Serological response to a third dose of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine according to previous infection history

The IgG antibody titer against SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding protein (RBD) after mRNA vaccine were compared between those with and without previous infection (PI) for up to 48 weeks. Though sustained higher IgG-RBD were observed in the PI group after two doses of vaccines, both groups benefited from the booster shots of the third vaccine. This data supports the necessity of the booster shots to those with PI.

Special Issue "Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation: An Interdisciplinary Approach".

The UN member states adopted three international agreements for the post-2015 agenda: the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development [...].

Serological response to a third dose of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine according to previous infection history.

The IgG antibody titer against SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding protein (RBD) after mRNA vaccine were compared between those with and without previous infection (PI) for up to 48 weeks. Though sustained higher IgG-RBD were observed in the PI group after two doses of vaccines, both groups benefited from the booster shots of the third vaccine. This data supports the necessity of the booster shots to those with PI.

People's Perception of Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study in Japan.

This study aims to examine people's perception of well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan and quantitatively clarify key factors towards realizing evidence-based policymaking. In March 2022, 400 participants responded to a survey conducted through Rakuten Insight. The authors applied an ordinal logistic regression (OLR), followed by principal component analysis (PCA), to create a new compound indicator (CI) to represent people's perception of well-being during the pandemic in addition to ordinary least squares (OLS) regression with a forward-backward stepwise selection method, where the dependent variable is the principal component score of the first principal component (PC1), while the independent variables are the same as the abovementioned OLR. Consequently, while analyzing OLR, some independent variables showed statistical significance, while the CI provided an option to grasp people's perception of well-being. Furthermore, family structure was statistically significant in all cases of OLR and OLS. Moreover, in terms of the standardized coefficients (beta) of OLS, the family structure had the greatest impact on the CI. Based on the study results, the authors advocate that the Japanese government should pay more attention to single-person households affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Exploring People's Perception of COVID-19 Risk: A Case Study of Greater Jakarta, Indonesia.

This study aims to understand people's perceptions of COVID-19 risk in Greater Jakarta, Indonesia. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indonesian government enacted a health protocol campaign and highlighted the community as an important unit of protocol compliance. We hypothesized that people's perception of the likelihood of being infected with COVID-19 is associated with health protocol compliance at the community level and their perception of community resilience. As the number of infected persons drastically increased, the "family cluster" also became a significant issue in the pandemic response, especially in Indonesia. In this study, we explored both community and family aspects that influence people's perceptions. We conducted an online survey in March 2021 with 370 respondents residing in the Greater Jakarta area. The respondents were classified into four age groups (20s, 30s, 40s, and 50-and-over), with gender-balanced samples allocated to each group. We used a questionnaire to measure the perception of COVID-19 risk along with the Conjoint Community Resiliency Assessment Measure (CCRAM). Multiple regression analysis revealed that family factors have a much larger influence on the individual perception of the likelihood of contracting COVID-19 than community factors. The results suggest that the link between family-level efforts against COVID-19 and individual-level perceptions cannot be separated in response to the pandemic.

Performance of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing in asymptomatic or mild COVID-19 patients: A retrospective study in outbreak on a cruise ship.

OBJECTIVES: A few studies on antibody testing have focused on asymptomatic or mild coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients with low initial anti-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibody responses. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody-testing performance was evaluated using blood samples from asymptomatic or mild COVID-19 patients. METHODS: Blood samples were collected from 143 COVID-19 patients during an outbreak on a cruise ship 3 weeks after diagnosis. Simultaneously, a follow-up SARS-CoV-2 genetic test was performed. Samples stored before the COVID-19 pandemic were also used to evaluate the lateral flow immunochromatographic assay (LFA) and electrochemiluminescence immunoassay (ECLIA). Titers of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG antibodies against the nucleocapsid and spike proteins were measured using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to confirm which antibodies were influenced on LFA- and ECLIA- false-negative result in crew-member samples. RESULTS: Sensitivity, specificity, positive-predictive, and negative-predictive values of LFA-detected IgM antibodies were 0.231, 1.000, 1.000, and 0.613, respectively; those of LFA-detected IgG antibodies were 0.483, 0.989, 0.972, and 0.601, respectively; and those of ECLIA-detected total antibodies were 0.783, 1.000, 1.000, and 0.848, respectively. All antibody titers measured using ELISA were significantly lower in blood samples with negative results than in those with positive results in both LFA and ECLIA. In the patients with negative results from the follow-up genetic testing, IgM-, IgG-, and total-antibody positivity rates were 22.9%, 47.6%, and 72.4%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing has lower performance in asymptomatic or mild COVID-19 patients than required in the guidelines.

Detection of SARS-CoV-2 using qRT-PCR in saliva obtained from asymptomatic or mild COVID-19 patients, comparative analysis with matched nasopharyngeal samples.

OBJECTIVES: The accurate detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is essential for the diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We compared the quantitative RT-PCR results between nasopharyngeal swabs and saliva specimens. METHODS: A COVID-19 outbreak occurred on a cruise ship at Nagasaki port, Japan. We obtained 123 nasopharyngeal swabs and saliva each from asymptomatic or mild patients in the late phase of infection. RESULTS: The intervals from the diagnosis to the sampling were 25.5 days for nasopharyngeal swabs and 28.9 days for saliva. The positive rate was 19.5% (24/123) for nasopharyngeal swabs and 38.2% (47/123) for saliva (P = 0.48). The quantified viral copies (mean ± SEM copies/5 µl) were 9.3±2.6 in nasopharyngeal swabs and 920±850 in saliva (P = 0.0006). CONCLUSIONS: The advantages of saliva specimens include positive rate improvement and accurate viral load detection. Saliva may be used as a reliable sample for SARS-CoV-2 detection.

Had COVID-19 spread in the community before the first confirmed case in Nagasaki, Japan?

This retrospective study evaluated stored nasopharyngeal swab samples from Japanese patients with influenza-like illness during the 2019/2020 season. We aimed to determine whether COVID-19 had spread in the community before the first confirmed case. The period of influenza season during 2019/2020 in Nagasaki was shorter than in previous influenza seasons. When the first COVID-19 case was reported in Nagasaki prefecture, the number of influenza cases were very low. No positive results for SARS-CoV-2 were detected in 182 samples that were obtained from adult outpatients. Our results revealed no large-scale spread of COVID-19 in the community before the first confirmed case.

Implementation of evacuation measures during natural disasters under conditions of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic based on a review of previous responses to complex disasters in Japan.

We aimed to investigate how evacuation measures could be effectively implemented in the event of multiple disasters caused by natural hazards under conditions of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) pandemic, which is rapidly spreading worldwide. We conducted a review of literature focusing on complex disasters, entailing natural disasters in combination of outbreaks or endemics of infectious diseases. Using the Google Scholar search engine, we identified and reviewed 24 papers sourced from academia, governments, and concerned organizations, and associated data on such disasters, commencing with the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, which occurred in 1995. In light of our review, we developed a summary of correspondences and problems linked to compound disasters involving conjunctions of outbreaks/endemics and natural disasters that could offer insights for developing measures to deal with natural disasters that occur in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We subsequently attempted to differentiate the characteristics of evacuation measures relating to COVID-19 from those relating to other infectious diseases using three sets of extracted keywords: (1) surveillance and information sharing, (2) evacuation center environment and stockpiled supplies, and (3) community disaster risk reduction and community leadership. We identified issues relating to evacuation measures that would need to be explored further to improve disaster management and preparedness in the future.