The aim of this study is to analyse the changing patterns in the transmission of COVID-19 in relation to changes in Vietnamese governmental policies, based on epidemiological data and policy actions in a large Vietnamese province, Bac Ninh, in 2021. Data on confirmed cases from January to December 2021 were collected, together with policy documents. There were three distinct periods of the COVID-19 pandemic in Bac Ninh province during 2021. During the first period, referred to as the ‘Zero-COVID’ period (01/04–07/04/2021), there was a low population vaccination rate, with less than 25% of the population receiving its first vaccine dose. Measures implemented during this period focused on domestic movement restrictions, mask mandates, and screening efforts to control the spread of the virus. The subsequent period, referred to as the ‘Transition’ period (07/05–10/22/2021), witnessed a significant increase in population vaccination coverage, with 80% of the population receiving their first vaccine dose. During this period, several days passed without any reported COVID-19 cases in the community. The local government implemented measures to manage domestic actions and reduce the time spent in quarantine, and encouraged home quarantining for the close contacts of cases with COVID-19. Finally, the ‘New-normal’ stage (10/23–12/31/2021), during which the population vaccination coverage with a second vaccine dose increased to 70%, and most of the mandates for the prevention and control of COVID-19 were reduced. In conclusion, this study highlights the importance of governmental policies in managing and controlling the transmission of COVID-19 and provides insights for developing realistic and context-specific strategies in similar settings.

Although attempts to produce an active immunity against diphtheria were made as early as 1902, it is since the Schick test was described in 1913 that there has been available some clinically applicable measurement of individual immunity, naturally obtained or artificially produced; and it is probably true to say that large-scale active immunization has been practised in this country for only some 10 or 15 years.

The introduction of treatment and systematic vaccination has significantly reduced diphtheria mortality; however, toxigenic strains continue to circulate worldwide. The emergence of an indigenous diphtheria case with fatal outcome in Greece, after 30 years, raised challenges for laboratory confirmation, clinical and public health management. Toxigenic Corynebacterium diphtheriae was isolated from an incompletely vaccinated 8-year-old boy with underlying conditions. The child passed away due to respiratory distress syndrome, before the administration of diphtheria antitoxin (DAT). All close contacts in family, school and hospital settings were investigated. Pharyngeal swabs were obtained to determine asymptomatic carriage. Chemoprophylaxis was given for 7 days to all close contacts and a booster dose to those incompletely vaccinated. Testing revealed a classmate, belonging to a subpopulation group (Roma), and incompletely vaccinated, as an asymptomatic carrier with an indistinguishable toxigenic strain (same novel multilocus sequence type, designated ST698). This case highlights the role of asymptomatic carriage, as the entry of toxigenic strains into susceptible populations can put individuals and their environment at risk. Maintenance of high-level epidemiological and microbiological surveillance, implementation of systematic vaccination in children and adults with primary and booster doses, availability of a DAT stockpile, and allowing timely administration are the cornerstone to prevent similar incidents in the future.

In 1927 we undertook certain work at the request of the Medical Research Council, as part of an international investigation into the standardisation of scarlet fever reagents promoted by the Health Organisation of the League of Nations. The laboratory work was carried out by the late Dr G. R. James, and his untimely death caused the suspension of the research. A great many observations, however, had been made. Since many of these have a general interest, and since up to the time of writing no completely satisfactory experimental method of assay has been devised, we have no hesitation in adding to the volume of evidence that is accumulating with regard to the methods at present in use.

Previous research on respiratory infection transmission among university students has primarily focused on influenza. In this study, we explore potential transmission events for multiple respiratory pathogens in a social contact network of university students. University students residing in on-campus housing (n = 590) were followed for the development of influenza-like illness for 10-weeks during the 2012–13 influenza season. A contact network was built using weekly self-reported contacts, class schedules, and housing information. We considered a transmission event to have occurred if students were positive for the same pathogen and had a network connection within a 14-day period. Transmitters were individuals who had onset date prior to their infected social contact. Throat and nasal samples were analysed for multiple viruses by RT-PCR. Five viruses were involved in 18 transmission events (influenza A, parainfluenza virus 3, rhinovirus, coronavirus NL63, respiratory syncytial virus). Transmitters had higher numbers of co-infections (67%). Identified transmission events had contacts reported in small classes (33%), dormitory common areas (22%) and dormitory rooms (17%). These results suggest that targeting person-to-person interactions, through measures such as isolation and quarantine, could reduce transmission of respiratory infections on campus.

Contra-posing panel data on the incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) at the provincial level in China through the years of 2004–2021 and introducing a geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model were used to explore the effect of various factors on the incidence of PTB from the perspective of spatial heterogeneity. The principal component analysis (PCA) was used to extract the main information from twenty-two indexes under six macro-factors. The main influencing factors were determined by the Spearman correlation and multi-collinearity tests. After fitting different models, the GTWR model was used to analyse and obtain the distribution changes of regression coefficients. Six macro-factors and incidence of PTB were both correlated, and there was no collinearity between the variables. The fitting effect of the GTWR model was better than ordinary least-squares (OLS) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) models. The incidence of PTB in China was mainly affected by six macro-factors, namely medicine and health, transportation, environment, economy, disease, and educational quality. The influence degree showed an unbalanced trend in the spatial and temporal distribution.

