Self-reported Infection Status, Knowledge and Associated Factors of Monkeypox Among Men Who Have Sex with Men in Jiaxing, China.

BACKGROUND: As of September 2023, more than 1,000 cases of monkeypox (mpox) have been reported in China. Based on the available evidence, men who have sex with men (MSM) are at high risk for mpox infection. This study aimed to analyses the self-reported infection status, knowledge, attitude and influencing factors of monkeypox among MSM in Jiaxing City, China. METHODS: A web-based cross-sectional survey was conducted in September 2023 to gather data on participants' socio-demographic profiles, mpox-related knowledge, sexual behavior characteristics, and other potentially related information to mpox knowledge. Multivariate regression modeling was employed to analyze the factors influencing the level of mpox-related knowledge. RESULTS: A total of 562 MSM were recruited; 4.3% self-reported being HIV-positive, 83.3% of respondents had heard of mpox, and 2.3% of them reported having suspected symptoms. 89.7% of respondents were willing to be vaccinated against mpox, but only 24.8% had a high level of knowledge about mpox. The main factors influencing knowledge of mpox were education level, household registration, homosexual anal intercourse in the past 6 months, and taking the HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge of mpox among MSM living in the Jiaxing area needs to be enhanced, but willingness to get vaccinated is high. Educational level, household location, sexual behavior and PrEP use have important effects on knowledge of mpox. Individuals exhibiting symptoms indicative of suspected mpox had a diminutive consultation frequency, and it is imperative to augment screening efforts for mpox symptoms within specific demographic groups to prevent the underreporting of mpox cases.

Analysis on time delay of tuberculosis among adolescents and young adults in Eastern China.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is recognized as a significant global public health concern. Still, there remains a dearth of comprehensive evaluation regarding the specific indicators and their influencing factors of delay for adolescents and young adults. Methods: All notified pulmonary TB (PTB) patients in Jiaxing City were collected between 2005 and 2022 from China's TB Information Management System. Logistic regression models were conducted to ascertain the factors that influenced patient and health system delays for PTB cases, respectively. Furthermore, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on local delays has been explored. Results: From January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2022, a total of 5,282 PTB cases were notified in Jiaxing City, including 1,678 adolescents and 3,604 young adults. For patient delay, female (AOR: 1.18, 95%CI: 1.05-1.32), PTB complicated with extra-pulmonary TB (AOR: 1.70, 95% CI: 1.28-2.26), passive case finding (AOR: 1.46, 95% CI: 1.07-1.98) and retreatment (AOR: 1.52, 95% CI: 1.11-2.09) showed a higher risk of delay. For health system delay, minorities (AOR: 0.69, 95% CI: 0.53-0.90) and non-students (AOR: 0.83, 95% CI: 0.71-0.98) experienced a lower delay. Referral (AOR: 1.46, 95% CI: 1.29-1.65) had a higher health system delay compared with clinical consultation. Furthermore, county hospitals (AOR: 1.47, 95% CI: 1.32-1.65) and etiological positive results (AOR: 1.46, 95% CI: 1.30-1.63) were associated with comparatively high odds of patient delay. Contrarily, county hospitals (AOR: 0.88, 95% CI: 0.78-1.00) and etiological positive results (AOR: 0.67, 95% CI: 0.59-0.74) experienced a lower health system delay. Besides, the median of patient delay, health system delay, and total delay during the COVID-19 pandemic were significantly lower than that before. Conclusion: In general, there has been a noteworthy decline in the notification rate of PTB among adolescents and young adults in Jiaxing City while the declining trend was not obvious in patient delay, health system delay, and total delay, respectively. It also found factors such as gender, case-finding method, and the hospital level might influence the times of seeking health care and diagnosis in health agencies. These findings will provide valuable insights for refining preventive and treatment strategies for TB among adolescents and young adults.

Delay in identification of pulmonary tuberculosis among children and adolescents in Jiaxing City from 2013 to 2022 / 预防医学

