Decreasing seroprevalence of herpes simplex virus type 1 and type 2 in Germany leaves many people susceptible to genital infection: time to raise awareness and enhance control.

BACKGROUND: Herpes simplex infections (HSV1/2) are characterized by recurrent symptoms, a risk of neonatal herpes, and the facilitation of HIV transmission. In Germany, HSV1/2 infections are not notifiable and data are scarce. A previous study found higher HSV1/2 seroprevalences in women in East Germany than in women in West Germany. We assessed changes in the HSV1/2 seroprevalences over time and investigated determinants associated with HSV1/2 seropositivity to guide prevention and control. METHODS: The study was based on the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Adults (DEGS; 2008-2011) and the German National Health Interview and Examination Survey (GNHIES; 1997-1999). We tested serum samples from DEGS participants for HSV1 and HSV2 immunoglobulin G. We used Pearson's χ2 test to compare the HSV1/HSV2 seroprevalences in terms of sex, age, and region of residence (East/West Germany) and investigated potential determinants by calculating prevalence ratios (PR) with log-binomial regression. All statistical analyses included survey weights. RESULTS: In total, 6627 DEGS participants were tested for HSV1, and 5013 were also tested for HSV2. Overall, HSV1 seroprevalence decreased significantly from 1997-1999 (82.1%; 95%CI 80.6-83.6) to 2008-2011 (78.4%; 95%CI 77.8-79.7). In the same period, overall HSV2 seroprevalence decreased significantly from 13.3% (95%CI 11.9-14.9) to 9.6% (95%CI 8.6-10.8), notably in 18-24-year-old men (10.4 to 0%) in East Germany. Women were more likely than men to be seropositive for HSV1 (PR 1.1) or HSV2 (PR 1.6). A lower level of education, smoking, and not speaking German were associated with HSV1 in both sexes. Women of older age, who smoked, or had a history of abortion and men of older age or who had not attended a nursery school during childhood were more often seropositive for HSV2. CONCLUSION: The reduced seroprevalences of HSV1 and HSV2 leave more people susceptible to genital HSV1/2 infections. Practitioners should be aware of HSV infection as a differential diagnosis for genital ulcers. We recommend educational interventions to raise awareness of the sexual transmission route of HSV1/2, possible consequences, and prevention. Interventions should especially target pregnant women, their partners, and people at risk of HIV.

Single-cell based high-throughput sequencing of full-length immunoglobulin heavy and light chain genes.

Single-cell PCR and sequencing of full-length Ig heavy (Igh) and Igk and Igl light chain genes is a powerful tool to measure the diversity of antibody repertoires and allows the functional assessment of B-cell responses through direct Ig gene cloning and the generation of recombinant mAbs. However, the current methodology is not high-throughput compatible. Here we developed a two-dimensional bar-coded primer matrix to combine Igh and Igk/Igl chain gene single-cell PCR with next-generation sequencing for the parallel analysis of the antibody repertoire of over 46 000 individual B cells. Our approach provides full-length Igh and corresponding Igk/Igl chain gene-sequence information and permits the accurate correction of sequencing errors by consensus building. The use of indexed cell sorting for the isolation of single B cells enables the integration of flow cytometry and Ig gene sequence information. The strategy is fully compatible with established protocols for direct antibody gene cloning and expression and therefore advances over previously described high-throughput approaches to assess antibody repertoires at the single-cell level.

Supervised learning using routine surveillance data improves outbreak detection of Salmonella and Campylobacter infections in Germany.

The early detection of infectious disease outbreaks is a crucial task to protect population health. To this end, public health surveillance systems have been established to systematically collect and analyse infectious disease data. A variety of statistical tools are available, which detect potential outbreaks as abberations from an expected endemic level using these data. Here, we present supervised hidden Markov models for disease outbreak detection, which use reported outbreaks that are routinely collected in the German infectious disease surveillance system and have not been leveraged so far. This allows to directly integrate labeled outbreak data in a statistical time series model for outbreak detection. We evaluate our model using real Salmonella and Campylobacter data, as well as simulations. The proposed supervised learning approach performs substantially better than unsupervised learning and on par with or better than a state-of-the-art approach, which is applied in multiple European countries including Germany.

