eScholarship@UMassChan Repository at UMass Chan Medical School

eScholarship@UMassChan

Sherman Center building at UMass Chan Medical School at night

eScholarship@UMassChan is a digital repository for UMass Chan Medical School's research and scholarship, including journal articles, theses, datasets and more. We welcome submissions from our faculty, staff, and students. eScholarship@UMassChan is a service of the Lamar Soutter Library, Worcester, MA, USA.

Questions? See the Help menu in the sidebar or contact escholarship@umassmed.edu. The recording and slides for our overvieew webinar "eScholarship@UMassChan: Share UMass Chan Research with the World" are also available.

  • Over Fartsgrensen

    Gracey, Kristina (2024-03-14)
    Introduction: This week I am grateful to Kristina Gracey, faculty at Barre Family Health Center, for her essay that is both personal and informative. She is an avid and successful runner. Which can be dangerous. She has been thinking about this element of risk and adds a public health perspective to her reflection that I personally admire. Food for thought for possible collective advocacy by us all on this topic.
  • Sampling of healthcare professionals' perspective on point-of-care technologies from 2019-2021: A survey of benefits, concerns, and development

    Orwig, Taylor; Sutaria, Shiv; Wang, Ziyue; Howard-Wilson, Sakeina; Dunlap, Denise; Lilly, Craig M; Buchholz, Bryan; McManus, David D; Hafer, Nathaniel (2024-03-08)
    Point-of-care technology (POCT) plays a vital role in modern healthcare by providing a fast diagnosis, improving patient management, and extending healthcare access to remote and resource-limited areas. The objective of this study was to understand how healthcare professionals in the United States perceived POCTs during 2019-2021 to assess the decision-making process of implementing these newer technologies into everyday practice. A 5-point Likert scale survey was sent to respondents to evaluate their perceptions of benefits, concerns, characteristics, and development of point-of-care technologies. The 2021 survey was distributed November 1st, 2021- February 15th, 2022, with a total of 168 independent survey responses received. Of the respondents, 59% identified as male, 73% were white, and 48% have been in practice for over 20 years. The results showed that most agreed that POCTs improve patient management (94%) and improve clinician confidence in decision making (92%). Healthcare professionals were most concerned with potentially not being reimbursed for the cost of the POCT (37%). When asked to rank the top 3 important characteristics of POCT, respondents chose accuracy, ease of use, and availability. It is important to note this survey was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve an even greater representation of healthcare professionals' point of view on POCTs, further work to obtain responses from a larger, more diverse population of providers is needed.
  • Photos of Meaningful Things and Places

    Penumetcha, Venkata "Sai Sri"; Isaac, Tamika; Coderre, Danielle; Silk, Hugh (2024-03-07)
    Introduction: This week I have a visual treat. Last week Sara Shields and I had a session with the PGY1s on the topic of medical humanities and one of the prompts was to go into the hospital and return with a photo of something that is meaningful to you - can be a piece, a thing, a person. The discussion that ensued from these photos was wonderful! I am sharing some of the photos here for you with their title. Enjoy.
  • Adulting Shorts: Let’s Talk About Workplace Accommodations

    Seward, Hannah (2024-02-27)
    Work can be hard! If you have a mental health condition, you might need to ask for an accommodation at work. An accommodation is a change to the way your job is done to allow you to do your job well when you have a disability. This comic by the NIDILRR-funded Learning & Working RRTC shares some real-world experiences young adults with lived experience of mental health conditions when working. For more information about requesting accommodations at work, please read our Accommodations at Work tip sheet.
  • Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Use of Colorectal Cancer Screening Among Adults With Chronic Medical Conditions: BRFSS 2012-2020

