RESUMEN
Previous influenza pandemics are usually invoked in pandemic preparedness planning without a thorough analysis of the events surrounding them, what has been called the 'configuration' of epidemics. Historic pandemics are instead used to contrast them to the novelty of the coming imagined plague or as fear of a ghost-like repetition of the past. This view of pandemics is guided by a biomedical framework that is ahistorical and reductionist. The meaning of 'pandemic' influenza is in fact highly ambiguous in its partitioning of pandemic and seasonal influenza. The past 200â years of influenza epidemics in Sweden are examined with a special focus on key social structures-households, schools, transportations and the military. These are shown to have influenced the progression of influenza pandemics. Prevailing beliefs around influenza pandemics have also profoundly influenced intervention strategies. Measuring long-term trends in pandemic severity is problematic because pandemics are non-linear events where the conditions surrounding them constantly change. However, in a linearised view, the Spanish flu can be seen to represent a historical turning point and the H1N1 2009 pandemic not as an outlier, but following a 100-year trend of decreasing severity. Integrating seasonal and pandemic influenza, and adopting an ecosocial stance can deepen our understanding and bring the ghost-like pandemic past to life.
Asunto(s)
Gripe Humana/historia , Pandemias/historia , Epidemias/historia , Historia del Siglo XIX , Historia del Siglo XX , Historia del Siglo XXI , Humanos , Subtipo H1N1 del Virus de la Influenza A , Gripe Humana/epidemiología , Personal Militar , Suecia/epidemiologíaRESUMEN
Studies of quadruped animal motion help us to identify diseases, understand behavior and unravel the mechanics behind gaits in animals. The horse is likely the best-studied animal in this aspect, but data capture is challenging and time-consuming. Computer vision techniques improve animal motion extraction, but the development relies on reference datasets, which are scarce, not open-access and often provide data from only a few anatomical landmarks. Addressing this data gap, we introduce PFERD, a video and 3D marker motion dataset from horses using a full-body set-up of densely placed over 100 skin-attached markers and synchronized videos from ten camera angles. Five horses of diverse conformations provide data for various motions from basic poses (eg. walking, trotting) to advanced motions (eg. rearing, kicking). We further express the 3D motions with current techniques and a 3D parameterized model, the hSMAL model, establishing a baseline for 3D horse markerless motion capture. PFERD enables advanced biomechanical studies and provides a resource of ground truth data for the methodological development of markerless motion capture.
Asunto(s)
Marcha , Caballos , Grabación en Video , Animales , Fenómenos Biomecánicos , Caballos/fisiologíaRESUMEN
The genus Bartonella comprises facultative intracellular bacteria adapted to mammals, including previously recognized and emerging human pathogens. We report the 2,341,328 bp genome sequence of Bartonella grahamii, one of the most prevalent Bartonella species in wild rodents. Comparative genomics revealed that rodent-associated Bartonella species have higher copy numbers of genes for putative host-adaptability factors than the related human-specific pathogens. Many of these gene clusters are located in a highly dynamic region of 461 kb. Using hybridization to a microarray designed for the B. grahamii genome, we observed a massive, putatively phage-derived run-off replication of this region. We also identified a novel gene transfer agent, which packages the bacterial genome, with an over-representation of the amplified DNA, in 14 kb pieces. This is the first observation associating the products of run-off replication with a gene transfer agent. Because of the high concentration of gene clusters for host-adaptation proteins in the amplified region, and since the genes encoding the gene transfer agent and the phage origin are well conserved in Bartonella, we hypothesize that these systems are driven by selection. We propose that the coupling of run-off replication with gene transfer agents promotes diversification and rapid spread of host-adaptability factors, facilitating host shifts in Bartonella.
