Volume 09 · Issue 01 · 2020

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) have long been overlooked in the global health agenda. They are intimately related to poverty, cause important local burdens of disease, but individually do not represent global priorities. Yet, NTDs were estimated to affect close to 2 billion people at the turn of the millennium, with a collective burden equivalent to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, or malaria. A global response was therefore warranted.

The World Health Organization (WHO) conceived an innovative strategy in the early 2000s to combat NTDs as a group of diseases, based on a combination of five public health interventions. Access to essential NTD medicines has hugely improved thanks to strong public-private partnership involving the pharmaceutical sector. The combination of a WHO NTD roadmap with clear targets to be achieved by 2020 and game-changing partner commitments endorsed in the London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases, have led to unprecedented progress in the implementation of large-scale preventive treatment, case management and care of NTDs. The coming decade will see as challenges the mainstreaming of these NTD interventions into Universal Health Coverage and the coordination with other sectors to get to the roots of poverty and scale up transmission-breaking interventions. Chinese expertise with the elimination of multiple NTDs, together with poverty reduction and intersectoral action piloted by municipalities and local governments, can serve as a model for the latter. The international community will also need to keep a specific focus on NTDs in order to further steer this global response, manage the scaling up and sustainment of NTD interventions globally, and develop novel products and implementation strategies for NTDs that are still lagging behind.

The year 2020 will be crucial for the future of the global response to NTDs. Progress against the 2020 roadmap targets will be assessed, a new 2021-2030 NTD roadmap will be launched, and the London Declaration commitments will need to be renewed. It is hoped that during the coming decade the global response will be able to further build on today's successes, align with the new global health and development frameworks, but also keep focused attention on NTDs and mobilize enough resources to see the effort effectively through to 2030.

As reported by the World Health Organization, a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was identified as the causative virus of Wuhan pneumonia of unknown etiology by Chinese authorities on 7 January, 2020. The virus was named as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses on 11 February, 2020. This study aimed to develop a mathematical model for calculating the transmissibility of the virus.

In this study, we developed a Bats-Hosts-Reservoir-People transmission network model for simulating the potential transmission from the infection source (probably be bats) to the human infection. Since the Bats-Hosts-Reservoir network was hard to explore clearly and public concerns were focusing on the transmission from Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market (reservoir) to people, we simplified the model as Reservoir-People (RP) transmission network model. The next generation matrix approach was adopted to calculate the basic reproduction number (R₀) from the RP model to assess the transmissibility of the SARS-CoV-2.

The value of R₀ was estimated of 2.30 from reservoir to person and 3.58 from person to person which means that the expected number of secondary infections that result from introducing a single infected individual into an otherwise susceptible population was 3.58.

Our model showed that the transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 was higher than the Middle East respiratory syndrome in the Middle East countries, similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome, but lower than MERS in the Republic of Korea.

Despite the availability of free tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis and treatment, TB care still generates substantial costs that push people into poverty. We investigated out-of-pocket (OOP) payments for TB care and assessed the resulting economic burden and economic consequences for those with varying levels of household income in eastern China.

A cross-sectional study was conducted among TB patients in the national TB programme networks in eastern China. TB-related direct OOP costs, time loss, and coping strategies were investigated across households in different economic strata. Analysis of Variance was used to examine the differences in various costs, and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare the difference in total costs as a percentage of annual household income.

Among 435 patients, the mean OOP total costs of TB care were USD 2389.5. In the lower-income quartile, OOP payments were lower, but costs as a percentage of reported annual household income were higher. Medical costs and costs prior to treatment accounted for 66.4 and 48.9% of the total costs, respectively. The lower the household income was, the higher the proportion of medical costs to total costs before TB treatment, but the lower the proportion of medical costs patients spent in the intensive phase. TB care caused 25.8% of TB-affected households to fall below the poverty line and caused the poverty gap (PG) to increase by United States Dollar (USD) 145.6. Patients in the poorest households had the highest poverty headcount ratio (70.2%) and PG (USD 236.1), but those in moderately poor households had the largest increase in the poverty headcount ratio (36.2%) and PG (USD 177.8) due to TB care. Patients from poor households were more likely to borrow money to cope with the costs of TB care; however, there were fewer social consequences, except for food insecurity, in poor households.

