Suicide Mortality Among Formerly Incarcerated People Compared With the General Population in North Carolina, 2000-2020.

We aimed to compare rates and characteristics of suicide mortality in formerly incarcerated people with those of the general population in North Carolina. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 266,400 people released from North Carolina state prisons between January 1, 2000, and March 1, 2020. Using direct and indirect standardization by age, sex, and calendar year, we calculated standardized suicide mortality rates and standardized mortality ratios comparing formerly incarcerated people with the North Carolina general population. We evaluated effect modification by race/ethnicity, sex, age, and firearm involvement. Formerly incarcerated people had approximately twice the overall suicide mortality of the general population for 3 years after release, with the highest rate of suicide mortality being observed in the 2-week period after release. In contrast to patterns in the general population, formerly incarcerated people had higher rates of non-firearm-involved suicide mortality than firearm-involved suicide mortality. Formerly incarcerated female, White and Hispanic/Latino, and emerging adult people had a greater elevation of suicide mortality than their general-population peers compared with other groups. These findings suggest a need for long-term support for formerly incarcerated people as they return to community living and a need to identify opportunities for interventions that reduce the harms of incarceration for especially vulnerable groups. This article is part of a Special Collection on Mental Health.

"We adjusted for race": now what? A systematic review of utilization and reporting of race in American Journal of Epidemiology and Epidemiology, 2020-2021.

Race is a social construct, commonly used in epidemiologic research to adjust for confounding. However, adjustment of race may mask racial disparities, thereby perpetuating structural racism. We conducted a systematic review of articles published in Epidemiology and American Journal of Epidemiology between 2020 and 2021 to (1) understand how race, ethnicity, and similar social constructs were operationalized, used, and reported; and (2) characterize good and poor practices of utilization and reporting of race data on the basis of the extent to which they reveal or mask systemic racism. Original research articles were considered for full review and data extraction if race data were used in the study analysis. We extracted how race was categorized, used-as a descriptor, confounder, or for effect measure modification (EMM)-and reported if the authors discussed racial disparities and systemic bias-related mechanisms responsible for perpetuating the disparities. Of the 561 articles, 299 had race data available and 192 (34.2%) used race data in analyses. Among the 160 US-based studies, 81 different racial categorizations were used. Race was most often used as a confounder (52%), followed by effect measure modifier (33%), and descriptive variable (12%). Fewer than 1 in 4 articles (22.9%) exhibited good practices (EMM along with discussing disparities and mechanisms), 63.5% of the articles exhibited poor practices (confounding only or not discussing mechanisms), and 13.5% were considered neither poor nor good practices. We discuss implications and provide 13 recommendations for operationalization, utilization, and reporting of race in epidemiologic and public health research.

Peritonitis primaria por neumococo en un hospital pediátrico de Argentina / Primary pneumococcal peritonitis in a pediatric hospital from Argentina

Resumen La peritonitis por neumococo comprende un pequeno subconjunto de pacientes con enfermedad invasiva (ENI). Durante 15 años (2005-2020) de vigilancia de ENI en un hospital de pediatría, se detectaron 5 casos de peritonitis primaria. Los pacientes, 3 ninas y 2ninos con una media de edad de 5 anos, experimentaron signos y síntomas peritoneales; 3 de ellos presentaban síndrome nefrótico. En coincidencia con los perfiles locales, todos los aislamientos fueron sensibles a betalactámicos, una cepa expresó resistencia a tetraciclina y cotrimoxazol y otra solo a cotrimoxazol. Los serotipos encontrados en 4/5 cepas (una resultó no viable) fueron 1, 19F, 15C y 23A. Los ninos fueron tratados con cefalosporinas de tercera generación o con ampicilina, gentamicina y metronidazol; todos evolucionaron favorablemente. Se destaca la importancia del hallazgo de Streptococcus pneumoniae en peritonitis primarias en niños. Este trabajo contribuye al conocimiento de esta enfermedad en particular y al de la epidemiología local de la ENI.

Abstract Pneumococcal peritonitis represents a small subset of patients suffering from inva-sive pneumococcal disease (IPD). We describe 5 cases of primary peritonitis documented in the pediatric hospital over 15 years (2005-2020) of IPD surveillance. The patients, 3girls and 2boys with a mean age of 5 years, experienced peritoneal signs and symptoms; 3of them suffered from nephrotic syndrome. Based on the local resistance profiles, all isolates were sensitive to beta-lactams, one strain showed resistance to cotrimoxazole and tetracycline while another strain, to cotrimoxazole only. Serotypes found in 4/5 strains (one was non-viable) were: 1, 19F, 15C and 23A. Children were treated with third-generation cephalosporins or ampicillin, gentamicin and metronidazole and all of them evolved favorably. Pneumococcal etiology should be included in the differential diagnosis of acute abdominal pain in children. Our study aims to contribute to the knowledge of this condition and to the local epidemiology of IPD.

[Primary pneumococcal peritonitis in a pediatric hospital from Argentina]. / Peritonitis primaria por neumococo en un hospital pediátrico de Argentina.