    Castañeda-Avila, Maira A; Tisminetzky, Mayra; Oyinbo, Atinuke G; Lapane, Kate L (2024-02-22)
    Introduction: People with chronic conditions and people with colorectal cancer (CRC) may share common risk factors; thus, CRC screening is important for people with chronic conditions. We examined racial and ethnic differences in the use of CRC screening among people with various numbers of chronic conditions. Methods: We included data on adult respondents aged 50 to 75 years from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System in 2012 through 2020. We categorized counts of 9 conditions as 0, 1, 2, 3, and ≥4. We classified self-reported CRC screening status as up to date or not. We used Poisson models to estimate adjusted prevalence ratios (APRs) among the different counts of chronic conditions in 4 racial and ethnic groups: Hispanic adults with limited English proficiency (LEP), Hispanic adults without LEP, non-Hispanic Black adults, and non-Hispanic White adults. Results: Overall, 66.5% of respondents were up to date with CRC screening. The prevalence of being up to date increased with the number of chronic conditions. We found disparities among racial and ethnic groups. Hispanic respondents with LEP had lower rates than non-Hispanic White adults of being up to date with CRC screening across all counts of chronic conditions (APR for 0 conditions = 0.67; 95% CI, 0.64-0.71; APR for ≥4 conditions = 0.85; 95% CI, 0.79-0.91). Hispanic respondents without LEP with 0, 1, or 2 conditions were less likely than non-Hispanic White respondents to be up to date with CRC screening. We found no significant differences between non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White respondents. Conclusion: We found disparities among Hispanic BRFSS respondents with LEP, who had lower rates than non-Hispanic White respondents of being up to date with CRC screening, regardless of the number of chronic conditions. Tailored interventions are needed to address these disparities and improve screening rates, particularly among Hispanic people.
  • The Greatest Health Care System in the World

    Adelstein, Pamela (2024-02-22)
    Introduction: This week I am sharing with you another piece from Pam Adelstein, a former resident of the Family Health Center of Worcester, and now the Medical Director at Fenway Health. Her piece was written as a reflection on the prompt “cold”. As you can see, she writes about way too many people being left out in the cold in our healthcare system.
  • 2024 Gold Humanism Summit Art Gallery

    Silk, Hugh (2024-02-15)
    Introduction: This week I do not have a local piece to share, per se. However, I am sending you all to explore the 2024 Gold Humanism Summit Art Gallery, which showcases artwork that reflects experiences, creativity and insights from clinicians, trainees, patients, caregivers, and members of the healthcare community. I hope you enjoy this collection of visual art, video, performance, song, poetry, narrative writing, pottery, and more. The entries are from across the country. Represented from UMass are Jennifer Sohn and myself. Jennifer, (who worked with me during her LPP,) did a lovely drawing entitled, "the same on the inside". She wrote - I drew this during my second year of medical school after working for several months with local community members experiencing homelessness. I was struck by the way people tend to see unhoused individuals as intrinsically different from themselves. I wanted to emphasize that we are all human and feel joy and sadness in the same ways, no matter what our lived experiences may include. Mine is a poem entitled, Brief Advice to a Young Doctor. You can find them and many more incredible offerings here: https://www.gold-foundation.org/programs/2024-gold-humanism-summit/2024-gold-humanism-summit-art-gallery/
  • Examining Race-Based and Gender-Based Discrimination, Trust in Providers, and Mental Well-Being Among Black Women

