Impact of COVID-19 prevention and control on tuberculosis and scarlet fever in China's Guizhou.

China has implemented a series of long-term measures to control the spread of COVID-19, however, the effects of these measures on other chronic and acute respiratory infectious diseases remain unclear. Tuberculosis (TB) and scarlet fever (SF) serve as representatives of chronic and acute respiratory infectious diseases, respectively. In China's Guizhou province, an area with a high prevalence of TB and SF, approximately 40,000 TB cases and hundreds of SF cases are reported annually. To assess the impact of COVID-19 prevention and control on TB and SF in Guizhou, the exponential smoothing method was employed to establish a prediction model for analyzing the influence of COVID-19 prevention and control on the number of TB and SF cases. Additionally, spatial aggregation analysis was utilized to describe spatial changes in TB and SF before and after the COVID-19 outbreak. The parameters of the TB and SF prediction models are R2 = 0.856, BIC = 10.972 and R2 = 0.714, BIC = 5.325, respectively. TB and SF cases declined rapidly at the onset of COVID-19 prevention and control measures, with the number of SF cases decreasing for about 3-6 months and the number of TB cases remaining in decline for 7 months after the 11th month. The spatial aggregation of TB and SF did not change significantly before and after the COVID-19 outbreak but exhibited a marked decrease. These findings suggest that China's COVID-19 prevention and control measures also reduced the prevalence of TB and SF in Guizhou. These measures may have a long-term positive impact on TB, but a short-term effect on SF. Areas with high TB prevalence may continue to experience a decline due to the implementation of COVID-19 preventive measures in the future.

Dynamic immunogenicity after primary and booster inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in people living with HIV: A longitudinal observational study.

People living with HIV (PLWH) have poor outcomes from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2); vaccination reduces the associated mortality. The humoral immune response dynamics after booster inactivated vaccinations in PLWH remain unclear. In this longitudinal observational study, 100 PLWH after primary inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccination were consecutively recruited and followed up. After booster vaccination (BV), neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) were detected at 1 month from all the PLWH, and the titer increased sixfold compared to that associated with the primary vaccination (PV), similar to that in healthy controls after BV. The NAbs titer declined over time after BV, but remained higher at 6 months than after PV. The NAbs response was elevated after BV with CD4 count <200 cells/µL, it was the poorest among the different CD4 cell count subgroups. Similar results were observed for anti-RBD-IgG responses. Moreover, RBD-specific MBCs were significantly elevated after BV in PLWH. No serious AEs were observed after BV in PLWH. In conclusion, booster inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccination is well tolerated and can elicit robust and durable humoral responses in PLWH. PLWH may benefit from a third dose of the inactivated vaccine.

COVID-19 risk perception and tourist satisfaction: A mixed-method study of the roles of destination image and self-protection behavior.

This study aimed to examine the effects of COVID-19 risk perception on negative destination image and self-protection behavior, and the resultant effects on tourist satisfaction. Hence, this study applied a continuous interpretive mixed-method design combining quantitative and qualitative analyses. A quantitative survey (n = 486) in the cities of Ningbo, Huangshan, and Chengdu, China, and 19 qualitative interviews were conducted online. The results of the quantitative study show that: (1) Risk perception and negative destination image are antecedent variables influencing tourist satisfaction, and (2) there are significant positive correlations between risk perception and negative destination image, risk perception and tourist self-protection behavior, and negative destination image and tourist self-protection behavior. Moreover, (3) negative destination image had a partial mediating effect between risk perception and satisfaction. Furthermore, to supplement the research data and expand the quantitative findings, this study further examined whether the above variables are related to tourist satisfaction, through in-depth interviews with tourists. The findings showed that COVID-19 risk perception, negative destination image, and self-protection behavior all affect tourist satisfaction. The findings provide valuable crisis management suggestions for the government and should contribute to the efforts of tourist destinations to build a healthy and safe image, thereby contributing to the sustainable development of tourism industries in the post-epidemic era.

Covid-19 Study, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Transition.