Asunto(s)
Bacteriófagos/fisiología , Infecciones por Bartonella/microbiología , Bartonella/virología , Reservorios de Enfermedades/microbiología , Transferencia de Gen Horizontal , Genoma Bacteriano , Ratones/microbiología , Replicación Viral , Animales , Proteínas Bacterianas/genética , Proteínas Bacterianas/metabolismo , Bacteriófagos/genética , Bartonella/clasificación , Bartonella/genética , Bartonella/metabolismo , Interacciones Huésped-Patógeno , Humanos , Datos de Secuencia Molecular , FilogeniaRESUMEN
Identifying the critical factors related to influenza spreading is crucial in predicting and mitigating epidemics. Specifically, uncovering the relationship between epidemic onset and various risk indicators such as socioeconomic, mobility and climate factors can reveal locations and travel patterns that play critical roles in furthering an outbreak. We study the 2009 A(H1N1) influenza outbreaks in Sweden's municipalities between 2009 and 2015 and use the Generalized Inverse Infection Method (GIIM) to assess the most significant contributing risk factors. GIIM represents an epidemic spreading process on a network: nodes correspond to geographical objects, links indicate travel routes, and transmission probabilities assigned to the links guide the infection process. Our results reinforce existing observations that the influenza outbreaks considered in this study were driven by the country's largest population centers, while meteorological factors also contributed significantly. Travel and other socioeconomic indicators have a negligible effect. We also demonstrate that by training our model on the 2009 outbreak, we can predict the epidemic onsets in the following five seasons with high accuracy.
Asunto(s)
Subtipo H1N1 del Virus de la Influenza A , Gripe Humana/epidemiología , Gripe Humana/transmisión , Adolescente , Adulto , Anciano , Anciano de 80 o más Años , Niño , Brotes de Enfermedades , Epidemias , Femenino , Geografía , Humanos , Gripe Humana/genética , Gripe Humana/virología , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Modelos Teóricos , Reproducibilidad de los Resultados , Factores de Riesgo , Estaciones del Año , Clase Social , Factores Socioeconómicos , Suecia/epidemiología , Viaje , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Rodents represent a high-risk reservoir for the emergence of new human pathogens. The recent completion of the 2.3 Mb genome of Bartonella grahamii, one of the most prevalent blood-borne bacteria in wild rodents, revealed a higher abundance of genes for host-cell interaction systems than in the genomes of closely related human pathogens. The sequence variability within the global B. grahamii population was recently investigated by multi locus sequence typing, but no study on the variability of putative host-cell interaction systems has been performed. RESULTS: To study the population dynamics of B. grahamii, we analyzed the genomic diversity on a whole-genome scale of 27 B. grahamii strains isolated from four different species of wild rodents in three geographic locations separated by less than 30 km. Even using highly variable spacer regions, only 3 sequence types were identified. This low sequence diversity contrasted with a high variability in genome content. Microarray comparative genome hybridizations identified genes for outer surface proteins, including a repeated region containing the fha gene for filamentous hemaggluttinin and a plasmid that encodes a type IV secretion system, as the most variable. The estimated generation times in liquid culture medium for a subset of strains ranged from 5 to 22 hours, but did not correlate with sequence type or presence/absence patterns of the fha gene or the plasmid. CONCLUSION: Our study has revealed a geographic microstructure of B. grahamii in wild rodents. Despite near-identity in nucleotide sequence, major differences were observed in gene presence/absence patterns that did not segregate with host species. This suggests that genetically similar strains can infect a range of different hosts.
Asunto(s)
Bartonella/genética , Genética de Población , Genoma Bacteriano , Roedores/microbiología , Animales , Bartonella/crecimiento & desarrollo , Bartonella/aislamiento & purificación , Infecciones por Bartonella/microbiología , Hibridación Genómica Comparativa , ADN Bacteriano/genética , Geografía , Interacciones Huésped-Patógeno , Análisis de Secuencia por Matrices de Oligonucleótidos , Polimorfismo de Nucleótido Simple , Análisis de Secuencia de ADN , Especificidad de la EspecieRESUMEN
Framing has previously been studied in the field of pandemic preparedness and global health governance and influenza pandemics have usually been framed in terms of security and evidence-based medicine on a global scale. This paper is based on the pandemic preparedness plans, published after 2009, from eight European countries. We study how pandemic preparedness is framed and how pandemic influenza in general is narrated in the plans. All plans contain references to 'uncertainty', 'pandemic phases', 'risk management', 'vulnerability' and 'surveillance'. These themes were all framed differently in the studied plans. The preparedness plans in the member states diverge in ways that will challenge the ambition of the European Union to make the pandemic preparedness plans interoperable and to co-ordinate the member states during future pandemics.
