Cross-country migration linked to people who inject drugs challenges the long-term impact of national HCV elimination programmes

To the Editor: As of 2018, the majority of Western European countries – including Spain – have lifted restrictions to therapy based on disease severity in the context of HCV infections.1 Long overdue, most national elimination programmes now also include access to care for people who inject drugs (PWID), 2 who are at the core of ongoing HCV transmission.3 Macías et al.4 have recently shown in this Journal that high viral cure rates can be achieved in this group, hereby providing evidence that targeting PWID in treatment programmes is worthwhile. However, the extent to which such national efforts can reduce the HCV burden not only depends on the uptake into care and treatment success rates, it is also determined by the relative importance of within-country transmission and virus importation from elsewhere. As the chronic nature of most HCV infections hampers reliably reconstructing contact networks from patient interviews, virus genetic data can be a valuable alternative source of information for elucidating the geographic history of virus lineages (e.g. [5], [6]). Using such data, we have recently shown that for the most prevalent subtype among PWID in Spain (40%, 7), HCV1a, infections often link to infections abroad – in recent years >50% link to Western European countries, mostly European Union (EU) member states – as opposed to other infections ..

Health-care guidelines and policies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico: a case of health-inequalities

Background Heterogeneous government responses have been reported in reaction to COVID-19. The aim of this study is to generate an exploratory review of healthcare policies published during COVID-19 by health-care institutions in Mexico. Analyzing policies within different health sub-systems becomes imperative in the Mexican case due to the longstanding fragmentation of the health-care system and health inequalities. Data and Methods Policies purposely included in the analysis were published by four public health institutions (IMSS, ISSSTE, SSA and PEMEX) during the COVID-19 epidemic in Mexico (from February 29th to June 15th, 2020) on official institutional websites. Researchers reviewed each document and classified them into seven policy categories set by the Rapid Research Evaluation and Appraisal Lab (RREAL): public health response, health-care delivery, human resources, health-system infrastructure and supplies, clinical response, health-care management, and epidemiological surveillance. Results Policy types varied by health institution. The largest number of policies were aimed at public health responses followed by health-care delivery and human resources. Policies were mainly published during the community transmission phase. Conclusions The pandemic exposed underlying health-care system inequalities and a reactive rather than prepared response to the outbreak. Additionally, this study outlines potential policy gaps and delays in the response that could be avoided in the future

On the dynamics of the adenylate energy system: homeorhesis vs homeostasis.

Biochemical energy is the fundamental element that maintains both the adequate turnover of the biomolecular structures and the functional metabolic viability of unicellular organisms. The levels of ATP, ADP and AMP reflect roughly the energetic status of the cell, and a precise ratio relating them was proposed by Atkinson as the adenylate energy charge (AEC). Under growth-phase conditions, cells maintain the AEC within narrow physiological values, despite extremely large fluctuations in the adenine nucleotides concentration. Intensive experimental studies have shown that these AEC values are preserved in a wide variety of organisms, both eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Here, to understand some of the functional elements involved in the cellular energy status, we present a computational model conformed by some key essential parts of the adenylate energy system. Specifically, we have considered (I) the main synthesis process of ATP from ADP, (II) the main catalyzed phosphotransfer reaction for interconversion of ATP, ADP and AMP, (III) the enzymatic hydrolysis of ATP yielding ADP, and (IV) the enzymatic hydrolysis of ATP providing AMP. This leads to a dynamic metabolic model (with the form of a delayed differential system) in which the enzymatic rate equations and all the physiological kinetic parameters have been explicitly considered and experimentally tested in vitro. Our central hypothesis is that cells are characterized by changing energy dynamics (homeorhesis). The results show that the AEC presents stable transitions between steady states and periodic oscillations and, in agreement with experimental data these oscillations range within the narrow AEC window. Furthermore, the model shows sustained oscillations in the Gibbs free energy and in the total nucleotide pool. The present study provides a step forward towards the understanding of the fundamental principles and quantitative laws governing the adenylate energy system, which is a fundamental element for unveiling the dynamics of cellular life

The emerging structure of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: where does Evo-Devo fit in?

The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) debate is gaining ground in contemporary evolutionary biology. In parallel, a number of philosophical standpoints have emerged in an attempt to clarify what exactly is represented by the EES. For Massimo Pigliucci, we are in the wake of the newest instantiation of a persisting Kuhnian paradigm; in contrast, Telmo Pievani has contended that the transition to an EES could be best represented as a progressive reformation of a prior Lakatosian scientific research program, with the extension of its Neo-Darwinian core and the addition of a brand-new protective belt of assumptions and auxiliary hypotheses. Here, we argue that those philosophical vantage points are not the only ways to interpret what current proposals to ‘extend’ the Modern Synthesis-derived ‘standard evolutionary theory’ (SET) entail in terms of theoretical change in evolutionary biology. We specifically propose the image of the emergent EES as a vast network of models and interweaved representations that, instantiated in diverse practices, are connected and related in multiple ways. Under that assumption, the EES could be articulated around a paraconsistent network of evolutionary theories (including some elements of the SET), as well as models, practices and representation systems of contemporary evolutionary biology, with edges and nodes that change their position and centrality as a consequence of the co-construction and stabilization of facts and historical discussions revolving around the epistemic goals of this area of the life sciences. We then critically examine the purported structure of the EES—published by Laland and collaborators in 2015—in light of our own network-based proposal. Finally, we consider which epistemic units of Evo-Devo are present or still missing from the EES, in preparation for further analyses of the topic of explanatory integration in this conceptual framework

Exploring Health Science Students’ Notions on Organ Donation and Transplantation: A Multicenter Study

The knowledge acquired during university education about organ donation and transplantation (ODT) decisively influences the information future health professionals transmit. This is important in ODT where the participation of the general public is essential to obtain organs. Objective: To determine notions of Spanish medicine and nursing students on ODT and its relationship with attitude toward ODT. Methods and Design: and design. We conducted a sociologic, multicenter, and observational study. The population for our study consisted of medical and nursing students in Spanish universities. Our database was the Collaborative International Donor Project, stratified by geographic area and academic course. A validated questionnaire (PCID-DTO-RIOS) was self-administered and completed anonymously. Our sample consisted of 9598 medical and 10, 566 nursing students (99% confidence interval; precision of ±1%), stratified by geographic area and year of study. Results: The completion rate for our study was 90%. Only 20% (n=3640) of students thought their notions on ODT were good; 41% (n=7531) thought their notions were normal; 36% (n=6550) thought their notions were scarce. Comparing groups, there were differences between those who believed that their notions on ODT were good (44% nursing vs 56% medical students; P < .000), and those who believed it scarce (54% nursing vs 46% medical students; P < .000). Notions on ODT were related with attitude toward the donation of one''s own organs: those who considered their notions were good were more in favor then those who considered it scarce (88% vs 72%; P < .000). Conclusion: Only 20% of Spanish medical and nursing students thought their notions on ODT were good. Having good knowledge is related to a favorable attitude towards ODT. Receiving specific information on the subject could improve their knowledge about ODT during their training

Parental knowledge of paediatric vaccination

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