    Cuffee, Yendelela L; Preston, Portia A Jackson; Akuley, Suzanne; Jaffe, Rachel; Person, Sharina D.; Allison, Jeroan J. (2024-02-12)
    Objectives: To examine experiences of discrimination among Black women, and to determine if experiencing race- and gender-based discrimination is associated with mental well-being and trust. Methods: Data from the TRUST study were used to examine experiences of discrimination among 559 Black women with hypertension receiving healthcare at a safety-net hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. A three-level variable was constructed to combine the race-based and gender-based measures of the Experiences of Discrimination scale. Linear regression was used to examine the association between experiences of discrimination with mental well-being and trust. Results: Women who reported no experiences of race- or gender-based discrimination were older and reported higher mental well-being scores and greater trust. Fifty-three percent of study participants reported experiencing discrimination. Compared to participants who did not experience race- or gender-based discrimination, participants reporting experiences of race- or gender-based discrimination and those reporting experiencing both race- and gender-based discrimination were more likely to report poorer mental health. Conclusion: Reported experiences of gender- and/or race-based discrimination in this study were associated with lower mental health scores and less trust in health care providers. Our findings highlight the importance of examining experiences of discrimination among Black women, and the role of discrimination as a stressor and in reducing trust for providers. Incorporating an understanding and acknowledgement of experiences of discrimination into interventions, programs, and during clinical encounters may foster more trusting relationships between providers and patients.
  • Randomized-controlled trial of anakinra plus zinc vs. prednisone for severe alcohol-associated hepatitis

    Gawrieh, Samer; Dasarathy, Srinivasan; Tu, Wanzhu; Kamath, Patrick S; Chalasani, Naga P; McClain, Craig J; Bataller, Ramon; Szabo, Gyongyi; Tang, Qing; Radaeva, Svetlana; et al. (2024-02-09)
    Background & aims: Severe alcohol-associated hepatitis (SAH) has high 90-day mortality. Glucocorticoid therapy for 28 days improves 30- but not 90-day survival. We assessed the efficacy and safety of a combination of anakinra, an IL-1 antagonist, plus zinc (A+Z) compared to prednisone (PRED) using the Day-7 Lille score as a stopping rule in patients with SAH. Methods: In this phase IIb double-blind randomized trial in adults with SAH and MELD scores 20-35, participants were randomized to receive either anakinra 100 mg subcutaneously daily for 14 days plus zinc sulfate 220 mg orally daily for 90 days or daily prednisone 40 mg orally for 30 days. Prednisone or prednisone placebo was stopped if Day-7 Lille score was >0.45. All study drugs were stopped for uncontrolled infection or ≥ 5 points increase in MELD score. The primary endpoint was overall survival at 90 days compared using a two-sided log-rank test. Results: Seventy-three participants were randomized to PRED and 74 to A+Z. The trial was stopped early after a prespecified interim analysis showed PRED had higher 90-day overall survival (90% vs 70%, HR for death =0.34, 95% CI [0.14, 0.83], P =0.018) and transplant-free survival (88% vs 64%, HR for transplant or death =0.30, 95% CI: [0.13, 0.69], P =0.004) than A+Z. Acute kidney injury was more frequent with A+Z (45%) than PRED (22%) (P = 0.001), but rates of infections were similar (31% in A+Z vs 27% in PRED, P =0.389). Conclusions: Participants with SAH treated with prednisone using the Day-7 Lille score as a stopping rule had significantly higher overall and transplant-free 90-day survival and lower incidence of acute kidney injury than those treated with A+Z. Trial registration: NCT04072822. Impact and implications: There is no approved treatment for severe alcohol-associated hepatitis (SAH). In this double-blind randomized trial, patients with SAH treated with prednisone using the Lille stopping rule on Day-7 had higher 90-day overall and transplant-free survival and lower rate of acute kidney injury compared to patients treated with a combination of anakinra and zinc. The data support continued use of glucocorticoids for patients with SAH, with treatment discontinuation for those with Lille score > 0.45 on Day-7.
  • Home Diagnostics, Viral Dynamics, and Post-acute Sequelae of SARS-COV-2

