Characterizing spatial epidemiology in a heterogeneous transmission landscape using the spatial transmission count statistic

2 months 1 week ago
CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we introduce the Source Sink Score, which determines whether a localized outbreak serves as a source or sink for other regions, and the Local Import Score, which assesses whether the outbreak has transitioned to local transmission rather than being maintained by continued introductions. These epidemiological statistics provide actionable insights for developing public health interventions tailored to the needs of affected areas.
Leke Lyu

Sequencing-Based Detection of Measles in Wastewater: Texas, January 2025

2 months 1 week ago
Measles is a potentially deadly viral infection spread via respiratory droplets from infected individuals. Outbreaks occur when vaccine coverage drops below the threshold of herd, or community, immunity. Using a sequencing-based approach, we report the prospective (January 7, 2025) detection of measles in nucleic acid extracts from 2 wastewater treatment plants in Houston, Texas, with a population of more than 218 000 residents. The sequencing data from 2 samples contained 53 unique reads...
Sara Javornik Cregeen

Long-acting Antiretroviral Agents in the Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS: A Review of Recent Advances in Sub-Saharan Africa

4 months 1 week ago
Long-acting antiretroviral (LAARV) agents have the potential to enhance treatment and prevention by eliminating the need for daily oral medications and increasing available options. This paper reviewed recent evidence on LAARVs and explores the opportunities and challenges of implementing these innovative prevention and treatment strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Several clinical trials and studies on the effectiveness, drug-drug interactions, and resistance of LAARVs in key populations in...
Ekere James Essien

Comparative Patho-Genomics of <em>Salmonella enterica</em> Serovar Enteritidis Reveal Potential Host-Specific Virulence Factors

4 months 2 weeks ago
Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis (S. Enteritidis) is one of the most common causes of bacterial foodborne infections worldwide. It has an extensive host range, including birds and humans, making it one of the most adaptable Salmonella serovars. This study aims to define the virulence gene profile of S. Enteritidis and identify genes critical to its host specificity. Currently, there is limited understanding of the molecular mechanisms that allow S. Enteritidis to continue as an important...
Matthew R Moreau

Increasing COVID-19 Testing and Vaccination Uptake in the Take Care Texas Community-Based Randomized Trial: Adaptive Geospatial Analysis

5 months ago
CONCLUSIONS: The novel procedure integrated real-time monitoring data and geospatial data science to enhance the design and adaptive delivery of a community-based randomized trial. Adaptive selection effectively prioritized the most in-need communities and allowed for a rigorous evaluation of community-based interventions in a multilevel trial. This methodology has broad applicability and can be adapted to other public health intervention and prevention programs, providing a powerful tool for...
Kehe Zhang

Sexual behavior stigma among cisgender gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men in nine NHBS cities across the United States: Burden and associations with PrEP continuum and HIV care continuum outcomes

5 months ago
In the United States (US), sexuality-based stigma continues to undermine HIV prevention and care efforts. We assessed sexual behavior stigma burden across family, healthcare, and social domains and determined associations with HIV-related outcomes among cisgender gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) in nine US metropolitan statistical areas. MSM (N = 4,086) recruited at places of MSM social congregation via venue-based, time-sampling procedures completed a survey on sexual...
John Mark Wiginton

Designing a blockchain technology platform for enhancing the pre-exposure prophylaxis care continuum

6 months 4 weeks ago
OBJECTIVES: Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a key biomedical intervention for ending the HIV epidemic in the United States, but its uptake is impeded by systemic barriers, including fragmented workflows and ineffective data coordination. This study aims to design PrEPLinker, a blockchain-based, client-centered platform to enhance care to address these challenges by improving care coordination and enabling clients to securely manage their identity and PrEP-related data.
Anjum Khurshid

Multiplexed Detection, Partitioning, and Persistence of Wild-Type and Vaccine Strains of Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Viruses in Wastewater

7 months 1 week ago
Wastewater surveillance of vaccine-preventable diseases may provide early warning of outbreaks and identify areas to target for immunization. To advance wastewater monitoring of measles, mumps, and rubella viruses, we developed and validated a multiplexed RT-ddPCR assay for the detection of their RNA. Because the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine is an attenuated live virus vaccine, we also developed an assay that distinguishes between wild-type and vaccine strains of measles in wastewater and...
Jingjing Wu

Implementing an Alert System for Communicating Actionable Wastewater Surveillance Results to School Communities, Houston, Texas, 2023-2024

10 months ago
In 2020, the Houston Health Department (HHD) in Texas launched a citywide wastewater surveillance program, including a pilot program that monitored manholes at schools in Houston's largest school district (prekindergarten-12th grade). By 2022, the pilot program monitored wastewater for SARS-CoV-2, influenza A and B, and respiratory syncytial virus. To ensure effective communication of wastewater surveillance results to school communities, HHD designed and implemented a text- and email-based...
Rebecca Schneider

Assessment of Public Health Agency and Utility Training Needs for CDC National Wastewater Surveillance System Jurisdictions in the United States

