of any preliminary elution step. Molecular detection and quantification of airborne viruses is performed using real-time quantitative (RT-)PCR (Q(RT-)PCR) technique. The method has been tested using Adenoviruses (AdVs) and Noroviruses (NoVs) GII, as representative DNA and RNA viruses, respectively. Moreover, the method has been tested successfully in outdoor experiments, by detecting and quantifying human adenoviruses (HAdVs) in the airborne environment of a wastewater treatment plant.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The great advantage of LMA is that nucleic acids extraction is performed directly on the LMA plates, while the eluted nucleic acids are totally free of inhibitory substances. Coupled with QPCR the whole procedure can be completed in less than three (3) hours.</p

Impact on the Quality of Life When Living Close to a Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant

The objective of the study was to investigate the impact on the quality of life of people living close to a municipal wastewater treatment plant. A case control study, including 235 inhabitants living within a 500 m radius by a municipal wastewater treatment plant (cases) and 97 inhabitants living in a different area (controls), was conducted. A standardized questionnaire was self-completed by the participants which examined the general health perception and the overall life satisfaction. Also, the concentration of airborne pathogenic microorganisms in aerosol samples collected around the wastewater treatment plant was investigated. Significant risk for symptoms such as headache, unusual tiredness, and concentration difficulties was recorded and an increased possibility for respiratory and skin diseases was reported. A high rate of the cases being irritable and moody was noticed. Significantly higher gastrointestinal symptoms were also reported among the cases in relation to the controls. The prevalence of pathogenic airborne microorganisms originating from the wastewater treatment plant was reported in high numbers in sampling points close to the wastewater treatment plant. More analytical epidemiological investigations are needed to determine the cause as well as the burden of the diseases to inhabitants living surrounding the wastewater treatment plant

Molecular detection of multiple viral targets in untreated urban sewage from Greece

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Urban sewage virological analysis may produce important information about the strains that cause clinical and subclinical infections in the population, thus supporting epidemiological studies.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In the present study, a twenty one-month survey (November 2007 to July 2009) was conducted in order to evaluate the presence of human adenoviruses (hAdV), hepatitis A viruses (HAV), hepatitis E viruses (HEV), Noroviruses (NoV), and human Polyomaviruses (hPyV) in untreated sewage samples collected from the inlet of Patras' municipal biological wastewater treatment plant, located in southwestern Greece. Nucleic acid amplification techniques were applied for viral nucleic acid detection. Positive samples were confirmed by sequencing and comparative phylogenetic analysis was performed on the isolated viral strains.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In total, viruses were detected in 87.5% (42/48) of sewage samples. AdVs, PyVs, HAV, and NoVs were detected in 45.8% (22/48), 68.8% (33/48), 8.3% (4/48), and 6.3% (3/48) of the samples collected from the plant's inlet, while HEV was not detected at all. Adenovirus types 8 (Ad8), 40 (Ad40) and 41 (Ad41) were recognized, while JC and BK polyomaviruses were recorded. Noroviruses were identified as GII.4. HAV was typed as genotype IA.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our study demonstrates the advantages of environmental surveillance as a tool to elucidate the molecular epidemiology of community circulating viruses. We underline the need of environmental surveillance programs in countries such as Greece with inadequate and problematic epidemiological surveillance system and no environmental surveillance system currently in action.</p

The potential for a concerted system for the rapid monitoring of excess mortality throughout Europe

We present the results of a survey conducted in the context of the project European Monitoring of Excess Mortality for Public Health Action (EuroMOMO), which is being conducted to develop a routine public health mortality monitoring system for the timely detection of excess deaths related to public health threats in Europe. The survey was conducted in 32 European countries using two questionnaires on: i) the existing and planned mortality monitoring systems, and ii) the routine collection of mortality data. Nine existing mortality monitoring systems were identified in seven countries (Belgium, Germany, France (two systems), Italy (two systems), Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland), as well as several systems that were in a pilot or planning state. Each system is described in detail. The results will be used for the subsequent phases of EuroMOMO, in particular for identifying the minimum requirements for the planned European system and for selecting countries to be included in the project's pilot phase.