    Herbert, Carly (2024-02-09)
    Introduction: The emergence of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has necessitated prompt evaluations of diagnostic technologies, viral dynamics, and long-term complications of COVID-19 to inform clinical and public health strategies. Methods: Using data from the RADx Clinical Studies Core collected from October 2021-February 2022, we evaluated the longitudinal performance of reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDT) by day past symptom onset and close-contact exposure and compared performance by sex, age, vaccination status, and variant (Aim 1). We further examined the association between SARS-CoV-2 viral load, BMI, and sex (Aim 2). Lastly, we conducted a follow-up survey in August 2023 regarding Long COVID. We then modeled the relationship between viral clearance of SARS-CoV-2 and Long COVID (Aim 3). Results: RT-PCR and Ag-RDT showed the highest percent positivity two days past symptom onset (RT-PCR: 91.2%; Ag-RDT: 71.1%) and six days past exposure (RT-PCR: 91.8%; Ag-RDT: 86.2%). Performance did not differ by vaccination status, variant, age category, or sex. In males, increasing BMI was associated with higher viral load in a dose-response fashion, and males had significantly lower viral load than females for BMI>29. Lastly, the risk of long COVID with 3-4 symptoms and 5+ symptoms increased by 2.90 times (95% CI: 1.09-7.74) and 4.54 times (95% CI: 1.84-11.2) per viral load slope-unit increase, respectively. Conclusion: Understanding SARS-CoV-2 viral dynamics is critical to identify effective diagnostic strategies for COVID-19, explain differences in COVID-19 outcomes across sex and BMI, and understand mechanistic contributors of Long COVID.
  • Harmonizing the Generation and Pre-publication Stewardship of FAIR Image data [preprint]

    Bialy, Nikki; Alber, Frank; Andrews, Brenda; Angelo, Michael; Beliveau, Brian; Bintu, Lacramioara; Boettiger, Alistair; Boehm, Ulrike; Brown, Claire M; Maina, Mahmoud Bukar; et al. (2024-02-08)
    Together with the molecular knowledge of genes and proteins, biological images promise to significantly enhance the scientific understanding of complex cellular systems and to advance predictive and personalized therapeutic products for human health. For this potential to be realized, quality-assured image data must be shared among labs at a global scale to be compared, pooled, and reanalyzed, thus unleashing untold potential beyond the original purpose for which the data was generated. There are two broad sets of requirements to enable image data sharing in the life sciences. One set of requirements is articulated in the companion White Paper entitled "Enabling Global Image Data Sharing in the Life Sciences," which is published in parallel and addresses the need to build the cyberinfrastructure for sharing the digital array data (arXiv:2401.13023 [q-bio.OT], https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2401.13023). In this White Paper, we detail a broad set of requirements, which involves collecting, managing, presenting, and propagating contextual information essential to assess the quality, understand the content, interpret the scientific implications, and reuse image data in the context of the experimental details. We start by providing an overview of the main lessons learned to date through international community activities, which have recently made considerable progress toward generating community standard practices for imaging Quality Control (QC) and metadata. We then provide a clear set of recommendations for amplifying this work. The driving goal is to address remaining challenges, and democratize access to common practices and tools for a spectrum of biomedical researchers, regardless of their expertise, access to resources, and geographical location.
  • Effects of intervention stage completion in an integrated behavioral health and primary care randomized pragmatic intervention trial [preprint]

    Stephens, Kari A; van Eeghen, Constance; Zheng, Zihan; Anastas, Tracy; Ma, Kris Pui Kwan; Prado, Maria G; Clifton, Jessica; Rose, Gail; Mullin, Daniel J; Chan, Kwun C G; et al. (2024-02-08)
    Purpose: A pragmatic, cluster-randomized controlled trial of a comprehensive practice-level, multi-staged practice transformation intervention aimed to increase behavioral health integration in primary care practices and improve patient outcomes. We examined association between the completion of intervention stages and patient outcomes across a heterogenous national sample of primary care practices. Methods: Forty-two primary care practices across the U.S. with co-located behavioral health and 2,426 patients with multiple chronic medical and behavioral health conditions completed surveys at baseline, midpoint and two year follow-up. Effects of the intervention on patient health and primary care integration outcomes were examined using multilevel mixed-effects models, while controlling for baseline outcome measurements. Results: No differences were found associated with the number of intervention stages completed in patient health outcomes were found for depression, anxiety, fatigue, sleep disturbance, pain, pain interference, social function, patient satisfaction with care or medication adherence. The completion of each intervention stage was associated with increases in Practice Integration Profile (PIP) domain scores and were confirmed with modeling using multiple imputation for: Workflow 3.5 (95% CI: 0.9-6.1), Integration Methods 4.6 (95% CI: 1.5-7.6), Patient Identification 2.9 (95% CI: 0.9-5.0), and Total Integration 2.7 (95% CI: 0.7-4.7). Conclusion: A practice-centric flexible practice transformation intervention improved integration of behavioral health in primary care across heterogenous primary care practices treating patients with multiple chronic conditions. Interventions that allow practices to flexibly improve care have potential to help complex patient populations. Future research is needed to determine how to best target patient health outcomes at a population level.
  • What Still I Rise Means to Me