Objective@#To investigate the delay in identification of pulmonary tuberculosis and influencing factors among children and adolescents in Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province from 2013 to 2022, so as to provide the reference for targeted prevention and control measures.@*Methods@#The information of pulmonary tuberculosis patients in Jiaxing City from 2013 to 2022 were captured from the Tuberculosis Information Management System of Chinese Disease Control and Prevention Information System, including demographics, diagnosis, treatment and etiological results. The delay in identification of pulmonary tuberculosis was analyzed among children and adolescents, and the factors affecting the delay in identification of pulmonary tuberculosis were identified using a multivariable logistic regression model.@*Results@#A total of 2 407 pulmonary tuberculosis cases were reported among children and adolescents in Jiaxing City from 2013 to 2022, including 1 522 males (63.23%). The median age was 21.00 (interquartile range, 4.00) years. There were 410 students (17.03%), and 1 856 cases with non-local household registration (77.11%). There were 596 cases with delay in identification of tuberculosis (24.76%), 895 cases with delay in healthcare-seeking (37.18%) and 128 cases with delay in definitive diagnosis (5.32%). Multivariable logistic regression analysis that children and adolescents who occurred symptoms in the first quarter (OR=1.684, 95%CI: 1.261-2.249), were diagnosed first in county-level medical institutions (OR=3.800, 95%CI: 2.898-4.983) and had positive results of etiological testing (OR=1.534, 95%CI: 1.255-1.874) were more likely to delay in identification of pulmonary tuberculosis.@*Conclusions@#The delay in identification of pulmonary tuberculosis is associated with the time of symptom onset, the level of medical institution making first diagnosis, and the results of etiological testing. It is suggested to reinforce the publicity of pulmonary tuberculosis prevention and control, expand the coverage of screening programs and improve the diagnosis capability of medical institutions.

Awareness of hepatitis C prevention and control knowledge among clinicians in Jiaxing City / 预防医学

Objective@#To investigate the hepatitis C prevention and control knowledge among clinicians in Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province, so as to provide the evidence for intensified training and improved diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C among clinicians.@*Methods@#In November, 2021, clinicians were sampled using a stratified random sampling method from a city-level and a county (district)-level hepatitis C designated hospital in Jiaxing City. A questionnaire survey was performed using the Questionnaire for Hepatitis C Prevention and Control Knowledge among Clinicians, and the awareness of basic knowledge, professional knowledge and related knowledge about hepatitis C prevention and control among clinicians were descriptively analyzed. @*Results@# A total of 186 questionnaires were allocated and 179 valid questionnaires were recovered, with an effective recovery rate was 96.24%. The respondents included 107 men (59.78%) and 72 women (40.22%) and had a mean age of (37.06±9.46) years. There were 107 respondents with a bachelor degree (59.78%), 56 with junior professional titles (31.28%), and 170 from non-infectious disease departments (94.97%). The awareness of basic hepatitis C prevention and control knowledge was 96.09%, and the awareness of “Transfusion of blood containing hepatitis C virus may acquire hepatitis C” was high (98.88%), and the awareness of “Hepatitis C can be cured” was low (77.09%). The awareness of professional hepatitis C prevention and control knowledge was 3.91% to 100.00%, and the awareness of “Pathogens of hepatitis C” (100.00%) and “Recommended screening populations for hepatitis C” (86.59%) was high, while the awareness of “There are two categories of hepatitis C cases: clinically diagnosed cases and confirmed cases” (3.91%) and “Clinical diagnosis of hepatitis C: positive anti-HCV antibody + any one of abnormal liver function or epidemiological history or clinical symptoms” (3.91%) was low. The awareness rates of “The state has included antiviral agents against hepatitis C into medical insurance” was and “Antiviral agents against hepatitis C are reimbursed in outpatient and inpatient departments of our hospital” were 81.56% and 59.78%, respectively. There were 69 clinicians participating hepatitis C-related training within one year (38.55%), and the awareness of clinicians that had participated in hepatitis C-related training had a higher awareness rate of basic hepatitis C prevention and control knowledge than those without participation (100.00% vs. 93.64%, P<0.05).@*Conclusion@#The awareness of basic hepatitis C prevention and control knowledge is high among clinicians in Jiaxing City; however, the training on diagnosis and classification criteria of hepatitis C and related medical insurance policy require to be improved.

Effects of neuron autophagy induced by arsenic and fluoride on spatial learning and memory in offspring rats.

There are numerous studies showing that exposure to arsenic (As) or fluoride (F) damages the nervous system, but there is no literature investigating the effects of combined As and F exposure to induce autophagy on neurotoxicity in the offspring. In this study, we developed a rat model of As and/or F exposure through drinking water from before pregnancy to 90 days postnatal. The offspring rats were randomly divided into nine groups. Sodium arsenite (NaAsO2) (0, 35, 70 mg/L) and Sodium fluoride (NaF) (0, 50, 100 mg/L) were designed according to 3 × 3 factorial design. Our results suggested that the presence of F might antagonize the excretion of total As in urine, and As-F co-exposure led to severe pathological damage in brain tissue and reduced spatial learning and memory ability. At the same time, the experiments showed that As and F increased Beclin1 expression and LC3B ratio to activate autophagy; both P62 and Lamp2 expression were increased, suggesting that autophagy lysosomal degradation was blocked; SYN and JIP1 expression were significantly decreased, disrupting synaptic structure and function. Axonal autophagosome reverse transport regulation might be affected by combined As-F exposure, exacerbating neuronal synaptic damage and inducing neurotoxicity. Further analysis showed that there was an interaction between As and F exposure-induced changes in autolysosome-related proteins in the hippocampus, which showed antagonism, and the antagonism of the high As combined exposure groups were stronger than that of the low As combined exposure groups. In conclusion, our study showed that combined As and F exposure might induce reverse transport impairment of autophagy on axons, leading to autophagy defects, which in turn led to disruption of synaptic morphology and function, induced neurotoxicity, and there was an interaction between As and F, the type of its combined effect was antagonism.