Medical and pretreatment costs lead to high costs of TB care, especially among patients from the poorest households. It is necessary to train health system staff in general hospitals to promptly identify and refer TB patients. Pro-poor programmes are also needed to protect TB patients from the medical poverty trap.

Mycobacterium leprae and Toxoplasma gondii infections are both neglected tropical diseases highly prevalent in Brazil. Infection with certain parasite species can significantly alter susceptibility to other important pathogens, and/or influence the development of pathology. Here we investigated the possible influence of M. leprae/T. gondii co-parasitism on the manifestation of leprosy and its clinical forms.

Participants (n = 291) were recruited in Campos dos Goytacazes city, Rio de Janeiro state, southeast Brazil, from August 2015 to December 2019 and clinically diagnosed for leprosy. Participants were selected based on the presence (patients) or absence (healthy controls) of the leprosy disease. Contacts of patients were also recruited for this study. Serum samples from patients (n = 199) with leprosy, contacts (n = 40) and healthy controls (n = 52) were investigated for levels of IgM and IgG anti-phenolic glycolipid-1 (PGL-1) by ELISA. Additionally, IgG antibody against soluble Toxoplasma antigen (STAg) was measured in sera samples from leprosy patients, contacts and healthy controls for Toxoplasma gondii serology by ELISA. Anti-PGL-1 IgG and IgM levels were compared using one-way ANOVA Kruskal-Wallis or Mann-Whitney, while Spearman test was used to correlate levels of IgG anti-STAg and IgM/IgG anti-PGL-1 from seropositive and seronegative individuals for T. gondii infection. The risk of T. gondii infection for leprosy disease was assessed using Fisher's test.

Levels of IgM anti-PGL-1 antibodies were significantly higher in multibacillary (MB) patients compared to paucibacillary (PB) patients (P = 0.0068). Higher IgM and IgG levels anti-PGL-1 were detected in patients with the lepromatous forms. The serologic prevalence for T. gondii infection was 74.9%. We detected increased anti-STAg antibody levels in leprosy patients (79.4%), reaching 88.8% within those with lepromatous form of this disease. The leprosy risk increase in T. gondii seropositive individuals was two-fold (odds ratio [OR]= 2.055; 95% confidence intervals [95% CI]: 1.18-3.51) higher than those seronegative, and considering the lepromatous leprosy risk this increase was even dramatic (OR = 4.33; 95% CI: 1.76-9.69) in T. gondii seropositive individuals. Moreover the leprosy risk in T. gondii seropositive individuals was weakly correlated to the levels of IgG anti-STAg and IgM/IgG anti-PGL-1.

Altogether, our results suggest that T. gondii infection may exert immunomodulatory properties that influence to the susceptibility of leprosy, mainly on its more severe clinical form. A better understanding of parasite immunomodulation can ultimately contribute to the development of medical applications.

Malaria surveillance system strengthening is essential in the progress towards malaria elimination. In Nigeria, more attention is being given to this recently as the country is striving towards achieving elimination. However, the surveillance system performance is fraught with challenges including poor data quality with varying magnitude by state. This study evaluated the operation of the Kano State malaria surveillance system and assessed its key attributes.

An observational study design comprising a survey, record review and secondary data analysis, and mixed methods data collection approach were used. Four key stakeholders' and 35 Roll Back Malaria Focal Persons (RBMs) semi-structured interviews on operation of the system and attributes of the surveillance system, were conducted. We analyzed the abstracted 2013-2016 National Health Management Information System web-based malaria datasets. The surveillance system was evaluated using the "2001 United States Centers for Disease Control's updated guidelines for Evaluating Public Health Surveillance Systems". Data were described using means, standard deviation, frequencies and proportions. Chi-squared for linear trends was used.

Overall, 24 RBMs (68.6%) had ≤ 15-year experience on malaria surveillance, 29 (82.9%) had formal training on malaria surveillance; 32 RBMs (91.4%) reported case definitions were easy-to-use, reporting forms were easy-to-fill and data flow channels were clearly defined. Twenty-seven respondents (69.2%) reported data tools could accommodate changes and all RBMs understood malaria case definitions. All respondents (4 stakeholders and 34 RBMs [97.1%]) expressed willingness to continue using the system and 33 (84.6%) reported analyzed data were used for decision-making. Public health facilities constituted the main data source. Overall, 65.0% of funding were from partner agencies. Trend of malaria cases showed significant decline (χ²_trend = 7.49; P = 0.0006). Timeliness of reporting was below the target (≥ 80%), except being 82% in 2012.