India is one of the severely affected countries by the Covid-19 pandemic at present. Within the stochastic framework of the SEQIR model, we studied publicly available data of the Covid-19 patients in India and analysed possible impacts of quarantine and social distancing as controlling strategies for the pandemic. Our stochastic simulation results clearly show that proper quarantine and social distancing should be maintained right from the start of the pandemic and continued until its end for effective control. This calls for a more disciplined social lifestyle in the future. However, only social distancing and quarantine of the exposed population are found not sufficient enough to end the pandemic in India. Therefore, implementation of other stringent policies like complete lockdown as well as increased testing of susceptible populations is necessary. The demographic stochasticity, which is quite visible in the system dynamics, has a critical role in regulating and controlling the pandemic.

In recent years immunity reactions have come to be regarded more particularly from the physico-chemical standpoint. Many of the phenomena occurring in immunity reactions are shown to be of the nature of colloidal chemical processes, and the laws which govern such processes have been found to hold, at least partially, for reactions occurring in sera, which belong to the class of colloidal protein solutions. Thus the application to immunity reactions, of such conceptions as viscosity and surface tension, has afforded a more reasonable explanation of these reactions. In the following paper special reference will be made to the surface tension, changes of which play an important part in all immunity reactions.

In the month of June, 1905, no fewer than 99,518 natives were employed on mines and works in the labour districts of the Witwatersrand, and the neighbouring mining areas of Klerksdorp, Heidelberg, and Vereeniging. In addition to these there were also working on the gold mines over 45,000 Chinese labourers. This vast industrial army is recruited from many and in great measure from very distant sources. Of the natives employed during the year ending June, 1905, the whole of British South Africa furnished only just over 32%: less than 2% came from British Central Africa: 60% were drawn from the Southern Portuguese East Coast provinces; and 3.6% from the Portuguese provinces north of latitude 22°. German South-West Africa contributed under 1%, but this area has latterly ceased to be a source of supply.

The standard membrane filtration method of the UK has been modified in order to improve its specificity for enumerating Escherichia coli in the subtropical waters of Hong Kong. This involves incorporating into the membrane lauryl sulphate (mLS) method either an in situ urease test (the mLS-UA method), or an in situ β-glucuronidase test (the mLS-GUD method). The false-positive errors of the mLS-UA and mLS-GUD methods are low, ranging from 3–5%. A comparison between the membrane filtration (mLS-UA) method and the multiple tube technique in testing E. coli in subtropical beach-waters has demonstrated that the former can give much more precise counts, and is the method of choice for such a purpose. The mLS-GUD method, for which automated counting of E. coli colonies is possible, is a good alternative to mLS-UA in routine enumeration of this bacterial indicator in environmental waters.

Vaccination against hepatitis B virus (HBV) is effective at preventing vertical transmission. Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea are hyperendemic West African countries; yet, childhood vaccination coverage is suboptimal, and the determinants of incomplete vaccination are poorly understood. We analyzed national survey data (2018–2020) of children aged 4–35 months to assess complete HBV vaccination (receiving 3 doses of the pentavalent vaccine) and incomplete vaccination (receiving <3 doses). Statistical analysis was conducted using the complex sample command in SPSS (version 28). Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify determinants of incomplete immunization. Overall, 11,181 mothers were analyzed (4,846 from Sierra Leone, 2,788 from Liberia, and 3,547 from Guinea). Sierra Leone had the highest HBV childhood vaccination coverage (70.3%), followed by Liberia (64.6%) and Guinea (39.3%). Within countries, HBV vaccination coverage varied by socioeconomic characteristics and healthcare access. In multivariate regression analysis, factors that were significantly associated with incomplete vaccination in at least one country included sex of the child, Muslim mothers, lower household wealth index, <4 antenatal visits, home delivery, and distance to health facility vaccination (all p < 0.05). Understanding and addressing modifiable determinants of incomplete vaccination will be essential to help achieve the 2030 viral hepatitis elimination goals.

The present investigation, was undertaken to test the American suggestion that the higher mean concentration of haemoglobin in males in America, compared to this country, is due to the chronic inhalation of carbon monoxide from the exhaust of closed motor cars (Price-Jones, 1931).

The work contained in the following paper demonstrates that valuable evidence of the relative incidence of bovine and human tuberculosis may probably be obtained by a careful record of the chances of contact infection in each case.

The material dealt with was derived from a central clinic in a large industrial Country Borough(Newport, Mon.) and from a series of smaller clinics. Two of the latter were in industrial (coal and iron) districts and three in small country towns containing semi-urban and rural populations.