Assessment of recall error in self-reported food consumption histories among adults-Particularly delay of interviews decrease completeness of food histories-Germany, 2013.

INTRODUCTION: Poor recall during investigations of foodborne outbreaks may lead to misclassifications in exposure ascertainment. We conducted a simulation study to assess the frequency and determinants of recall errors. METHODS: Lunch visitors in a cafeteria using exclusively cashless payment reported their consumption of 13 food servings available daily in the three preceding weeks using a self-administered paper-questionnaire. We validated this information using electronic payment information. We calculated associated factors on misclassification of recall according to time, age, sex, education level, dietary habits and type of servings. RESULTS: We included 145/226 (64%) respondents who reported 27,095 consumed food items. Sensitivity of recall was 73%, specificity 96%. In multivariable analysis, for each additional day of recall period, the adjusted chance for false-negative recall increased by 8% (OR: 1.1;95%-CI: 1.06, 1.1), for false-positive recall by 3% (OR: 1.03;95%-CI: 1.02, 1.05), for indecisive recall by 12% (OR: 1.1;95%-CI: 1.08, 1.15). Sex and education-level had minor effects. DISCUSSION: Forgetting to report consumed foods is more frequent than reporting food-items actually not consumed. Bad recall is strongly enhanced by delay of interviews and may make hypothesis generation and testing very challenging. Side dishes are more easily missed than main courses. If available, electronic payment data can improve food-history information.

Timeliness in the German surveillance system for infectious diseases: Amendment of the infection protection act in 2013 decreased local reporting time to 1 day.

Time needed to report surveillance data within the public health service delays public health actions. The amendment to the infection protection act (IfSG) from 29 March 2013 requires local and state public health agencies to report surveillance data within one working day instead of one week. We analysed factors associated with reporting time and evaluated the IfSG amendment. Local reporting time is the time between date of notification and date of export to the state public health agency and state reporting time is time between date of arrival at the state public health agency and the date of export. We selected cases reported between 28 March 2012 and 28 March 2014. We calculated the median local and state reporting time, stratified by potentially influential factors, computed a negative binominal regression model and assessed quality and workload parameters. Before the IfSG amendment the median local reporting time was 4 days and 1 day afterwards. The state reporting time was 0 days before and after. Influential factors are the individual local public health agency, the notified disease, the notification software and the day of the week. Data quality and workload parameters did not change. The IfSG amendment has decreased local reporting time, no relevant loss of data quality or identifiable workload-increase could be detected. State reporting time is negligible. We recommend efforts to harmonise practices of local public health agencies including the exclusive use of software with fully compatible interfaces.

Functional analysis of centrosomal kinase substrates in Drosophila melanogaster reveals a new function of the nuclear envelope component otefin in cell cycle progression.

Phosphorylation is one of the key mechanisms that regulate centrosome biogenesis, spindle assembly, and cell cycle progression. However, little is known about centrosome-specific phosphorylation sites and their functional relevance. Here, we identified phosphoproteins of intact Drosophila melanogaster centrosomes and found previously unknown phosphorylation sites in known and unexpected centrosomal components. We functionally characterized phosphoproteins and integrated them into regulatory signaling networks with the 3 important mitotic kinases, cdc2, polo, and aur, as well as the kinase CkIIß. Using a combinatorial RNA interference (RNAi) strategy, we demonstrated novel functions for P granule, nuclear envelope (NE), and nuclear proteins in centrosome duplication, maturation, and separation. Peptide microarrays confirmed phosphorylation of identified residues by centrosome-associated kinases. For a subset of phosphoproteins, we identified previously unknown centrosome and/or spindle localization via expression of tagged fusion proteins in Drosophila SL2 cells. Among those was otefin (Ote), an NE protein that we found to localize to centrosomes. Furthermore, we provide evidence that it is phosphorylated in vitro at threonine 63 (T63) through Aurora-A kinase. We propose that phosphorylation of this site plays a dual role in controlling mitotic exit when phosphorylated while dephosphorylation promotes G(2)/M transition in Drosophila SL2 cells.