Malaria surveillance system in Kano State was simple, flexible, acceptable, useful and donor-driven but the data were not representative of all health facilities. Timeliness of reporting was suboptimal. We recommended reporting from private health facilities, strengthening human resource capacity for supportive supervision and ensuring adequate government funding to enhance the system's representativeness and improve data quality.

Understanding the global spatiotemporal pattern of seasonal influenza is essential for influenza control and prevention. Available data on the updated global spatiotemporal pattern of seasonal influenza are scarce. This study aimed to assess the spatiotemporal pattern of seasonal influenza after the 2009 influenza pandemic.

Weekly influenza surveillance data in 86 countries from 2010 to 2017 were obtained from FluNet. First, the proportion of influenza A in total influenza viruses (P_A) was calculated. Second, weekly numbers of influenza positive virus (A and B) were divided by the total number of samples processed to get weekly positive rates of influenza A (RW_A) and influenza B (RW_B). Third, the average positive rates of influenza A (R_A) and influenza B (R_B) for each country were calculated by averaging RW_A, and RW_B of 52 weeks. A Kruskal-Wallis test was conducted to examine if the year-to-year change in P_A in all countries were significant, and a universal kriging method with linear semivariogram model was used to extrapolate R_A and R_B in all countries.

P_A ranged from 0.43 in Zambia to 0.98 in Belarus, and P_A in countries with higher income was greater than those countries with lower income. The spatial patterns of high R_B were the highest in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia-Pacific region and South America. RW_A peaked in early weeks in temperate countries, and the peak of RW_B occurred a bit later. There were some temperate countries with non-distinct influenza seasonality (e.g., Mauritius and Maldives) and some tropical/subtropical countries with distinct influenza seasonality (e.g., Chile and South Africa).

Influenza seasonality is not predictable in some temperate countries, and it is distinct in Chile, Argentina and South Africa, implying that the optimal timing for influenza vaccination needs to be chosen with caution in these unpredictable countries.

China is facing challenges of the shifting presentation of tuberculosis (TB) from younger to elderly due to an ageing population, longer life expectancy and reactivation disease. However, the burden of elderly TB and influence factors are not yet clear. To fill the gap, we generated a cohort study to measure the magnitude of TB incidence and associated factors among the elderly population aged 65 years and above in China.

In this cohort established in 2013 through a prevalence survey conducted in selected sites, a total of 34076 elderlies without TB were enrolled into two-year follow-up. We used both active and passive case findings to find out all TB patients among them. The person-year (PY) incidence rates for both bacteriologically positive TB and active TB were calculated. Cox proportional regression model was performed to test effect of risk factors, and the population attributable fraction (PAF) of each risk factor contributing to incident TB among elderlies was calculated.

Over the two-year follow-up period, a total of 215 incident active TB were identified, 62 of which were bacteriologically positive. The incidence rates for active TB and bacteriologically positive TB were 481.8 per 100 000 PY (95% CI: 417.4-546.2 per 100 000 PY) and 138.9 per 100 000 PY (95% CI: 104.4-173.5 per 100 000 PY), respectively. Incident cases detected by active case finding were significantly higher (P < 0.001). Male, non-Han nationality, previously treated TB, ex/current smoker and body mass index (BMI) < 18.5 presented as independent predictors for developing TB disease. For developing bacteriologically positive TB, the biggest contribution was from self-reported ex or current smoker (18.06%). And, for developing active TB, the biggest contribution was from non-Han nationality (35.40%), followed by male (26.80%) and age at 75 years and above (10.85%).

Ageing population in China had a high TB incidence rate and risk to develop TB disease, implying that National TB Program (NTP) needs to prioritize for elderly. Active case finding should be applied capture more active TB cases among this particular population, especially for male, non-Han nationality, and those with identified risk factors.

Social Innovation in health initiatives have the potential to address unmet community health needs. For sustainable change to occur, we need to understand how and why a given intervention is effective. Bringing together communities, innovators, researchers, and policy makers is a powerful way to address this knowledge gap but differing priorities and epistemological backgrounds can make collaboration challenging.

