Epidemiological characteristics and spatio-temporal analysis of brucellosis in Shandong province, 2015-2021.

BACKGROUND: Brucellosis is one of the major public health problems in China, it not only causes huge economic losses to the society, but also threatens the human's physical and mental health. The reported cases of brucellosis in Shandong province were at a high level, therefore, it is necessary for us to understand the epidemic characteristics and distribution trend of Brucellosis in Shandong province. This study aims to describe the epidemiological characteristics and spatial clustering characteristics of brucellosis in Shandong Province, provide a reference for the scientific prevention and control. METHODS: Human brucellosis data in Shandong province from 2015 to 2021 were obtained from the China Information System for Disease Control and Prevention, the data were analyzed by descriptive epidemiological methods, spatial autocorrelation analysis and spatial-temporal cluster analysis methods use ArcGIS and SaTScan software, the results were presented in ArcMap. RESULTS: A total of 22,251 human cases of brucellosis were reported, the annual incidence ranged between 2.41/100,000 and 4.07/100,000 from 2015 to 2021 in Shandong province, incidence has been decreasing year by year, while there was a significant increase in 2021. The distribution of brucellosis was of a seasonal trend, mainly concentrating during March to August. The age of the cases was mainly concentrated in the 30-74 age ranges, the average annual incidence rate was significantly higher in males than in females. The spatial analysis showed that the epidemics were mainly concentrated in the north and southwest. For the spatial autocorrelation analysis, a high global autocorrelation was observed at the county level, and the high-high clusters mainly distributed in the north and southwest region. For the spatio-temporal scanning, the most likely cluster areas mainly distributed in the north area, and then gradually moved southward, and the radius of clustered narrowed. CONCLUSIONS: Human brucellosis remains a common challenge, particularly in northern region in spring and summer. More disease prevention and control measures should be taken in high-risk populations, and such higher-risk susceptible areas to reduce the incidence of brucellosis and ensure the health of the people.

Investigation on an outbreak of cutaneous anthrax in a county of Shandong Province, China, 2021.

BACKGROUND: In order to verify the existence of an anthrax outbreak, determine its scope, grasp the epidemiological characteristics and find out the cause of the outbreak and recommend preventive and control measures. METHODS: Etiological hypothesis was developed through descriptive epidemiological methods. Hypotheses were tested by analyzing epidemiological methods by comparing the differences in the incidence of different exposure types. Nucleic acid detection and bacterial isolation and culture in the BSL-2 laboratories. SPSS 21 was used to conduct statistical analysis. RESULTS: A total of 126 family, workshop, shop environment samples and meat samples were collected, and 6 samples were collected from skin lesions of suspected cutaneous anthrax cases. 41 samples were positive by rPCR and 8 strains of Bacillus anthracis were cultivated. Participated in slaughtering, cutting beef of sick cattles was significantly associated with cutaneous anthrax (RR 3.75, 95% CI 1.08-13.07), this behavior is extremely dangerous. CONCLUSIONS: Comprehensive analysis of laboratory results and epidemiological survey results and environmental assessments, we judge this epidemic to be an outbreak of cutaneous anthrax, associated with slaughtering and other processes from infected cattle imported from other province.

Dietary calcium intake and the risk of metabolic syndrome: evidence from observational studies.

OBJECTIVE: Epidemiological investigations evaluating the association of dietary Ca intake with metabolic syndrome (MetS) risk have yielded controversial results. Therefore, a meta-analysis was conducted to quantitatively summarize the association between dietary Ca intake and the risk of MetS. DESIGN: PubMed, Embase and Web of Science were searched for relevant articles published up to October 2018. The pooled OR and 95 % CI were calculated with a random-effects model. SETTING: Meta-analysis.ParticipantsNine cross-sectional studies. RESULTS: A total of nine articles with fifteen studies for dietary Ca intake were finally included in the meta-analysis. The combined OR with 95 % CI of MetS for the highest v. lowest category of dietary Ca intake was 0·80 (95 % CI 0·70, 0·91). For dose-response analysis, a non-linear relationship was found between dietary intake of Ca and risk of MetS (P non-linearity<0·001). The threshold for dietary Ca intake was 280 mg/d (OR=0·87; 95 % CI 0·82, 0·93), reducing the risk of MetS by 13 %. CONCLUSIONS: The present meta-analysis suggests that dietary Ca intake might reduce the risk of MetS, which needs to be further confirmed by larger prospective cohort studies.

