Places in protecting housing per 100 000 inhabitants from 1990 to 2012, Western Europe

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How has the extent of institutional mental healthcare changed in Western Europe? Analysis of data since 1990.

Chow WS¹, Priebe S¹.

¹Unit for Social and Community Psychiatry (WHO Collaborating Centre for Mental Health Services Development), Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.

BMJ Open. 2016 Apr 29;6(4):e010188. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010188.

Forensic beds per 100 000 inhabitants from 1990 to 2012, Western Europe

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How has the extent of institutional mental healthcare changed in Western Europe? Analysis of data since 1990.

Chow WS¹, Priebe S¹.

¹Unit for Social and Community Psychiatry (WHO Collaborating Centre for Mental Health Services Development), Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.

BMJ Open. 2016 Apr 29;6(4):e010188. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010188.

Psychiatric hospital beds per 100 000 inhabitants from 1990 to 2012, Western Europe

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How has the extent of institutional mental healthcare changed in Western Europe? Analysis of data since 1990.

Chow WS¹, Priebe S¹.

¹Unit for Social and Community Psychiatry (WHO Collaborating Centre for Mental Health Services Development), Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.

BMJ Open. 2016 Apr 29;6(4):e010188. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010188.

Western EU prison population per 100 000 inhabitants from 1990 to 2012

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How has the extent of institutional mental healthcare changed in Western Europe? Analysis of data since 1990.

Chow WS¹, Priebe S¹.

¹Unit for Social and Community Psychiatry (WHO Collaborating Centre for Mental Health Services Development), Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.

BMJ Open. 2016 Apr 29;6(4):e010188. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010188.

Characterization of HIV Transmission in South-East Austria

To gain deeper insight into the epidemiology of HIV-1 transmission in South-East Austria we performed a retrospective analysis of 259 HIV-1 partial pol sequences obtained from unique individuals newly diagnosed with HIV infection in South-East Austria from 2008 through 2014. 

After quality filtering, putative transmission linkages were inferred when two sequences were ≤1.5% genetically different. Multiple linkages were resolved into putative transmission clusters. Further phylogenetic analyses were performed using BEAST v1.8.1. Finally, we investigated putative links between the 259 sequences from South-East Austria and all publicly available HIV polymerase sequences in the Los Alamos National Laboratory HIV sequence database. 

We found that 45.6% (118/259) of the sampled sequences were genetically linked with at least one other sequence from South-East Austria forming putative transmission clusters. Clustering individuals were more likely to be men who have sex with men (MSM; p<0.001), infected with subtype B (p<0.001) or subtype F (p = 0.02). Among clustered males who reported only heterosexual (HSX) sex as an HIV risk, 47% clustered closely with MSM (either as pairs or within larger MSM clusters). One hundred and seven of the 259 sequences (41.3%) from South-East Austria had at least one putative inferred linkage with sequences from a total of 69 other countries. 

In conclusion, analysis of HIV-1 sequences from newly diagnosed individuals residing in South-East Austria revealed a high degree of national and international clustering mainly within MSM. Interestingly, we found that a high number of heterosexual males clustered within MSM networks, suggesting either linkage between risk groups or misrepresentation of sexual risk behaviors by subjects.

Below:  Intersection between the Global HIV Type 1 Endemic and South East Austria. A total of 107 (41.3%) of 259 sequences obtained in South-East Austria shared a putative link with sequences from foreign countries/regions. In this heat map with a gradient from 1 to 40 linkages, countries are colored by the number of putative links from yellow to red (i.e. red is 40 or more linkages). Unlinked countries are colored in white. 

Full article at:  http://goo.gl/FfuY0M

By:  

Martin Hoenigl, Antoine Chaillon, Susan J. Little, Sanjay R. Mehta
Division of Infectious Diseases, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California, United States of America

Martin Hoenigl
Section of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria

Martin Hoenigl
Division of Pulmonology, Department of Internal Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria

Harald H. Kessler, Evelyn Stelzl, Karin Weninger
Institute of Hygiene, Microbiology and Environmental Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria

Bernhard Haas
Department of Infectious Diseases, Landeskrankenhaus Graz West, Graz, Austria

Sanjay R. Mehta
Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, San Diego, California, United States of America

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Prevalence & Correlates of Smoking & Readiness to Quit Smoking in People Living with HIV in Austria & Germany

We aimed to investigate the prevalence and correlates of smoking in people living with HIV (PLWHIV) in Germany and Austria and their readiness to quit. 

A total of 447 consecutive patients with confirmed positive HIV status who were treated in different outpatient HIV centres in Austria and Germany were included. Nicotine dependence and stages of change were assessed by standardized questionnaires, and this was confirmed by measuring exhaled carbon monoxide. 

Prevalence of smoking was 49.4%. According to a multivariate logistic regression analysis, higher age and tertiary education level were associated with a lower chance, and occasional and daily smoking of the partner were significantly associated with a higher chance of smoking. Moderate and higher nicotine dependency level, were significantly associated with higher chance, and older age, with lower chance for readiness to quit smoking. Those results may be used to address preventive measures to quit smoking aimed at PLWHIV and the importance of addressing smoking habits.

