Seasonal pattern and phylogenetic analysis with human isolates of genotype-IV hepatitis E virus in swine herds, eastern China / 中华预防医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To determine the seasonal prevalence of genotype-IV hepatitis E virus (HEV) in swine herds in Eastern China and explore the phylogenetic relationship between swine HEV and human HEV in the situation that zoonotic features of HEV had been confirmed.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>From September 2007 to June 2008, a total of 1200 swine bile specimens were collected from three slaughter houses located in Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangsu, the Eastern China, and detected for HEV RNA by using nested RT-PCR. The positive PCR products were sequenced. Then the swine HEV were phylogenetically determined with human HEV isolated in Eastern China.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The positive rate for HEV RNA in swine herds was 4.5% totally. Significant differences of HEV detection were not observed among seasonal pattern (Sep - Oct: 6%, Dec - Jan: 4.33%, Mar - Apr: 4.33%, May - Jun: 3.33%) but in geographic distribution (Jiangsu: 6%, Anhui: 5%, Zhejiang: 2.5%). Regardless of isolation from different areas,swine and human genotype-IV HEV shared a high similarity. Phylogenetically, there were 80% - 100% and 96% - 100% identities within swine genotype-lV HEV at the nucleotide and amino acid levels respectively. Between swine HEV and human HEV, there were also similarities of 76% -99% and 95% - 100%. It was noted that some human and swine isolates were clustered with bootstrap values of > 90%.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Genotype-IV HEV is widely prevalent in swine herds in Eastern China and original common ancestor of evolution and transmission was implied. The sustaining prevalence within swine herds should have a probable influence on the epidemic situation of hepatitis E in human beings.</p>

Low back pain prevalence of female workers in flat-grained veneer wood industry / 中华劳动卫生职业病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the low back pain(LBP) and its cause on female workers in flat-grained veneer wood industry.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Bending posture was analyzed by observation and the prevalence of low back pain was investigated by physical examination and questionnaire among 299 female workers.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The prevalence of fatigue compliant in selecting, remending and sticking workers was 68.8%, 66.7% and 59.0%, respectively, which mainly involved in the part of low back. The prevalence of low back pain in selection (53.8%) and remending (58.7%) workers was higher than that in sticking workers (30.1%), which was in accordance with the tenderness between L4/L5 or L5/L6 and on the psoas major. Posture analysis indicated that the biggest bending range of selecting and remending workers (80 degrees ) was larger than that of sticking workers (60 degrees ), as well as the daily bending times[(4396+/-817), (1696+/-286), (1094+/-476)] and the time they kept bending[(6.5+/-0.6), (6.2+/-1.3), 4.5+/-0.9) h].</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Bending posture is common among female workers especially those who work in selecting and remending and might be the major causes for the high prevalence of LBP in flat-grained veneer wood industry.</p>

A cost-effectiveness study on a case-finding program of tuberculosis through screening those suspects with chronic cough symptoms in the rich rural areas / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of a case-finding program on tuberculosis (TB) in richer rural areas.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Screening was implemented every three months for a total period of 9 months, in rural areas with high case notification rates. Three villages, each with ten thousand population, were selected to carry out a household screening program. A suspect was defined as who coughed for more than 3 weeks. The suspect was then referred to further diagnosis in county TB dispensary to undergo chest X-ray and sputum test.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Of the 86,168 community population screened, 26 TB patients were identified with 7 of them were smear positive. The ratio of effectiveness vs. cost decreased on the second but slightly increased on the third screening program. The direct costs for the 3 screening programs were 6,312,397 and 1637 RMB respectively. Of total direct cost, 5.9% was paid by TB patients, whereas 35.9% was through financing of the county itself.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The community household screening program could achieve higher case detection rate than passive case-finding approach which could be used in richer areas with low case detection rate in China.</p>

Detection and analysis of partial sequences isolated from human and swine in rural area of southern China / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the genotype of swines isolated from humans and their relationships with hepatitis E virus (HEV) in the rural areas of southern China.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Specimens collected from normal people with HEV-IgM positive, acute hepatitis E patients and from swine in the same area were detected for HEV RNA using RT-nPCR with ORF2 primers. The positive PCR products were cloned and sequenced.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>13 out of the 132 samples from swine stool, 4 of 26 HEV-IgM positive sera of normal people and 1 of 4 acute hepatitis E patients' stool sample and sera were tested positive for HEV RNA. Data from sequence analysis showed that the identity at nucleotide level was 89.3%-100.0% among the 10 isolates which shared 78.7% - 84.7%, 83.3% - 85.3%, 76.0% - 80.0% and 84.7% - 95.3% nucleotide sequence identity with HEV genotype I, II, III and IV respectively in the region (nt6317- 6466).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>HEV circulating in humans and swine in the area belonged to genotype IV.</p>