10 months 1 week ago
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, wastewater surveillance hasemerged as a critical tool for tracking the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus and other pathogens in communities throughout the United States. In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched the National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS), which partners with state, local, tribal, and territorial health departments to develop and implement wastewater...
Rebecca Schneider

Latent classification model for censored longitudinal binary outcome

1 year ago
Latent classification model is a class of statistical methods for identifying unobserved class membership among the study samples using some observed data. In this study, we proposed a latent classification model that takes a censored longitudinal binary outcome variable and uses its changing pattern over time to predict individuals' latent class membership. Assuming the time-dependent outcome variables follow a continuous-time Markov chain, the proposed method has two primary goals: (1)...
Jacky C Kuo

Disparities in Survival Outcomes Among Patients With Metastatic Melanoma in Texas: Implications for Policy and Interventions in the Era of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors

1 year ago
CONCLUSIONS: This study showed differences in risks from melanoma survival based on patient demographic and clinical characteristics. Low socioeconomic status increased mortality risk, and first-line immunotherapy use favored survival. Health policies and tailored interventions that will promote equity in patient survival and survivorship are essential for managing metastatic melanoma.
Olajumoke A Olateju

A Novel Framework for Internal Responses to Detection of Pathogens in Wastewater by Public Health Agencies

1 year 1 month ago
OBJECTIVES: To build on the success of wastewater surveillance during the COVID-19 pandemic, jurisdictions funded under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Wastewater Surveillance System are looking to expand their wastewater programs to detect more pathogens. However, many public health agencies do not know how to use the collected wastewater data to formulate public health responses, underscoring a need for guidance. To address this knowledge gap, the Houston Health...
Komal Sheth

Analyzing Trends in Mental and Behavioral Health Support for Children: A Comprehensive Study Using National Survey of Children's Health Database

1 year 1 month ago
Objective This study aimed to explore mental and behavioral health support trends for children aged 3-17, analyzing treatment and counseling using United States data from the 2016-2020 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) database. Methods Employing a retrospective observational design, we systematically retrieved and analyzed NSCH Database data from 2016 to 2020. The focus was on understanding mental and behavioral health treatment percentages over time, specifically targeting...
Emmanuel O Ilori

Past-Year HIV Testing, Current Antiretroviral Therapy Use, and Participation in Services for People Who Inject Drugs

1 year 1 month ago
Evaluating routine HIV testing and treatment and use of services for people who inject drugs (PWID) is critical to curb the ongoing HIV epidemic. We analyzed data from the 2018 National HIV Behavioral Surveillance of PWID aged 18 years or older, recruited using respondent-driven sampling and offered anonymous HIV testing after survey. We performed bivariate and multivariable analyses with log-linked Poisson regression of the generalized linear models to examine the associations between...
Itunu Sokale

PreK-12 school and citywide wastewater monitoring of the enteric viruses astrovirus, rotavirus, and sapovirus

1 year 2 months ago
Wastewater monitoring is an efficient and effective way to surveil for various pathogens in communities. This is especially beneficial in areas of high transmission, such as preK-12 schools, where infections may otherwise go unreported. In this work, we apply wastewater disease surveillance using school and community wastewater from across Houston, Texas to monitor three major enteric viruses: astrovirus, sapovirus genogroup GI, and group A rotavirus. We present the results of a 10-week study...
Madeline Wolken

Online trend estimation and detection of trend deviations in sub-sewershed time series of SARS-CoV-2 RNA measured in wastewater

1 year 4 months ago
Wastewater surveillance has proven a cost-effective key public health tool to understand a wide range of community health diseases and has been a strong source of information on community levels and spread for health departments throughout the SARS- CoV-2 pandemic. Studies spanning the globe demonstrate the strong association between virus levels observed in wastewater and quality clinical case information of the population served by the sewershed. Few of these studies incorporate the temporal...
Katherine B Ensor

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Among American Youth: A Comprehensive 20-Year Analysis of National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Data

1 year 7 months ago
CONCLUSION: These findings underscore the intricate relationship between ADHD prevalence and demographic and socioeconomic factors. It is imperative to address these disparities to ensure equitable assessment and intervention for ADHD, taking into account cultural influences, determinants of health tied to socioeconomic status, and access to healthcare for all children. This analysis by the NCHS provides essential insights into ADHD among American youth, emphasizing the necessity for tailored...
Julian S Habdank-Kolaczkowski

Beyond scale-free networks: integrating multilayer social networks with molecular clusters in the local spread of COVID-19

1 year 7 months ago
This study evaluates the scale-free network assumption commonly used in COVID-19 epidemiology, using empirical social network data from SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant molecular local clusters in Houston, Texas. We constructed genome-informed social networks from contact and co-residence data, tested them for scale-free power-law distributions that imply highly connected hubs, and compared them to alternative models (exponential, log-normal, power-law with exponential cutoff, and Weibull) that suggest...
Kayo Fujimoto
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