Hepatitis C Point-of-Care Screening in Retail Pharmacies in the United States.

Background and Aims: Approximately half of adults with hepatitis C in the United States do not know their infection status, and the majority of persons who know they are positive for hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibodies fail to receive care. We conducted a screening program in retail pharmacies and calculated the percentages of anti-HCV-positive individuals and how many subsequently entered a pathway to care. Methods: At 45 Walgreens retail pharmacies in 9 US cities, direct store advertising was used to recruit individuals for HCV antibody testing. Participants were at least 18 years old with at least 1 HCV risk factor, such as being born between 1945 and 1965. One day per week at each site, a phlebotomist obtained consent from interested participants and performed the testing. Within 3 business days, an HCV management specialist contacted anti-HCV-positive individuals and provided test results and a pathway for obtaining HCV RNA testing. During the following 21 to 28 days, the same HCV management specialist telephoned individuals to determine whether they underwent an HCV RNA test. Results: Between September 2015 and February 2016, 1298 individuals consented. Two patients withdrew consent after testing. In all, 8% (103/1296) were HCV antibody-positive; of them, 91 (88%) were contacted by an HCV management specialist. During the 21- to 28-day follow-up, 56 individuals (62%; 56/91) were reached by an HCV management specialist, and 29 (52%; 29/56) confirmed that an HCV RNA test was ordered. Conclusions: These results provide evidence in support of point-of-care HCV screening in retail pharmacies for at-risk individuals in the United States.

Low-vision education for the health care workforce: strategy to create a vision-friendly hosital.

BACKGROUND: Aging of the baby boomers presents a unique set of challenges for health care workers. Low vision among patients may be a barrier to providing appropriate patient care, may impede communication, and may decrease patients' satisfaction with health care. It is important to train the medical workforce to understand the unique challenges of the aging population. OBJECTIVE: To test an interactive educational learning model targeting health care workers to improve knowledge and awareness of low vision. METHODS: Participants completed a survey prior to and after an educational intervention that consisted of 4 components: (1) normal aging, (2) eye-disease of the elderly, (3) experiential learning, and (4) written material with references and further resources. RESULTS: Three hundred eight-six members of the hospital workforce completed the training. There was statistically significant improvement in 7 of the 8 test questions. One question demonstrated a positive trend but was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: An interactive educational model on low vision can improve the knowledge of the health care team. This may lead to improvement in patients' satisfaction and quality of care and help create a vision-friendly hospital.

Detection of Chlamydia pneumoniae in liver transplant patients with chronic allograft rejection.

BACKGROUND: Chlamydia pneumoniae is one of the possible pathogenetic factors of atherosclerotic processes. Foam cell arteriopathy is a generally accepted pathologic feature of chronic liver allograft rejection and has several similarities to the early lesions of atherosclerosis. The aim of the authors' study was to show any existing correlation between the occurrence of Chlamydia pneumoniae and the presence of foam cell arteriopathy in transplanted livers with chronic rejection. METHODS: Ten liver samples from patients with chronic liver rejection including foam cell arteriopathy and 10 liver samples from healthy individuals were analyzed for the presence of Chlamydia pneumoniae by specific immunohistochemistry and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Liver samples from two transplant patients with chronic liver rejection without any evidence of foam cell arteriopathy and nine patients with acute liver allograft rejection were also investigated by PCR. RESULTS: In all 10 rejected liver samples, Chlamydia pneumoniae was detected by PCR, whereas only one of the healthy control samples and one of the samples with acute rejection were found to be positive. Immunohistochemistry showed similar results. The positive signals of Chlamydia pneumoniae were localized mainly in the hepatocytes, sinusoidal and perisinusoidal cells, and the cells of portal tracts, whereas most of the altered hepatic arteries showed no or very weak positivity. CONCLUSIONS: The results strongly suggest an association between the occurrence of Chlamydia pneumoniae and the presence of foam cell arteriopathy in transplanted livers.

The vascular lesions of a cow and bison with sheep-associated malignant catarrhal fever contain ovine herpesvirus 2-infected CD8(+) T lymphocytes.

Malignant catarrhal fever (MCF) is a herpesvirus disease syndrome of ruminants. The microscopic pathology of MCF is characterized by lymphoid proliferation and infiltration, necrotizing vasculitis and epithelial necrosis. Because previous attempts to detect viral antigen or nucleic acids in lesions have been unsuccessful, the pathogenesis of the lesions in acute MCF has been speculated to involve mechanisms of autoimmunity and lymphocyte dysregulation. In this study, the vascular lesions in the brains of a cow and a bison with acute MCF were evaluated by in situ PCR and immunohistochemistry. The results demonstrated that the predominant infiltrating cell type in these lesions was CD8(+) T lymphocytes and that large numbers of these cells were infected with ovine herpesvirus 2. The lesions also contained macrophages, but no detectable CD4(+) or B lymphocytes.

Polymorphic membrane protein (PMP) 20 and PMP 21 of Chlamydia pneumoniae induce proinflammatory mediators in human endothelial cells in vitro by activation of the nuclear factor-kappaB pathway.

We tested whether polymorphic membrane proteins (PMPs) of Chlamydia pneumoniae might play a role in triggering an inflammatory response in human endothelial cells. Of 15 purified, recombinant chlamydial PMPs tested, 2 (PMP 20 and PMP 21) dose-dependently increased the production of the inflammatory mediators interleukin (IL)-6 and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), in cultured human endothelial cells; production of IL-8 was also increased. When endothelial cells were infected by live C. pneumoniae, an increase in the production of IL-6, IL-8, and MCP-1 was seen. We used adenovirus-induced overexpression of IkappaBalpha-an inhibitor of nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB-to demonstrate that PMP 20 and PMP 21 increase the production of IL-6 and MCP-1 in human endothelial cells by activation of the NF-kappaB pathway, because, in cells overexpressing IkappaBalpha, treatment with the respective PMP did not result in increased production of IL-6 and MCP-1. Thus, C. pneumoniae could, by interactions of its PMPs with the endothelium, contribute to the process of vascular injury during the development and progression of atherosclerotic lesions.