Mechanism of subchronic vinyl chloride exposure combined with a high-fat diet on hepatic steatosis.

Vinyl chloride (VC) is a common industrial organic chlorine and environmental pollutant. In recent years, the dietary structure of residents especially Chinese has gradually shifted to western dietary patterns. VC aggravates dietary fatty acid-induced hepatic steatosis, but its mechanism is still unclear. And if the risk factors for steatosis persist, more severe diseases such as fibrosis and cirrhosis will occur. Therefore, we studied the effects and mechanisms of VC (160 and 800 mg/m3 ) and its metabolite (chloroacetaldehyde, 2.25, 4.5, and 9 µM) on hepatic steatosis of high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice and palmitic acid (PA, 100 µM) treated HepG2 cells. Liver and serum biochemical indicators and pathological staining of the liver showed that the hepatic steatosis of VC combined with HFD groups was more severe than that of single-exposure groups (HFD group, low-dose VC group, and high-dose VC group). Moreover, VC enhanced HFD-induced oxidative stress (OS) and endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) and further upregulated the expression of sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1 (SREBP-1) and FAS. Besides, antioxidants and ERS inhibitors reduced the steatosis of HepG2 cells induced by VC metabolites and PA. These results suggest that VC exposure can enhance the degree of hepatic steatosis in HFD-fed mice. VC combined with HFD led to OS and ERS and upregulated the expression of de novo lipogenesis-related proteins, which may be related to the occurrence of hepatic steatosis. And the increased expression of CYP2E1 induced by VC combined with HFD may be the cause of OS.

Deregulation of the cell cycle and related microRNA expression induced by vinyl chloride monomer in the hepatocytes of rats.

Vinyl chloride (VC) is a confirmed human carcinogen associated with hepatocellular carcinoma and angiosarcoma. However, the role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in liver cell cycle changes under VC exposure remains unclear, which prevents research on the mechanism of VC-induced carcinogenesis. In this study, male rats were injected intraperitoneally with VC (0, 5, 25, and 125 mg/kg body weight) for 6, 8, and 12 weeks. Cell cycle analysis of liver cells, miRNA-222, miRNA-199a, miRNA-195, and miRNA-125b expression in the liver and serum, and target protein expression were performed at different time points. The results showed a higher percentage of hepatocytes in the G1/G0 and S phases at the end of 6 and 12 weeks of VC exposure, respectively. MiRNA-222 expression decreased initially and then increased, whereas miRNA-199a, miRNA-195, and miRNA-125b expression increased initially and then decreased, which corresponded with changes in cell cycle distribution and related target proteins expression (p27, cyclinA, cyclinD1, and CDK6). The corresponding expression levels of miRNAs in serum did not change. Dynamic changes in miR-222, miR-199a, miR-195, and miR-125b induced by VC can lead to cell cycle deregulation by affecting cell cycle-related proteins, and these miRNAs can serve as early biomarkers for malignant transformation caused by VC.

Relative Telomere Length in Peripheral Blood Cells and Hypertension Risk among Mine Workers: A Case-Control Study in Chinese Coal Miners.

Hypertension is a common chronic disease in middle-aged and elderly people and is an important risk factor for many cardiovascular diseases. Its pathogenesis remains unclear. Epidemiological studies have found that the loss of telomere length in peripheral blood cells can increase the risk of coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, and other diseases. However, a correlation between loss of telomere length and hypertension has not been established. In this study, we aimed to explore the association between telomere length and the risk of essential hypertension (EH) in Chinese coal miners. A case-control study was performed with 215 EH patients and 222 healthy controls in a large coal mining group located in North China. Face-to-face interviews were conducted by trained staff with the necessary medical knowledge. Relative telomere length (RTL) was measured by a quantitative real-time PCR assay using DNA extracted from peripheral blood. In the control group, the age-adjusted RTL was statistically significantly lower in miners performing hard physical labour compared with nonphysical labour (P = 0.043). A significantly shorter age-adjusted RTL was found in the control group of participants who consumed alcohol regularly compared with those who do not consume alcohol (P = 0.024). Age-adjusted RTL was negatively correlated with body mass index (BMI) and alcohol consumption. Hypertension was also found to be significantly correlated with factors such as age, BMI, alcohol consumption, smoking, and tea consumption. Our results suggest that RTL is associated with hypertension in coal miners.