Pneumococcal peritonitis represents a small subset of patients suffering from invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). We describe 5 cases of primary peritonitis documented in the pediatric hospital over 15 years (2005-2020) of IPD surveillance. The patients, 3girls and 2boys with a mean age of 5 years, experienced peritoneal signs and symptoms; 3of them suffered from nephrotic syndrome. Based on the local resistance profiles, all isolates were sensitive to beta-lactams, one strain showed resistance to cotrimoxazole and tetracycline while another strain, to cotrimoxazole only. Serotypes found in 4/5 strains (one was non-viable) were: 1, 19F, 15C and 23A. Children were treated with third-generation cephalosporins or ampicillin, gentamicin and metronidazole and all of them evolved favorably. Pneumococcal etiology should be included in the differential diagnosis of acute abdominal pain in children. Our study aims to contribute to the knowledge of this condition and to the local epidemiology of IPD.

Innovations in suicide prevention research (INSPIRE): a protocol for a population-based case-control study.

BACKGROUND: Suicide deaths have been increasing for the past 20 years in the USA resulting in 45 979 deaths in 2020, a 29% increase since 1999. Lack of data linkage between entities with potential to implement large suicide prevention initiatives (health insurers, health institutions and corrections) is a barrier to developing an integrated framework for suicide prevention. OBJECTIVES: Data linkage between death records and several large administrative datasets to (1) estimate associations between risk factors and suicide outcomes, (2) develop predictive algorithms and (3) establish long-term data linkage workflow to ensure ongoing suicide surveillance. METHODS: We will combine six data sources from North Carolina, the 10th most populous state in the USA, from 2006 onward, including death certificate records, violent deaths reporting system, large private health insurance claims data, Medicaid claims data, University of North Carolina electronic health records and data on justice involved individuals released from incarceration. We will determine the incidence of death from suicide, suicide attempts and ideation in the four subpopulations to establish benchmarks. We will use a nested case-control design with incidence density-matched population-based controls to (1) identify short-term and long-term risk factors associated with suicide attempts and mortality and (2) develop machine learning-based predictive algorithms to identify individuals at risk of suicide deaths. DISCUSSION: We will address gaps from prior studies by establishing an in-depth linked suicide surveillance system integrating multiple large, comprehensive databases that permit establishment of benchmarks, identification of predictors, evaluation of prevention efforts and establishment of long-term surveillance workflow protocols.

[Pneumococcal osteoarticular infections in children admitted to a Pediatric Reference Hospital from Misiones, Argentina. Thirteen years of surveillance]. / Infección neumocócica osteoarticular en niños atendidos en un hospital pediátrico de referencia de Misiones, Argentina. Trece años de vigilancia.

Streptococcus pneumoniae is a rare cause of osteoarticular infections. We describe 5documented cases that occurred in 2005, 2009, 2011, 2015 and 2017 in patients admitted to the Pediatric Provincial Reference Hospital of Misiones. These cases corresponded to a 4-year-old boy and 4 girls aged 11, 10, 6 years and 4 months with a diagnosis of osteomyelitis of the scapula and humerus, arthritis of the hip, ankle and osteomyelitis of the distal fibula. All of them were in good general condition on admission and one of them was seropositive for human immunodeficiency virus. All the recovered isolates were susceptible to ß-lactams and only one isolate showed joint resistance to macrolides and tetracycline. Three isolates were serotyped, 2of which carried vaccine serotypes (19F and 7F). Despite its low frequency, the etiology of S.pneumoniae should be considered among the osteoarticular infections. Our findings enhance the role of the Bacteriology laboratory in the diagnosis by microbiological culture and contribute to documenting the epidemiological behavior of this pathogen.

Development of a real-time quantitative PCR assay for detection of a stable genomic region of BK virus.

BACKGROUND: BK virus infections can have clinically significant consequences in immunocompromised individuals. Detection and monitoring of active BK virus infections in certain situations is recommended and therefore PCR assays for detection of BK virus have been developed. The performance of current BK PCR detection assays is limited by the existence of viral polymorphisms, unknown at the time of assay development, resulting in inconsistent detection of BK virus. The objective of this study was to identify a stable region of the BK viral genome for detection by PCR that would be minimally affected by polymorphisms as more sequence data for BK virus becomes available. RESULTS: Employing a combination of techniques, including amino acid and DNA sequence alignment and interspecies analysis, a conserved, stable PCR target region of the BK viral genomic region was identified within the VP2 gene. A real-time quantitative PCR assay was then developed that is specific for BK virus, has an analytical sensitivity of 15 copies/reaction (450 copies/ml) and is highly reproducible (CV ≤ 5.0%). CONCLUSION: Identifying stable PCR target regions when limited DNA sequence data is available may be possible by combining multiple analysis techniques to elucidate potential functional constraints on genomic regions. Applying this approach to the development of a real-time quantitative PCR assay for BK virus resulted in an accurate method with potential clinical applications and advantages over existing BK assays.