Youth organizations, social mobility and health in middle age: evidence from a Scottish 1950s prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Informal educational programmes focused on youth development appear to improve health and well-being at time of involvement. Less is known about long-term effects. We investigate their impact on self-reported general health in mid-life using the Aberdeen Children of the 1950s (ACONF) cohort. METHODS: We use a subset (n = 1333) of the ACONF cohort, born 1950-56, in Aberdeen Scotland, who took part in Family and Reading Surveys in 1964 and a follow-up questionnaire in 2001. We explore exposure to youth development focused clubs in childhood on self-reported general health around age 50 mediated by adult socioeconomic position. Logistic regression and mediation analysis were used to report odds ratios and natural direct and indirect effects, respectively, on multiply imputed data. RESULTS: Being a member of the Scouts/Guides (G&S) was associated with a 53% (95% confidence interval 1.03-2.27) higher odds of 'excellent' general health in adulthood compared to children attending 'other clubs'. Indirect effects of G&S and Boys'/Girls' Brigade (B&GB) on general health acting via higher socioeconomic position show positive associations; 12% and 6% higher odds of 'excellent' general health in adulthood compared to children attending 'other clubs', respectively. Comparison of indirect with direct effects suggests 27% of this association is mediated through a higher adult socioeconomic position in adulthood. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest a beneficial association between attending G&S and B&GB clubs in childhood and adult general health. As these organizations are volunteer-led, this may represent a cost-effective method for improving population health.

Evaluation of miLINC to shorten time to treatment for rifampicin-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

BACKGROUND: Achieving the 90-90-90 targets for tuberculosis (TB) will require interventions that enhance diagnosis, linkage, treatment and adherence to care. As a first step in the process, our team designed a suite of smartphone applications known as miLINC to improve time from diagnosis to treatment initiation in drug-resistant TB patients.SETTING: Three clinical locations in a large, peri-urban district in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.OBJECTIVE: To assess the acceptability, feasibility and impact of the miLINC mobile health applications as a solution to reducing the time from presentation to treatment initiation of rifampicin-resistant (RR) TB patients.METHODS: We used a prospective, observational quality improvement evaluation of miLINC's impact among newly diagnosed patients with RR-TB.RESULTS: A convenience sample comprising details of 6341 patients with presumptive TB were entered into miLINC. Of the 631 TB-positive sputum specimens, 41 (6.5%) were found to be RR-TB. The mean time from clinical presentation to RR-TB treatment initiation was 3 days, 21 h, 17 min.CONCLUSION: This is the first study to suggest that the time from presentation to diagnosis and to treatment initiation for patients with RR-TB can be significantly improved using an integrated approach combining technology with appropriate human resources.

Complete nucleotide sequence and host range of South African cassava mosaic virus: further evidence for recombination amongst begomoviruses.

Complete nucleotide sequences of the DNA-A (2800 nt) and DNA-B (2760 nt) components of a novel cassava-infecting begomovirus, South African cassava mosaic virus (SACMV), were determined and compared with various New World and Old World begomoviruses. SACMV is most closely related to East African cassava mosaic virus (EACMV) in both its DNA-A (85% with EACMV-MH and -MK) and -B (90% with EACMV-UG2-Mld and EACMV-UG3-Svr) components; however, percentage sequence similarities of less than 90% in the DNA-A component allowed SACMV to be considered a distinct virus. One significant recombination event spanning the entire AC4 open reading frame was identified; however, there was no evidence of recombination in the DNA-B component. Infectivity of the cloned SACMV genome was demonstrated by successful agroinoculation of cassava and three other plant species (Phaseolus vulgaris, Malva parviflora and Nicotiana benthamiana). This is the first description of successful infection of cassava with a geminivirus using Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

Molecular characterisation of a distinct South African cassava infecting geminivirus.

African cassava mosaic virus (ACMV) and East African cassava mosaic virus (EACMV) are whitefly-transmitted geminiviruses (WTGs) which are widespread in cassava in Africa and cause serious yield losses. Recently, a new geminivirus affecting cassava in South Africa (SACMV) has been reported. In this work SACMV was found to have DNA-A and DNA-B components. Comparisons of amino acid sequences of the putative coat protein, and nucleotide sequences of the common region and a 687-bp DNA B fragment of SACMV with other WTGs, showed that SACMV clustered with the Old World subgroup of the Begomovirus genus of geminiviruses. Despite its bipartite nature, SACMV was most closely related to monopartite TYLCVs, but was sufficiently different to justify designating it as a distinct virus. In serological studies, SACMV grouped biologically with EACMV isolates.