A rare waterborne outbreak of Bacillus paranthracis in Shandong province, China, 2020: epidemiologic survey, genomic insights, and virulence characteristics.

Bacillus paranthracis, a Gram-positive conditional pathogen of Bacillus cereus group species, is capable of causing foodborne and waterborne illnesses, leading to intestinal diseases in humans characterized by diarrhoea and vomiting. However, documented cases of B. paranthracis infection outbreaks are rare in the world, and the genomic background of outbreak strains is seldom characterized. This study retrospectively analyzed strains obtained from an outbreak in schools, as well as from water systems in peri-urban areas, China, in 2020. In total, 28 B. cereus group isolates were retrieved, comprising 6 from stool samples and 22 from water samples. Epidemiological and phylogenetic investigations indicated that the B. paranthracis isolate from drinking water as the causative agent of the outbreak. The genomic comparison revealed a high degree of consistency among 8 outbreak-related strains in terms of antimicrobial resistance gene profiles, virulence gene profiles, genomic content, and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). The strains related to the outbreak show highly similar genomic ring diagrams and close phylogenetic relationships. Additionally, this study shed light on the pathogenic potential and complexity of B. cereus group through its diversity in virulence genes and mice infection model. The findings highlight the usefulness of B. paranthracis genomes in understanding genetic diversity within specific environments and in tracing the source of pathogens during outbreak situations, thereby enabling targeted infection control interventions.

Sugar-sweetened beverages consumption and the risk of depression: A meta-analysis of observational studies.

BACKGROUND: It remains inconsistent whether sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) consumption increases the risk of depression. Thus, we carried out a meta-analysis to evaluate the association between SSBs consumption and the risk of depression. METHODS: PubMed and Web of Science were searched for relevant articles published up to June 2018. Pooled relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated by the fixed-effects model or random effect model based on heterogeneity test. RESULTS: 10 observational studies involving 37,131 depression cases among 365,289 participants were included. The combined risk of depression for the highest versus lowest consumption of SSBs was 1.31 (95% CI 1.24-1.39). The findings were consistent in the cross-sectional studies (RR = 1.38; 95% CI 1.26-1.52) as well as in the cohort studies (RR = 1.30; 95% CI 1.19-1.41) A nonlinear dose-response relationship was found (Pnonlinearity = 0.0103) for depression risk and SSBs consumption. Compared with SSBs nondrinkers, those who drank the equivalent of 2 cups/day of cola might increase the risk of depression by 5% (RR = 1.05; 95% CI 1.01-1.09). And the equivalent of 3cans/day of cola might have approximately 25% higher risk of depression. LIMITATIONS: 10 studies were included in this meta-analysis, of which only 4 were cohort studies, and more cohort studies need to be performed in the future. CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis indicates that SSBs consumption might be associated with a modestly higher risk of depression. The results need to be further confirmed in the future.

Fruit and vegetable consumption and the risk of postmenopausal osteoporosis: a meta-analysis of observational studies.

The association of the consumption of fruit and vegetables (FV) and the risk of postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMOP) has been a controversial subject. Thus, we carried out a meta-analysis to evaluate the association of FV consumption and the risk of PMOP. PubMed, Web of Science and Wan Fang were searched for relevant articles published up to March 2018. To evaluate the association of FV intake and PMOP risk, combined odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated with the fixed or random effects model. Eighteen studies involving 12 643 participants were included in this meta-analysis. When comparing the highest with the lowest consumption, the pooled OR of PMOP was 0.68 (95% CI, 0.56-0.83; I2 = 57.3%; REM) for fruit and 0.87 (95% CI, 0.65-1.16; I2 = 68.9%; REM) for vegetables. For the intake of fruit and the risk of PMOP, subgroup analysis showed a significant association in case-control studies (OR, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.35-0.77; I2 = 3.1%; FEM) and cross-sectional studies (OR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.59-0.89; I2 = 61.1%; REM). For the intake of vegetables and the risk of PMOP, subgroup analysis showed a significant association in case-control studies (OR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.42-0.90; I2 = 0.0%; FEM) but not in cross-sectional studies (OR, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.69-1.29; I2 = 68.9%; REM). This meta-analysis indicates that fruit intake might be beneficial for the prevention of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. The findings need to be confirmed by further investigations.