    Street, Ashley; Mbusa, Daniel (2024-02-08)
    Introduction: As we reflect on Black History Month, honoring the contributions, triumphs, and struggles of African Americans throughout our history, this is a timely submission. Ashley Street and Daniel Mbusa, who are both starting medical school in the fall (congratulations!), are participating in the Scribe Fellowship/PRISM’s academic enrichment sessions coordinated by Linda Cragin and Dr. Mariann Manno. During a recent session on Reflective Medicine with Dr. Bronwyn Cooper, they all discussed Maya Angelo’s poem, Still I Rise (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46446/still-i-rise). Daniel and Ashley share what this poem means to them. On a personal note, my wife and I saw Maya Angelou speak when we were in our informative years and were so moved, we gave our youngest daughter her name as a middle name. Her words are a powerful reminder of what many endure and overcome. The words below are inspiring as the next generation learns from Maya's message and prepares for their own path forward. Our future is bright with physicians like them – we wish them well.
  • The contextual interview: a cross-cutting patient-interviewing approach for social context

    Cahill, Amber; Martin, Matthew; Beachy, Bridget; Bauman, David; Howard-Young, Jordan (2024-02-06)
    Patient interviewing pedagogy in medical education has not evolved to comprehensively capture the biopsychosocial model of healthcare delivery. While gathering a patient's social history targets important aspects of social context it does not adequately capture and account for the real-time reassessment required to understand evolving factors that influence exposure to drivers of health inequities, social determinants of health, and access to supports that promote health. The authors offer a patient interviewing approach called the Contextual Interview (CI) that specifically targets dynamic and ever-changing social context information. To substantiate the use of the CI in medical education, the authors conducted a qualitative review of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Milestones for primary care specialties (Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Pediatrics). Milestones were coded to the extent to which they reflected the learner's need to acknowledge, assess, synthesize and/or apply patient contextual data in real-time patient encounters. Approximately 1 in 5 milestones met the context-related and patient-facing criteria. This milestone review further highlights the need for more intentional training in eliciting meaningful social context data during patient interviewing. The CI as a cross-cutting, practical, time-conscious, and semi-structured patient interviewing approach that deliberately elicits information to improve the clinician's sense and understanding of a patient's social context. The authors reviewed future directions in researching adapted versions of the CI for undergraduate and graduate medical education.
  • Protein and Guide RNA Engineering of a Compact Cas9 for Enhanced Precision Genome Editing

