Malaria and the incidence of COVID-19 in Africa: an ecological study.

BACKGROUND: It has been shown that stimulation of innate immunity may provide temporary protection against a variety of infectious diseases. Malaria has been shown to induce a robust innate immune response. This study was conducted to test the hypothesis that if the cumulative number of cases diagnosed with COVID-19 per 100,000 population was correlated with the prevalence of malaria in African countries where both malaria and COVID-19 were prevalent. METHODS: In this ecological study, the cumulative incidence of COVID-19 and the prevalence of malaria were compared in 53 African countries. A negative binomial regression analysis with the cumulative incidence of COVID-19 as the dependent variable, and the human development index (HDI) and the prevalence of malaria, as independent variables, were used. RESULTS: The mean cumulative incidence of COVID-19 was 522 cases per 100,000. Each 0.1 unit increase in HDI was associated with 2.4-fold (95% confidence interval 1.8-3.1) increase in the cumulative incidence of COVID-19. Prevalence of malaria was also independently associated with the cumulative incidence; each 10% increase in the prevalence was associated with 28% (10-41%) decrease in the cumulative incidence of COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS: Malaria might protect people against SARS-CoV-2 through the stimulation of innate immunity. Stimulation of the innate immune system could be the first line of defense in the pandemic preparedness arsenal.

Trends of intrauterine device insertion and 'Googling' about intrauterine devices before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted access to primary care in Australia. This could have negatively impacted reproductive health services rates such as intrauterine device insertion rates, and interest in seeking information about intrauterine devices by searching on Google. We aimed to assess the trends of, and the association between, the actual Medicare service utilization rates for intrauterine device insertion and searching about intrauterine devices on Google, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We conducted systematic analyses of secondary data from June 2017 to May 2022, using Medicare and Google Trends data sources. We visualized the rates of intrauterine device insertion, plus Google's search volumes about 'Intrauterine device' and 'Progestin IUDs' as topics. Then, we assessed the correlation between intrauterine device insertion rates and Google search, using Spearman correlation. Results: The average yearly rates of intrauterine device insertion increased noticeably from 25.1-26.3 in 2018-2019 to 29.3-31.2 per 100,000 population in 2020-2021 (12-18% increase). The highest monthly intrauterine device insertion rate nationally (37 per 100,000 population) was seen in March 2021. By June 2020, search term use for the two intrauterine device-related topics returned to much higher levels (50% increase for 'Progestin IUDs', and 54% for 'Intrauterine device', respectively). A moderately strong correlation was seen between actual intrauterine device insertion rates and search on Google about intrauterine devices (Spearman rho = 0.61, p < 0.000). Conclusion: We demonstrated a moderately strong correlation between trends of intrauterine device insertion rates and search on Google about intrauterine devices, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. Googling about intrauterine devices could, therefore, be a useful indicator to gauge future interest in actual intrauterine device insertion for months thereafter.

Analytical evaluation of the novel VITROS BRAHMS procalcitonin immunoassay.

To determine the analytical performance of Novel VITROS BRAHMS Procalcitonin Immunoassay on VITROS 3600 and correlation with BRAHMS PCT sensitive KRYPTOR reference method. Analytical performances including imprecision studies, linearity, limit of detection (LoD) and determination of hemolysis index were performed for VITROS BRAHMS PCT assay. Imprecision was assessed on plasma pool and internal control with 2 levels. The method comparison was performed using 162 plasma obtained from clinical departments. The total imprecision was acceptable and all CV were <5%. The LoD was in accordance with manufacturer's claims. The equation of linearity in the lower range was found to be y = 1.0014x - 0.0091, with r2 = 1. No interference to hemoglobin up to 11 g/L was observed. Correlation studies showed a good correlation between PCT measurements using VITROS BRAHMS PCT assay against KRYPTOR system including for values lower than 2 µg/L. The novel VITROS BRAHMS PCT assay from OrthoClinical Diagnostics shows analytical performances acceptable for clinical use. In addition, the concordance with KRYPTOR method was fine at all clinical cut-offs.