Laypersons' perception of common cold and influenza prevention : a qualitative study in Austria, Belgium and Croatia

Background: Common cold and influenza result in an increased number of primary care consultations, significant work/school absences and cause a socio-economic burden. Laypeople's perceptions and knowledge regarding common cold and influenza prevention is poorly understood and under-researched. Objectives: Our study explores laypeople's knowledge of prevention of common cold and influenza across three European countries. Furthermore, it investigates if there is any distinction between prevention activities focussing on reasons impacting the attitude towards influenza vaccination as well as investigating cross-country variation. Methods: In total, 85 semi-structured individual interviews were performed across three European countries (Austria n = 31, Belgium n = 30, Croatia n = 24). Qualitative thematic content analysis was performed. Results: Most participants across all three countries made no distinction between the prevention of the common cold and influenza and referenced the same preventative measures for both conditions. They mainly expressed negative attitudes towards influenza vaccination possibly effective but only intended for high-risk groups (bedridden/older people, chronic patients or health workers). There were very few cross-country differences in results. Conclusion: The perception of health risk of contracting influenza and a primary healthcare physicians' recommendation played an important role in shaping participants' decisions towards vaccination. Primary healthcare physicians are invited to assess and if necessary adjust inappropriate prevention behaviour through their everyday patient consultations as well as add to the knowledge about influenza severity and influenza vaccination benefits to their patients

Complex splicing pattern generates great diversity in human NF1 transcripts

BACKGROUND: Mutation analysis of the neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) gene has shown that about 30% of NF1 patients carry a splice mutation resulting in the production of one or several shortened transcripts. Some of these transcripts were also found in fresh lymphocytes of healthy individuals, albeit typically at a very low level. Starting from this initial observation, we were interested to gain further insight into the complex nature of NF1 mRNA processing. RESULTS: We have used a RT-PCR plasmid library based method to identify novel NF1 splice variants. Several transcripts were observed with specific insertions/deletions and a survey was made. This large group of variants detected in one single gene allows to perform a comparative analysis of the factors involved in splice regulation. Exons that are prone to skipping were systematically analysed for 5' and 3' splice site strength, branch point strength and secondary structure. CONCLUSION: Our study revealed a complex splicing pattern, generating a great diversity in NF1 transcripts. We found that, on average, exons that are spliced out in part of the mRNA have significantly weaker acceptor sites. Some variants identified in this study could have distinct roles and might expand our knowledge of neurofibromin