Trends in Compulsory Licensing of Pharmaceuticals Since the Doha Declaration: A Database Analysis

Reed Beall and Randall Kuhn describe their findings from an analysis of use of compulsory licenses for pharmaceutical products by World Trade Organization members since 1995

True versus False Parasite Interactions: A Robust Method to Take Risk Factors into Account and Its Application to Feline Viruses

International audienceBACKGROUND: Multiple infections are common in natural host populations and interspecific parasite interactions are therefore likely within a host individual. As they may seriously impact the circulation of certain parasites and the emergence and management of infectious diseases, their study is essential. In the field, detecting parasite interactions is rendered difficult by the fact that a large number of co-infected individuals may also be observed when two parasites share common risk factors. To correct for these "false interactions", methods accounting for parasite risk factors must be used. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In the present paper we propose such a method for presence-absence data (i.e., serology). Our method enables the calculation of the expected frequencies of single and double infected individuals under the independence hypothesis, before comparing them to the observed ones using the chi-square statistic. The method is termed "the corrected chi-square." Its robustness was compared to a pre-existing method based on logistic regression and the corrected chi-square proved to be much more robust for small sample sizes. Since the logistic regression approach is easier to implement, we propose as a rule of thumb to use the latter when the ratio between the sample size and the number of parameters is above ten. Applied to serological data for four viruses infecting cats, the approach revealed pairwise interactions between the Feline Herpesvirus, Parvovirus and Calicivirus, whereas the infection by FIV, the feline equivalent of HIV, did not modify the risk of infection by any of these viruses. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This work therefore points out possible interactions that can be further investigated in experimental conditions and, by providing a user-friendly R program and a tutorial example, offers new opportunities for animal and human epidemiologists to detect interactions of interest in the field, a crucial step in the challenge of multiple infections

Minorías frente al alza en la criminalidad: Percepción de seguridad de la comunidad lesbiana, gay, bisexual y transgénero (LGBT) en Puerto Rico

Este artículo, primero de una serie, discute los resultados descriptivos de la investigación “Minorías frente al alza en la criminalidad: Percepción de seguridad de la comunidad lesbiana, gay, bisexual y trangénero (LGBT) en Puerto Rico”. Este estudio explora cuán segura se siente la comunidad LGBT de San Juan, Puerto Rico. En esta ocasión se discutirán los hallazgos de los componentes de seguridad, victimización y sociodemográficos del estudio. El estudio contó con la participación de 103 personas. Estos(as) participantes revelaron sentirse inseguros(as) en 73% de los casos. Por otro lado, el 44% de la muestra manifestó haber temido por su vida en un lugar público, esto por ser una persona LGBT. El alza en la criminalidad, los llamados “crímenes de odio” y las políticas públicas de seguridad del Estado, son temas que se abordan a la luz de los resultados

Monitoring DNA Damage and Repair in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells of Lung Cancer Radiotherapy Patients

Thoracic radiotherapy (RT) is required for the curative management of inoperable lung cancer, however, treatment delivery is limited by normal tissue toxicity. Prior studies suggest that using radiation-induced DNA damage response (DDR) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) has potential to predict RT-associated toxicities. We collected PBMC from 38 patients enrolled on a prospective clinical trial who received definitive fractionated RT for non-small cell lung cancer. DDR was measured by automated counting of nuclear γ-H2AX foci in immunofluorescence images. Analysis of samples collected before, during and after RT demonstrated the induction of DNA damage in PBMC collected shortly after RT commenced, however, this damage repaired later. Radiation dose to the tumour and lung contributed to the in vivo induction of γ-H2AX foci. Aliquots of PBMC collected before treatment were also irradiated ex vivo, and γ-H2AX kinetics were analyzed. A trend for increasing of fraction of irreparable DNA damage in patients with higher toxicity grades was revealed. Slow DNA repair in three patients was associated with a combined dysphagia/cough toxicity and was confirmed by elevated in vivo RT-generated irreparable DNA damage. These results warrant inclusion of an assessment of DDR in PBMC in a panel of predictive biomarkers that would identify patients at a higher risk of toxicity