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    Disease in Young Children in Mali, West Africa

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    has been introduced to prevent invasive disease caused by these pathogens, as in Bamako, Mali, their burden has decreased markedly. In parallel, NTS has become the predominant invasive bacterial pathogen in children aged <5 years. While NTS is believed to be acquired orally via contaminated food/water, epidemiologic studies have failed to identify the reservoir of infection or vehicles of transmission. This has precluded targeting food chain interventions to diminish disease transmission but conversely has fostered the development of vaccines to prevent invasive NTS (iNTS) disease. We developed a mathematical model to estimate the potential impact of NTS vaccination programs in Bamako. Typhimurium vaccine, were the model’s outcomes of interest. Per the model, high coverage/high efficacy iNTS vaccination programs would drastically diminish iNTS disease except among infants age <8 weeks.The public health impact of NTS vaccination shifts as disease burden, vaccine coverage, and serovar distribution vary. Our model shows that implementing an iNTS vaccine through an analogous strategy to the Hib vaccination program in Bamako would markedly reduce cases and deaths due to iNTS among the pediatric population. The model can be adjusted for use elsewhere in Africa where NTS epidemiologic patterns, serovar prevalence, and immunization schedules differ from Bamako

    Executive Functioning in Men with Schizophrenia and Substance Use Disorders. Influence of Lifetime Suicide Attempts

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    Lifetime suicide attempts in patients with comorbidity between psychotic disorders and Substance Use Disorder (SUD), known as dual diagnosis, was associated with a worse clinical and cognitive state, poor prognosis and premature death. However, to date no previous study has examined the cognitive performance of these patients considering as independent the presence or absence of lifetime suicide attempts.We explore executive functioning differences between suicide attempters and non-attempters in dual schizophrenia (DS) patients and the possible related factors for both executive performance and current suicide risk. Fifty DS male patients in remission of SUD and clinically stables, 24 with and 26 without lifetime suicide attempts, were evaluated. We considered Z scores for all neuropsychological tests and a composite summary score for both premorbid IQ and executive functioning.DS patients showed low performance in set-shifting, planning and problem solving tasks. Those with suicide attempts presented lower composite summary scores, together with worse problem solving skills and decision-making, compared with non-attempters. However, after controlling for alcohol dependence, only differences in decision-making remained. Executive functioning was related to the premorbid intelligence quotient, and several clinical variables (duration, severity, months of abstinence and relapses of SUD, global functioning and negative symptoms). A relationship between current suicide risk, and first-degree relatives with SUD, insight and positive symptoms was also found.Our results suggest that problem solving and, especially, decision-making tasks might be sensitive to cognitive impairment of DS patients related to presence of lifetime suicide attempts. The assessment of these executive functions and cognitive remediation therapy when necessary could be beneficial for the effectiveness of treatment in patients with DS. However, further research is needed to expand our findings and overcome some limitations of this study

    Stability of A Coevolving Host-parasite System Peaks at Intermediate Productivity

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    The Prevalence, Incidence and Natural Course of Positive Antithyroperoxidase Antibodies in a Population-Based Study: Tehran Thyroid Study

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    Thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPOAb), the most common antibody frequently measured in population surveys is a protein expressed in the thyroid gland. We conducted the present study to analyze the prevalence and incidence of thyroid auto immunity and natural course of TPOAb in a population based study.This prospective study was conducted within the framework of the Tehran Thyroid Study (TTS) on 5783 (2376 men and 3407 women) individuals aged ≥ 20 years who had thyroid function tests at baseline and were followed up for median 9.1 year with TPOAb measurements at approximately every 3 years.The mean age of total population at baseline was 40.04±14.32. At baseline, of the 5783 participants, 742 (12.8%) were TPOAb positive, with higher prevalence among women than in men (16.0 vs. 8.5%, p = 0.001). The prevalence of TPOAb positivity in the total population was 11.9, 14.9 and 13.6% in the young, middle age and elderly respectively. The total incidence rate (95%CI) of TPOAb positivity in the total population (5020) was 7.1 (6.36–7.98) per 1000 person-years of follow-up, with higher incidence of TPOAb positivity among young participants, i.e. 8.5 (7.5–9.7) per 1000 person-years. Sex specific incidence rate demonstrated that TPOAb positivity was higher in women, 9.3 (8.2–10.7) per 1000 person-years. The Cox's proportional hazard model analysis showed that the hazard ratio of developing TPOAb positivity was higher in women than men (P<0.0001) and tended to increase slightly with serum TSH levels (P<0.0001) but declined with increasing age (P<0.0001) in the total population. Our findings demonstrate that individuals, who became TPOAb positive in each phase, had significant elevation of TSH levels at the phase of seroconversion, compared to baseline values.Gender, age and elevated serum TSH were found to be risk factors for developing TPOAb positivity. Furthermore, compared to baseline a significant elevation of TSH levels during seroconversion phase was observed in TPOAb positive individuals

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