To overcome these barriers, stakeholders will need to design policies and work in ways that provide an enabling environment for innovative products and services. Inherently about people, the incorporation of community engagement approaches is necessary for both the development of social innovations and accompanying research methodologies. Whilst the 'appropriate' level of participation is linked to intended outcomes, researchers have a role to play in better understanding how to harness the power of community engagement and to ensure that community perspectives form part of the evidence base that informs policy and practice.

To effectively operate at the intersection between policy, social innovation, and research, all collaborators need to enter the process with the mindset of learners, rather than experts. Methods - quantitative and qualitative - must be selected according to research questions. The fields of implementation research, community-based participatory research, and realist research, amongst others, have much to offer. So do other sectors, notably education and business. In all this, researchers must assume the mantel of responsibility for research and not transfer the onus to communities under the guise of participation. By leveraging the expertise and knowledge of different ecosystem actors, we can design responsive health systems that integrate innovative approaches in ways that are greater than the sum of their parts.

Loiasis is an uncommon and poorly understood parasitic disease outside endemic areas of Africa. The aim of this study was to describe the clinical and biological patterns and treatment of imported loiasis by sub-Saharan migrants diagnosed in Madrid, Spain.

A retrospective study was conducted with sub-Saharan immigrants seen at the Tropical Medicine Unit of the Carlos III Hospital in Madrid, Spain, a reference center, over 19 years. Categorical variables were expressed as frequency counts and percentages. Continuous variables were expressed as the mean and standard deviation (SD) or median and interquartile range (IQR: Q3-Q1). Chi-square tests were used to assess the association between categorical variables. The measured outcomes were expressed as the odds ratio (OR) with a 95% confidential interval. Continuous variables were compared by Student's t-tests or Mann-Whitney U tests. Binary logistic regression models were used. P < 0.05 was considered a statistically significant difference.

One hundred thirty-one migrants from tropical and subtropical areas with loiasis were identified. Forty-nine patients were male (37.4%). The migrants' mean age (±SD) was 42.3 ± 17.3 years, and 124 (94.7%) were from Equatorial Guinea. The median time (IQR) between arrival in Spain and the first consultation was 2 (1-7) months. One hundred fifteen migrants had eosinophilia, and one hundred thirteen had hyper-IgE syndrome. Fifty-seven patients had pruritus (43.5%), and thirty patients had Calabar swelling (22.9%). Seventy-three patients had coinfections with other filarial nematodes (54.2%), and 58 migrants had only Loa loa infections (45.8%). One hundred two patients (77.9%) were treated; 45.1% (46/102) patients were treated with one drug, and 54.9% (56/102) patients were treated with combined therapy. Adverse reactions were described in 14 (10.7%) migrants.

Our patients presented early clinical manifestations and few atypical features. Thus, physicians should systematically consider loiasis in migrants with a typical presentation. However, considering that 72.5% of the patients had only positive microfilaremia without any symptoms, we suggest searching for microfilaremia in every migrant from endemic countries for loiasis presenting with eosinophilia.

Human brucellosis is a neglected public health issue in China and reports of HIV-infected individuals complicated with brucellosis are rare. This report describes the case of an HIV-infected patient complicated with brucellosis. We want to raise awareness of clinical diagnosis of brucellosis among clinicians. Furthermore, we should be more concerned about cases with pyrexia of unknown origin, especially in non-epidemic areas of brucellosis in China.

We encountered the case of a 31-year-old HIV-infected male with a CD4+ T lymphocyte count of approximately 300. On May 1, 2019, the patient had onset of non-specific caustic irregular fever with body temperature reaching 41.0 ℃. He was admitted to two medical institutions in Yunnan with pyrexia of unknown origin. Finally, on day 7 of hospitalization in the Public Health Clinical Medical Center in Chengdu City, he was diagnosed as having brucellosis infection based on blood culture results.

This is the first reported case of brucellosis concomitant with HIV infection in China. Laboratories in infectious disease hospitals and category A level III hospitals in the southern provinces of China should be equipped with reagents for clinical diagnosis of brucellosis and to strengthen the awareness of brucellosis diagnosis in China. Secondly, in provinces with a high incidence of AIDS and brucellosis such as Xinjiang and Henan, it is recommended to implement a joint examination strategy to ensure the early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of this infection.