INTRODUCTION: The outbreak of coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus2, COVID-19, SARS-Co-2) in Wuhan, China occurred three years ago. However, the healthcare state and legislature for Covid-19 varied greatly worldwide. AIMS: After three years, the social life of most countries worldwide is gradually back to normal. Diagnosis and therapeutics worldwide are formalized now. Improvement of the knowledge about this devastating disease will shed new light on its management and spawn the development of new counter measures. Due to the differences in socioeconomic conditions and policies worldwide, the diagnostic and therapeutic transition should be established. METHODS: The schedules and techniques of vaccines, drugs, or other therapeutic strategies could be formalized in the future. The origin and hidden nature of Covid-19 biology (relationship between viral strain and drug targeting) should be further investigated. Knowledge and opinion breakthroughs may significantly heighten the quality of preventive and therapeutic strategies against Covid-19. RESULTS: To further stabilize the global situation, the issues of viral spread and induced mortality should be emphasized. Existing animal models, pathophysiological knowledge, and therapeutics for different infected patients played vital roles. The diagnostic widening, variants of COVID, and therapeutic selection worldwide totally solve the complex outcomes and promote the curability for infected patients. DISCUSSION: Different diagnostic platforms can reach different therapeutic selections, responses, and benefits in the clinic. It will provide advanced diagnostic dimensions, therapeutic paradigms, and drug selection strategies for the purpose of the greatest benefiting and recoveries of Covid-19 patients. CONCLUSION: To speed up the global fight against Covid-19, biomedical knowledge, prophylactic vaccines, and therapeutic paradigms should be updated in dynamic states.

Off-the-shelf CAR natural killer cells secreting IL-15 target spike in treating COVID-19.

Engineered natural killer (NK) cells represent a promising option for immune therapy option due to their immediate availability in allogeneic settings. Severe acute diseases, such as COVID-19, require targeted and immediate intervention. Here we show engineering of NK cells to express (1) soluble interleukin-15 (sIL15) for enhancing their survival and (2) a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) consisting of an extracellular domain of ACE2, targeting the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. These CAR NK cells (mACE2-CAR_sIL15 NK cells) bind to VSV-SARS-CoV-2 chimeric viral particles as well as the recombinant SARS-CoV-2 spike protein subunit S1 leading to enhanced NK cell production of TNF-α and IFN-γ and increased in vitro and in vivo cytotoxicity against cells expressing the spike protein. Administration of mACE2-CAR_sIL15 NK cells maintains body weight, reduces viral load, and prolongs survival of transgenic mice expressing human ACE2 upon infection with live SARS-CoV-2. These experiments, and the capacity of mACE2-CAR_sIL15 NK cells to retain their activity following cryopreservation, demonstrate their potential as an allogeneic off-the-shelf therapy for COVID-19 patients who are faced with limited treatment options.

Safety and immunogenicity of inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in people living with HIV.

It is important to know the safety and efficacy of vaccination in immunocompromised people living with HIV (PLWH), but currently, there is limited data on the inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccines' safety and immune responses in PLWH. In this prospective observational study, 139 PLWH and 120 healthy controls were enrolled and monitored for 21-105 days after a two-dose vaccination. The safety, anti-receptor binding domain IgG (anti-RBD-IgG) and anti-spike-IgG responses, and RBD-specific memory B cell (MBC) responses were evaluated. The overall adverse events within seven days were reported in 12.9% (18/139) of PLWH and 13.3% (16/120) of healthy controls. No serious adverse events occurred in both groups. Overall, the seroprevalence of anti-RBD-IgG in PLWH was significantly decreased (87.1% vs. 99.2%; p<0.001). The geometric mean end-point titer (GMT) of anti-RBD-IgG in PLWH was also reduced, especially in patients with CD4 counts <200 cells/µL, regardless of age, gender, or HIV viral load. GMTs of anti-RBD-IgG in both PLWH and healthy controls declined gradually over time. Similar results were also observed in the anti-spike-IgG response. The frequency of RBD-specific MBCs in PLWH decreased (p<0.05), and then remained stable over time. Lastly, through multivariate analysis, we found the factors that predicted a less robust response to inactivated vaccines in PLWH were a low CD4 count and long time interval after vaccination. In conclusion, inactivated vaccines are well-tolerated in PLWH but with low immunogenicity. Therefore, SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and booster doses should be given priority in PLWH, especially in patients with low CD4 counts.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT05043129..

Effects of Wise Intervention on Perceived Discrimination Among College Students Returning Home From Wuhan During the COVID-19 Outbreak.

At the beginning of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, college students returning home from Wuhan, Hubei Province, experienced various degrees of discrimination. This study first investigates perceived discrimination among college students returning home from Wuhan. Then, an experimental method is used to investigate the effectiveness of an intervention designed to reduce the perceived discrimination among those who returned to towns outside of Hubei Province. A total of 63 college students participated in the experiment. In the experimental group (N = 31), a wise intervention based on reading and writing was adopted to intervene in perceived discrimination among the participants. The results showed that the perceived discrimination among students returning from Wuhan to towns outside of Hubei Province was significantly higher than that among students returning to towns within Hubei Province. The wise intervention reduced the perceived discrimination in the experimental group but not in the control group. Further analysis found that perceived social support fully mediated the relationship between the intervention and perceived discrimination. These results provide insights on how the content of intervention (perceived social support) and the form of intervention (wise intervention) can prevent the occurrence of psychological problems in epidemic situations.