Molecular Characterization and Phylogenetic Analysis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolates Recovered from Greek Aquatic Habitats Implementing the Double-Locus Sequence Typing Scheme.

The recently described double-locus sequence typing (DLST) scheme implemented to deeply characterize the genetic profiles of 52 resistant environmental Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates deriving from aquatic habitats of Greece. DLST scheme was able not only to assign an already known allelic profile to the majority of the isolates but also to recognize two new ones (ms217-190, ms217-191) with high discriminatory power. A third locus (oprD) was also used for the molecular typing, which has been found to be fundamental for the phylogenetic analysis of environmental isolates given the resulted increased discrimination between the isolates. Additionally, the circulation of acquired resistant mechanisms in the aquatic habitats according to their genetic profiles was proved to be more extent. Hereby, we suggest that the combination of the DLST to oprD typing can discriminate phenotypically and genetically related environmental P. aeruginosa isolates providing reliable phylogenetic analysis at a local level

VITAL, Monitoring and Control for Virus Safe Pork

VITAL is an ongoing (2008-2011) EU funded project on monitoring and control of food-borne viruses. The concept of VITAL is the integrated risk assessment and management of contamination of the European farm to market food chain by pathogenic viruses, such as norovirus and hepatitis E virus. The project’s focus is on the production and processing phase, moving away from the concept of endpoint monitoring towards input monitoring

Interventions about physical activity and diet and their impact on adolescent and young adult cancer survivors: a Prisma systematic review

Purpose: Over the past few decades, the incidence of cancer among adolescents and young adults (AYA) has been increasing. The impact of behaviors, such as physical activity (PA) and nutrition, on disease progression, prognosis, and overall health and quality of life for AYA cancer survivors is of significant importance. This systematic review aims to evaluate the effectiveness of PA and diet interventions for AYA cancer survivors and to critically evaluate existing literature, gaps, and limitations. Methods: A search of literature was conducted in PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, and Google Scholar following the PRISMA guidelines. Twenty-two studies were included from online databases from 2012 to 2022, 13 of which were randomized controlled trials. Results: Most interventions were related to PA, with only four studies including nutrition or Diet interventions. The interventions were generally feasible and acceptable to AYA cancer survivors, and digitally based PA interventions were commonly used. PA interventions mainly comprised aerobic and resistance training and were individualized. Overall, this review found various PA and diet interventions for AYA cancer survivors that were feasible and well-accepted, but gaps in knowledge and design still exist. Conclusions: This systematic review underscores the importance of conducting more research on diet interventions for YCS. Prospero registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/#aboutregpag

Death anxiety and spiritual intelligence as predictors of dissociative posttraumatic stress disorder in Greek first responders: A moderation model.

This cross-sectional study sought to examine spiritual intelligence (SI) as a moderator between death anxiety (DA) and dissociative posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD-DISS) among 1st responders. A convenience sample of 182 1st responders (aid workers and firefighters) was recruited from the regional directorates of Western Greece. Participants provided sociodemographic details and were assessed on SI-, DA-, and PTSD-DISS-related symptomatology. We hypothesized that DA would successfully predict prodromal PTSD-DISS, with SI inversely moderating the relationship between the aforementioned constructs, such that an increase in SI would correspond to a decrease in PTSD-DISS. The overall model confirmed that DA, SI, and their linear combination significantly explained 77% of PTSD-DISS variance. Furthermore, SI significantly moderated the relationship between DA and PTSD-DISS, though in the opposite direction than expected: At low SI values the association between DA and PTSD-DISS was nonexistent (t =.45, p =.07), whereas DA had an incremental effect on PTSD-DISS analogous to increasing SI values (average SI: t =.2, p =.05; high SI: t = 2.54, p =.01). The results indicate diverse trajectories of spiritual (death anxiety−related) experiences and SI in mental health outcomes. Conceptual considerations and suggestions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved) © 2019 American Psychological Associatio