Meteorological factors affect the hand, foot, and mouth disease epidemic in Qingdao, China, 2007-2014.

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) has caused public health concerns worldwide. We aimed to investigate the effect of meteorological factors on the HFMD epidemic in Qingdao, a port city in China. A total of 78641 cases were reported in Qingdao between January 2007 and December 2014. Of those, 71084 (90·39%) occurred in children aged 0-5 years, with an incidence of 1691·2/100000. The incidence increased from early spring, peaked between spring and summer, and decreased in late summer. Aetiological agents in all severe cases and selected mild cases were characterized by examining throat swabs. Except for enterovirus 71 (EV71) and coxsackievirus A16 (CA16), other EVs caused >50% of the HFMD cases between 2011 and 2014. EV71 was more frequent in the off-peak months than in the peak months and prone to causing more severe cases compared to CA16 (χ 2 = 46·3, P < 0·001). CA10 caused more severe HFMD than did CA6 (χ 2 = 20·49, P < 0·001) and all non-CA10 EVs (χ 2 = 41·01, P < 0·001). Community-derived HFMD cases accounted for 65·11%. Spearman rank correlation analysis showed that HFMD incidence in children aged 0-5 years was positively correlated with atmospheric temperature (r s = 0·77, P < 0·001), relative humidity (r s = 0·507, P < 0·001), and precipitation (r s = 0·328, P < 0·001). Climate changes and CA10 surveillance in communities should be integrated into the current prophylactic programme.

[Investigation of contamination of SARS-CoV-2 in imported frozen seafood from a foreign cargo ship and risk factors for infection in stevedores in Qingdao].

Objective: To investigate the contamination status of SARS-CoV-2 in imported frozen seafood from a Russia cargo ship in Qingdao and to analyze the risk factors for infection in local stevedores. Methods: The method of "two-stage, full coverage and mixed sampling" was used to collect the seafood packaging samples for the nucleic acid detection of SARS-CoV-2 by real-time fluorescent quantitative RT-PCR. A unified questionnaire was designed to investigate 71 stevedores in two shifts through telephone interview. The stevedores were divided into two groups, with 23 in the shit with two infections was group A and 48 in the shift without infection was group B. Software Epi Info7.2 was used to identify the risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infections in the stevedores. Results: In the frozen seafood from a Russia cargo ship, the total positive rate of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid in the frozen seafood was 11.53% (106/919). The positive rate of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid in the frozen seafood unloaded by group A (14.29%,70/490) was significantly higher than that in the frozen seafood unloaded by group B (8.39%,36/429)(χ2=7.79,P=0.01) and the viral loads detected in the frozen seafood unloaded by group A were higher than those detected in the frozen seafood unloaded by group B. The scores of personal protection and behaviors in the stevedores in group A were significantly lower than those in group B (P<0.05), and toilet use, smoking and improper hand washing before meals were the risk factors for the infection. Conclusions: The imported frozen seafood was contaminated by SARS-CoV-2 and the contamination distribution was uneven. Supervision and management of personal occupational protection and behaviors of workers engaged in imported frozen food transportation should be strengthened. It is suggested that a closed-loop monitoring and management system for the whole process of "fishing-transport- loading/unloading" should be established by marine fishery authority.

[Synthesis and antitumor activity of beta-germanyl-alpha-amino acid derivatives].

Some beta-germanyl-alpha-amino acid derivatives were prepared from the reaction of HGeCl3 with substituted oxazolines. The compositions of the above compounds were studied using IR, element analysis and so on. Experimental results were as follows: for 1-substituted-2-amino-2-carboxyethylgermanium susquioxide (such as IIIb), the po LD50 for mice was found to be above 10 g/kg. When given ip, a maximum inhibition of 50% of the growth of S180 was obtained for IIIb, whereas an inhibition of 42% was achieved for 5-Fu under the same experimental condition.