Asunto(s)
Planificación en Desastres/organización & administración , Gripe Humana/prevención & control , Pandemias/prevención & control , Europa (Continente)/epidemiología , Humanos , Gripe Humana/epidemiologíaAsunto(s)
Enfermedades Transmisibles/epidemiología , Estado de Salud , Pandemias/prevención & control , Salud Pública/estadística & datos numéricos , Adolescente , Distribución por Edad , Niño , Preescolar , Control de Enfermedades Transmisibles/métodos , Enfermedades Transmisibles/tratamiento farmacológico , Farmacorresistencia Microbiana , Emigración e Inmigración , Higiene de las Manos/normas , Humanos , Lactante , Suecia/epidemiología , Vacunación , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
This European workshop identified a number of lessons learnt in the field of vaccine licensure, prioritization of target groups, communication on pandemic vaccines, implementation of vaccination and safety monitoring. The mild severity of the pandemic A(H1N1) 2009 influenza virus influenced the perception of pandemic vaccines, as previous pandemic preparedness had anticipated a more virulent virus. This vaccination experience provides an important opportunity for research on the long-term immunogenicity and safety of pandemic vaccines in pregnant women and children, as well as on the long-term safety of adjuvants. Preparedness for future pandemics could involve improved decision-making on target groups and increased communication on vaccine safety.
Asunto(s)
Subtipo H1N1 del Virus de la Influenza A/inmunología , Vacunas contra la Influenza/administración & dosificación , Vacunas contra la Influenza/inmunología , Gripe Humana/epidemiología , Gripe Humana/prevención & control , Pandemias/prevención & control , Vacunación/métodos , Adyuvantes Inmunológicos/administración & dosificación , Adolescente , Niño , Preescolar , Femenino , Humanos , Gripe Humana/virología , Embarazo , Complicaciones Infecciosas del Embarazo/prevención & control , Adulto JovenAsunto(s)
Control de Enfermedades Transmisibles , Enfermedades Transmisibles Emergentes/prevención & control , Planificación en Desastres , Brotes de Enfermedades/prevención & control , Salud Global , Control de Enfermedades Transmisibles/métodos , Control de Enfermedades Transmisibles/normas , Control de Enfermedades Transmisibles/tendencias , Planificación en Desastres/métodos , Planificación en Desastres/normas , Planificación en Desastres/tendencias , Humanos , Factores de RiesgoRESUMEN
Blood samples and epidemiological data were collected from 50 homeless patients in central Stockholm, Sweden. Sera were analysed for antibodies to B. henselae, B. quintana, B. elizabethae and B. grahamii. Whole blood was cultured and used as substrate for a newly developed quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (QPCR) specifically targeting Bartonella spp. DNA. 61 matched blood donor sera were used as controls. Homeless patients were significantly more often seropositive to Bartonella spp. than controls (OR 7.58 (3.30-17.39), p<0.05). Reactivity to the B. elizabethae antigen was dominating, although the difference between patients and controls was most significant in seroreactivity to the B. henselae antigen. There was no evidence of an ongoing B. quintana epidemic. The absence of louse infestation could explain the lack of B. quintana bacteraemia and the failure to amplify Bartonella DNA.
Asunto(s)
Infecciones por Bartonella/epidemiología , Personas con Mala Vivienda , Fiebre de las Trincheras/epidemiología , Adulto , Anciano , Animales , Anticuerpos Antibacterianos/sangre , Bartonella/genética , Bartonella/inmunología , Bartonella/aislamiento & purificación , ADN Bacteriano/sangre , Femenino , Humanos , Infestaciones por Piojos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Reacción en Cadena de la Polimerasa , Estudios Seroepidemiológicos , Suecia/epidemiologíaRESUMEN
We showed by a laboratory experiment that four different Campylobacter jejuni strains are able to infect the protozoan Acanthamoeba polyphaga. C. jejuni cells survived for longer periods when cocultured with amoebae than when grown in culture alone. The infecting C. jejuni cells aggregated in amoebic vacuoles, in which they were seen to be actively moving. Furthermore, a resuscitation of bacterial cultures that were previously negative in culturability tests was observed after reinoculation into fresh amoeba cultures. After spontaneous rupture of the amoebae, C. jejuni could be detected by microscopy and culturability tests. Our results indicate that amoebae may serve as a nonvertebrate reservoir for C. jejuni in the environment.