Below:  Smoking characteristics of participants who smoke

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/q1giMg

By:  

Helmut Brath 
Health Centre South, Vienna, Austria

Igor Grabovac 

Institute of Occupational Medicine, University Clinic for Internal Medicine II, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Horst Schalk 

Schalk-Pichler Group Practice, Vienna, Austria

Olaf Degen 

University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf, Outpatient Centre, Hamburg, Germany

Thomas E. Dorner 

Institute of Social Medicine, Centre for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

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Insufficient Access to Harm Reduction Measures in Prisons in 5 Countries (PRIDE Europe): A Shared European Public Health Concern

Prisoners constitute a high-risk population, particularly for infectious diseases. The aim of this study was to estimate the level of infectious risk in the prisons of five different European countries by measuring to what extent the prison system adheres to WHO/UNODC recommendations.

Following the methodology used in a previous French survey, a postal/electronic questionnaire was sent to all prisons in Austria, Belgium, Denmark and Italy to collect data on the availability of several recommended HIV-HCV prevention interventions and HBV vaccination for prisoners. A score was built to compare adherence to WHO/UNODC recommendations (considered a proxy of environmental infectious risk) in those 4 countries. It ranged from 0 (no adherence) to 12 (full adherence). A second score (0 to 9) was built to include data from a previous French survey, thereby creating a 5-country comparison.

A majority of prisons answered in Austria (100 %), France (66 %) and Denmark (58 %), half in Belgium (50 %) and few in Italy (17 %), representing 100, 74, 89, 47 and 23 % coverage of the prison populations, respectively. Availability of prevention measures was low, with median adherence scores ranging from 3.5 to 4.5 at the national level. These results were confirmed when using the second score which included France in the inter-country comparison. Overall, the adherence score was inversely associated with prison overpopulation rates (p = 0.08).

Using a score of adherence to WHO/UNODC recommendations, the estimated environmental infectious risk remains extremely high in the prisons of the 5 European countries assessed. Public health strategies should be adjusted to comply with the principle of equivalence of care and prevention with the general community.

Below:  Mean, median, min and max values and interquartile range of the global score per country (E4 analysis)

Below:  Mean, median, min and max values and interquartile range of the global score used in the 2009 French survey per country (E5 analysis)

Full article at: http://goo.gl/x6S2QY

By: Laurent Michel^123*, Caroline Lions⁴⁵⁶, Sara Van Malderen⁷, Julie Schiltz⁸, Wouter Vanderplasschen⁸, Karina Holm⁹, Torsten Kolind⁹, Felice Nava¹⁰, Nadja Weltzien¹¹,Andrea Moser¹¹, Marie Jauffret-Roustide¹², Olivier Maguet¹³, Patrizia M Carrieri⁴⁵⁶, Cinzia Brentari¹⁴ and Heino Stöver¹⁴

¹Inserm U1178, Paris, France

²Univ Paris-Sud and Univ Paris Descartes, UMRS1178, Paris, France

³Centre Pierre Nicole, French Red Cross, Paris, France

⁴Inserm U912 (SESSTIM), Marseille, France

⁵Univ Aix Marseille, IRD, UMR-S912, Marseille, France

⁶ORS PACA, Observatoire Régional de la Santé Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur, Marseille, France

⁷Penitentiary administration, Brussels, Belgium

⁸Department of Special Education, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

⁹Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

¹⁰Federserd, Padova, Italy

¹¹Penitentiary administration, Vienna, Austria

¹²Inserm U988, Paris, France

¹³Médecins du Monde, Paris, France

¹⁴University of Applied Sciences, Frankfurt, Germany

   

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Seroprevalence and Incidence of Hepatitis E in Blood Donors in Upper Austria

Below:  Geographical map of Upper Austria

Below:  Prevalence of anti-HEV IgG

A total of 58,915 blood donors were tested for HEV RNA using a commercial HEV RT-PCR Kit. 7 of these donors (0.01%) were PCR-positive with normal laboratory parameters in absence of clinical signs of hepatitis. Viral load determined by quantitative real-time PCR showed a HEV nucleic acid concentration of 2,217 293,635 IU/ml. At follow-up testing (2–11 weeks after donation) all blood donors had negative HEV RNA results. Additionally, genotyping was performed by amplification and sequencing of the ORF1 or ORF2 region of the HEV genome. All HEV RNA positive donor samples revealed a genotype 3 isolate. For the antibody screening, anti-HEV IgM and IgG were detected by ELISA. Follow up serological testing revealed that no donor was seropositive for HEV IgM or IgG antibodies at time of donation. Moreover, we verified the prevalence of anti-HEV IgG in 1,203 of the HEV RNA negative tested blood donors. Overall 13.55% showed positive results for anti-HEV IgG.

In the presented study, we investigated HEV infections in blood donations of Upper Austria over 1 year. We concluded that 1 out of 8,416 blood donations is HEV RNA positive. Seroprevalence of anti HEV IgG results in an age-related increase of 13.55%. Therefore, based on this data, we recommend HEV-PCR screening to prevent transmission of hepatitis E virus by transfusion.

Via: http://ht.ly/Qmcjp  RT @PLoSONE