A long trend of sexually transmitted diseases before and after the COVID-19 pandemic in China (2010-21).

BACKGROUND: The longer ongoing benefits of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in China are still unclear. We aimed to explore the changes in five STDs (AIDS, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, gonorrhoea, and syphilis) before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China, from 2010 to 2021. METHODS: The number of the monthly reported cases of the five STDs were extracted from the website to construct the Joinpoint regression and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models. Eight indicators reflecting NPIs were chosen from the COVID-19 Government Response Tracker system. The STDs and eight indicators were used to establish the Multivariable generalised linear model (GLM) to calculate the incidence rate ratios (IRRs). RESULTS: With the exception of hepatitis B, the other four STDs (AIDS, hepatitis C, gonorrhoea, and syphilis) had a positive average annual percent change over the past 12years. All the ARIMA models had passed the Ljung-Box test, and the predicted data fit well with the data from 2010 to 2019. All five STDs were significantly reduced in 2020 compared with 2019, with significant estimated IRRs ranging from 0.88 to 0.92. In the GLM, using data for the years 2020 (February-December) and 2021, the IRRs were not significant after adjusting for the eight indicators in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated that the incidence of the five STDs decreased rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. A recovery of STDs in 2021 was found to occur compared with that in 2020, but the rising trend disappeared after adjusting for the NPIs. Our study demonstrated that NPIs have an effect on STDs, but the relaxation of NPI usage might lead to a resurgence.

Diagnostic of FibroTouch and six serological models in assessing the degree of liver fibrosis among patients with chronic hepatic disease: A single-center retrospective study.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of FibroTouch and serological models on staging hepatic fibrosis in chronic liver diseases. METHODS: We recruited 850 patients undergoing liver biopsy and received FibroTouch test before or after liver biopsy within one week, blood was taken for the routine inspection before the operation within one week. The serological models were calculated by the blood results and routine clinical information. The diagnostic value of FibroTouch and six serological models was analyzed by receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC). RESULTS: Patients with severe liver fibrosis had significantly higher AST, ALT, GGT, RDW, ALP, and FT-LSM. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of FT-LSM for the liver diagnosis of S≥2, S≥3 and S = 4 was 0.75(95% confidence interval [CI]:0.72-0.78), 0.83(95% CI: 0.80-0.86), and 0.85 (95% CI: 0.81-0.89), respectively. The optimal cut-off of FT-LSM for diagnosing S≥2, S≥3 and S = 4 was 8.7, 10.7, and 12.3, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed the FibroTouch has a higher diagnostic value compared with the non-invasive serological models in staging the fibrosis stage. The cut-off of FibroTouch and five serological models (APRI, FIB-4, S-index, Forns, and PRP) increased with the severe of fibrosis stage.