Asunto(s)
Acanthamoeba/microbiología , Campylobacter jejuni/crecimiento & desarrollo , Reservorios de Enfermedades , Animales , Animales Salvajes/microbiología , Enfermedades de las Aves/microbiología , Aves/microbiología , Infecciones por Campylobacter/microbiología , Infecciones por Campylobacter/veterinaria , Campylobacter jejuni/aislamiento & purificación , Medios de Cultivo , HumanosRESUMEN
Serum samples were collected from healthy blood donors in 5 regions in Sweden in 1999, i.e. from the local Blood Centres (collecting facilities) in Boden, Jönköping, Lund, Skövde, and Uppsala. In total, 498 serum samples (63% males, 37% females) were received and tested by immunofluorescence assay for antibodies against B. elizabethae, B. grahamii, B. henselae (Houston-1), B. henselae (Marseille), B. quintana, and B. vinsonii subsp. vinsonii. An overall Bartonella spp. seroprevalence of 16.1% was found, with a predominance of immunoreactivity to B. elizabethae, at 14.1%; B. grahamii, 2.6%; B. henselae (Houston-1), 1.2%; B. henselae (Marseille), 1.8%; B. quintana, 0.2%; and B. vinsonii subsp. vinsonii, 0.0%. Univariate and multivariate analyses of epidemiological and demographical information revealed an increased rate of B. elizabethae seropositivity in blood donors working outdoors, being out in the wild a minimum of once a week, hunting moose, having cat contact, and travelling to Eastern Europe. Living in the southern region of Sweden (Lund area) was associated with decreased seropositivity to B. elizabethae.
Asunto(s)
Anticuerpos Antibacterianos/sangre , Infecciones por Bartonella/epidemiología , Bartonella/inmunología , Donantes de Sangre , Animales , Bartonella/clasificación , Infecciones por Bartonella/inmunología , Bartonella henselae/inmunología , Gatos , Bovinos , Cricetinae , Perros , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Factores de Riesgo , Estudios Seroepidemiológicos , Suecia/epidemiologíaRESUMEN
Sudden death in Swedish orienteers was demonstrated to be significantly associated with antibodies to Bartonella sp. To test if these antibodies could be related with tick exposure, we searched Bartonella sp. in Ixodes ricinus ticks using specific PCR amplification and culture. No Bartonella sp. was detected in 167 ticks tested.
Asunto(s)
Bartonella/aislamiento & purificación , Ixodes/microbiología , Animales , Bartonella/clasificación , Bartonella/genética , Infecciones por Bartonella/microbiología , Infecciones por Bartonella/transmisión , ADN Bacteriano/análisis , Vectores de Enfermedades , Femenino , Humanos , Ixodes/crecimiento & desarrollo , Masculino , Reacción en Cadena de la Polimerasa/métodos , SueciaRESUMEN
We present the complete genomes of two human pathogens, Bartonella quintana (1,581,384 bp) and Bartonella henselae (1,931,047 bp). The two pathogens maintain several similarities in being transmitted by insect vectors, using mammalian reservoirs, infecting similar cell types (endothelial cells and erythrocytes) and causing vasculoproliferative changes in immunocompromised hosts. A primary difference between the two pathogens is their reservoir ecology. Whereas B. quintana is a specialist, using only the human as a reservoir, B. henselae is more promiscuous and is frequently isolated from both cats and humans. Genome comparison elucidated a high degree of overall similarity with major differences being B. henselae specific genomic islands coding for filamentous hemagglutinin, and evidence of extensive genome reduction in B. quintana, reminiscent of that found in Rickettsia prowazekii. Both genomes are reduced versions of chromosome I from the highly related pathogen Brucella melitensis. Flanked by two rRNA operons is a segment with similarity to genes located on chromosome II of B. melitensis, suggesting that it was acquired by integration of megareplicon DNA in a common ancestor of the two Bartonella species. Comparisons of the vector-host ecology of these organisms suggest that the utilization of host-restricted vectors is associated with accelerated rates of genome degradation and may explain why human pathogens transmitted by specialist vectors are outnumbered by zoonotic agents, which use vectors of broad host ranges.