    Bamidele, Nathan (2024-02-06)
    CRISPR-Cas technologies enable robust manipulation of genetic material, and have been instrumental in advancing a wide range of fields across the life sciences. Specifically, with the ability to correct or alter faulty genes, genome editing tools promise to transform the field of genetic medicine. Current CRISPR-based editors [nucleases, base editors (BEs), and prime editors (PE)] can be programed to induce efficient mutagenesis/repair, conversion, and polymerization, respectively. Presently, nucleases - the most clinically advanced genome editors - suffer from inadequate control of genome editing outcomes. Over time, the field has focused on precision editors such as BEs and PEs that do not rely on double-strand breaks and greatly improve the safety and control of genome editing outcomes. Despite these advances, challenges such as targeting scope, accuracy and in vivo delivery represent major hurdles for the therapeutic application of next-generation editing systems such as BE and PE. In this thesis, I focus on alleviating some of the key obstacles associated with effective genome editing by improving the unique properties of a compact Cas9 orthologue (Nme2Cas9 from Neisseria meningitidis). The bulk of my thesis consists of protein engineering efforts to improve the activity and targeting scope of Nme2Cas9-derived editing systems. My later work focuses on the development of chemically stabilized guide RNAs, providing a path to facilitate in vivo delivery in a variety of formats. Overall, the advances presented in this thesis contribute to the versatility of CRISPR-based genome editing systems for a variety of therapeutic and research applications.
  • UMCCTS Newsletter, February 2024

    UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science (2024-02-01)
    This is the February 2024 issue of the UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science Newsletter containing news and events of interest.
  • No wrong of their own

    Yalakkishettar, Pratiksha (2024-02-01)
    Introduction: This week I share with you a poem from Pratiksha Yalakkishettar, a former family medicine resident at Hahnemann Family Health Center and current Preventive Medicine resident. She says this is "a piece I wrote recently reflecting on an incident on L&D from a few years ago during FM residency where a mother was going to be separated from her child after discharge." There is nothing as overwhelming in life as being separated from a loved one and even worse when it is a child. Pratiksha captures the moment from the clinician's perspective.
  • Microbiota encoded fatty-acid metabolism expands tuft cells to protect tissues homeostasis during infection in the large intestine [preprint]

    Kellogg, Tasia D; Ceglia, Simona; Mortzfeld, Benedikt M; Zeamer, Abigail L; Foley, Sage E; Ward, Doyle V; Bhattarai, Shakti K; McCormick, Beth A; Reboldi, Andrea; Bucci, Vanni (2024-01-31)
    Metabolic byproducts of the intestinal microbiota are crucial in maintaining host immune tone and shaping inter-species ecological dynamics. Among these metabolites, succinate is a driver of tuft cell (TC) differentiation and consequent type 2 immunity-dependent protection against invading parasites in the small intestine. Succinate is also a growth enhancer of the nosocomial pathogen Clostridioides difficile in the large intestine. To date, no research has shown the role of succinate in modulating TC dynamics in the large intestine, or the relevance of this immune pathway to C. difficile pathophysiology. Here we reveal the existence of a three-way circuit between commensal microbes, C. difficile and host epithelial cells which centers around succinate. Through selective microbiota depletion experiments we demonstrate higher levels of type 2 cytokines leading to expansion of TCs in the colon. We then demonstrate the causal role of the microbiome in modulating colonic TC abundance and subsequent type 2 cytokine induction using rational supplementation experiments with fecal transplants and microbial consortia of succinate-producing bacteria. We show that administration of a succinate-deficient Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron knockout (Δfrd) significantly reduces the enhanced type 2 immunity in mono-colonized mice. Finally, we demonstrate that mice prophylactically administered with the consortium of succinate-producing bacteria show reduced C. difficile-induced morbidity and mortality compared to mice administered with heat-killed bacteria or the vehicle. This effect is reduced in a partial tuft cell knockout mouse, Pou2f3+/-, and nullified in the tuft cell knockout mouse, Pou2f3-/-, confirming that the observed protection occurs via the TC pathway. Succinate is an intermediary metabolite of the production of short-chain fatty acids, and its concentration often increases during dysbiosis. The first barrier to enteric pathogens alike is the intestinal epithelial barrier, and host maintenance and strengthening of barrier integrity is vital to homeostasis. Considering our data, we propose that activation of TC by the microbiota-produced succinate in the colon is a mechanism evolved by the host to counterbalance microbiome-derived cues that facilitate invasion by intestinal pathogens.
  • Association of spatial proximity to fixed-site syringe services programs with HCV serostatus and injection equipment sharing practices among people who inject drugs in rural New England, United States