The physiological behaviour of clinical Aeromonas spp. isolates was compared following culture in a conventional broth and human pooled ileostomy fluid (PIF). Protein expression was markedly affected by the growth medium, with an overall reduction in whole cell proteins in bacteria grown in ileostomy fluid. In addition, novel outer membrane proteins were produced in PIF but not in broth. The majority of A. hydrophila and A. sobria isolates produced toxin in both broth and PIF. whereas no cytotoxin positive A. caviae were found. Toxin titres were at least two doubling dilutions higher in 40% and 21% of A. hydrophila and A. sobria isolates, respectively, following culture in brain heart infusion broth compared with PIF. Bacterial adherence to Vero and A-549 cells was significantly more common in A. hydrophila (53%) and A. sobria (64%) than in A. caviae (15%) (P < 0·01). We observed increased adherence by 6 Aeromonas strains previously classified as adherence-positive, but not by 6 non-adherers, in PIF compared with brain heart infusion broth. The influence of growth medium on the expression of potential virulence determinants by Aeromonas spp. provides a rationale for the use of human ileostomy fluid in future in vitro studies, in order to simulate the nutrient conditions found in vivo.

That the number of deaths ascribed to cancer has steadily increased within recent years no one will deny, but as to the causes which have produced the increase there is not the same unanimity of opinion. Thirty years ago cancer did not rank very high in the list of fatal diseases. In 1899 the total number of deaths from cancer amongst persons in England and Wales was 26,325 as against 60,659 allocated to tubercular disease. Nowadays, “the old order changeth yielding place to new.” According to the most recent statistics issued by the Registrar-General, in 1929, the number of deaths assigned to cancer was 56,896 and to all forms of tuberculosis 37,990. In view of this large increase in the number of deaths allocated to cancer it seemed of interest to review the cancer statistics of the last thirty years in this country and in Scotland. No investigation of this nature would be complete without first drawing attention to the very important work already done by Dr Stevenson in the Annual Reports of the Registrar-General, particularly the report for 1917 in which he examined the incidence of cancer in particular sites. The statistics of cancer in Scotland have not, until recently, received quite the same amount of attention as those of England. In a paper read to the Medical Association in Edinburgh and afterwards published in the Journal of that society, Dr Dunlop, the Registrar-General, gave a detailed account of the mortality, according to sites, between the years 1911 and 1928. He compared the actual numbers of deaths in 1920–2 and in 1928 with the numbers that might be expected to occur on the basis of the cancer mortality in age groups which prevailed in 1910–12. His method of analysis conforms partly to that of indirect standardisation.

The overall incidence and serotype distribution of non-typhoid Salmonella (NTS) may vary between different geographical localities. To investigate possible regional differences and the effect of demographic factors, we studied 15 865 episodes of laboratory-confirmed NTS infection in Israel. Using Poisson models we found significant variation in the average annual incidence rate of NTS in 15 administrative sub-districts, which was inversely associated with the percent of rural residency (incidence rate ratio 0·75, 95% confidence interval 0·65–0·86, P < 0·001). Variation was also found in the relative incidence of the most prominent serotypes (Enteritidis, Virchow, Typhimurium, Hadar, Infantis), which was affected by rural residency, the percent of non-Jewish population in the sub-district, and the percent of population aged ⩾55 years in the sub-district. Rural residency had a major effect on the epidemiology of salmonellosis in Israel. Future research is required to understand whether decreased incidence in rural areas is an under-detection bias or reflects true differences in NTS illnesses.

1. The incidence of infectious hepatitis calculated from official notifications fluctuated between 5·7 and 11·4 per 10,000 during the years 1949–57, while reports of the Workers' Sick Fund indicated a rate three to four times greater. The highest rates were between the ages 1 and 9, two-thirds of the cases being under 10. Mortality was very low.

2. Highest attack rates were seen under conditions of crowding, i.e. in agricultural schools, communal settlements and new immigrant towns. This fact, together with the winter peak of incidence, suggests a contact-respiratory form of spread.

3. Immigrants, regardless of country, showed particular susceptibility during their first year or two in Israel. In the long run there was no difference in attack rate between immigrants from Western and from Middle Eastern countries, in spite of the known endemicity of the disease in the Middle East. In communities such as those from Yemen and North Africa, with large families and with, on the whole, a lower economic status, the mean age at onset was significantly younger. Among the non-Jewish population, the incidence was lower than expected due partly to under-reporting and partly, perhaps, to a mild form of the disease in the very young.

Desiccates of Salmonella ndolo dried in sodium glutamate have been exposed to 100° C. in air or in vacuo; in the presence of wet or dry P2O5; and with desiccant maintained at either 25° or 100° C. Of the eight treatments thus compared, rapid killing occurred where the desiccate was heated in vacuo and in the presence of dry P2O5 maintained at 100° C. There was little difference among the death-rates of the other seven treatments. Sublimation of the P2O6 with resultant attack on the desiccate would appear to be responsible for the rapid killing in the treatment where it was observed.

An interference phenomenon was produced by the intraperitoneal injection of broth culture dilutions of Pasteurella pestis grown at 28° C. into small white rats.

At a critical level of approximately 106Past. pestis L37 marked interference was produced. Doses of 104 or 107 killed rats readily.

Interference was produced by the addition of killed organisms, a cell-free vaccine or a live vaccine, to small lethal doses of L37.

Non-specific interference was produced by the intravenous injection of Indian ink prior to the intraperitoneal challenge with Past. pestis L37.