    Romo, Eric; Stopka, Thomas J; Jesdale, Bill M; Wang, Bo; Mazor, Kathleen M; Friedmann, Peter D (2024-01-28)
    Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) disproportionately affects rural communities, where health services are geographically dispersed. It remains unknown whether proximity to a syringe services program (SSP) is associated with HCV infection among rural people who inject drugs (PWID). Methods: Data are from a cross-sectional sample of adults who reported injecting drugs in the past 30 days recruited from rural counties in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts (2018-2019). We calculated the road network distance between each participant's address and the nearest fixed-site SSP, categorized as ≤ 1 mile, 1-3 miles, 3-10 miles, and > 10 miles. Staff performed HCV antibody tests and a survey assessed past 30-day injection equipment sharing practices: borrowing used syringes, borrowing other used injection equipment, and backloading. Mixed effects modified Poisson regression estimated prevalence ratios (aPR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Analyses were also stratified by means of transportation. Results: Among 330 PWID, 25% lived ≤ 1 mile of the nearest SSP, 17% lived 1-3 miles of an SSP, 12% lived 3-10 miles of an SSP, and 46% lived > 10 miles from an SSP. In multivariable models, compared to PWID who lived within 1 mile of an SSP, those who lived 3 to 10 miles away had a higher prevalence of HCV seropositivity (aPR: 1.25, 95% CI 1.06-1.46), borrowing other used injection equipment (aPR: 1.23, 95% CI 1.04-1.46), and backloading (aPR: 1.48, 95% CI 1.17-1.88). Similar results were observed for PWID living > 10 miles from an SSP: aPR [HCV]: 1.19, 95% CI 1.01-1.40; aPR [borrowing other used equipment]:1.45, 95% CI 1.29-1.63; and aPR [backloading]: 1.59, 95% CI 1.13-2.24. Associations between living 1 to 3 miles of an SSP and each outcome did not reach statistical significance. When stratified by means of transportation, associations between distance to SSP and each outcome (except borrowing other used injection equipment) were only observed among PWID who traveled by other means (versus traveled by automobile). Conclusions: Among PWID in rural New England, living farther from a fixed-site SSP was associated with a higher prevalence of HCV seropositivity, borrowing other used injection equipment, and backloading, reinforcing the need to increase SSP accessibility in rural areas. Means of transportation may modify this relationship.
  • Investigating the etiologies of non-malarial febrile illness in Senegal using metagenomic sequencing

    Levine, Zoë C; Sene, Aita; Mkandawire, Winnie; Deme, Awa B; Ndiaye, Tolla; Sy, Mouhamad; Gaye, Amy; Diedhiou, Younouss; Mbaye, Amadou M; Ndiaye, Ibrahima M; et al. (2024-01-25)
    The worldwide decline in malaria incidence is revealing the extensive burden of non-malarial febrile illness (NMFI), which remains poorly understood and difficult to diagnose. To characterize NMFI in Senegal, we collected venous blood and clinical metadata in a cross-sectional study of febrile patients and healthy controls in a low malaria burden area. Using 16S and untargeted sequencing, we detected viral, bacterial, or eukaryotic pathogens in 23% (38/163) of NMFI cases. Bacteria were the most common, with relapsing fever Borrelia and spotted fever Rickettsia found in 15.5% and 3.8% of cases, respectively. Four viral pathogens were found in a total of 7 febrile cases (3.5%). Sequencing also detected undiagnosed Plasmodium, including one putative P. ovale infection. We developed a logistic regression model that can distinguish Borrelia from NMFIs with similar presentation based on symptoms and vital signs (F1 score: 0.823). These results highlight the challenge and importance of improved diagnostics, especially for Borrelia, to support diagnosis and surveillance.

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