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Providing access to expertise on New Approach Methodologies in Belgium via the RE-Place platform
No full textSpatial variation in cause-specific premature mortality and its association with socioeconomic deprivation in Belgium from 2000 to 2019
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Residential greenness and pollen exposure across gestational trimesters in relation to preschool wheezing: Results for the PIPO birth cohort
No full textIntroduction:
Previous studies on prenatal green space exposure and early respiratory health show inconsistent results. This may reflect stage-specific in utero effects and pollen influence. We examine associations of surrounding greenness and pollen exposure during pregnancy (overall and by trimester) with preschool wheezing, and assess potential mediation by pollen.
Methods:
We used data from the PIPO birth cohort (n = 860). Wheezing was reported biannually between 18 and 48 months of age. Residential greenness was measured with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in 100 and 250 m buffer. Cumulative grass and birch pollen was estimated using modelled airborne pollen counts and categorized per trimester into no, low and high. All exposures were assessed for the overall pregnancy and per trimester. We used Generalized Estimated Equations to obtain odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). To assess mediation by pollen we used a data duplication algorithm with a generalized estimation approach.
Results:
Approximately 10% of participants wheezed. During pregnancy, greenness (OR = 1.07, CI: 1.05–1.08) and grass pollen exposure (OR = 1.09, CI: 1.03–1.15) increased the odds of wheezing, while birch pollen decreased it (OR = 0.86, CI:0.87–1.00). Per trimester, more greenness during the 2nd trimester increased the odds (OR = 1.21, CI: 1.16–1.26), whereas third-trimester greenness decreased it (OR = 0.87, CI: 0.84–0.91). Grass pollen exposure in the 1st and 3rd trimesters increased the odds of wheezing (OR = 1.23, CI: 1.12–1.34 and OR = 1.13, CI: 1.00–1.27, respectively), while birch pollen exposure in the 1st and 2nd trimesters decreased the odds (OR = 0.88, CI: 0.77–1.00 and OR = 0.83, CI: 0.73–0.95, respectively). No significant associations were found for greenness in the 1st trimester, grass pollen in the 2nd trimester, and birch pollen in the 1st and 3rd trimester. Mediation analysis showed large uncertainty.
Discussion:
Surrounding greenness and pollen exposure during pregnancy may impact the likelihood of preschool wheezing differently depending on the timing of exposure and the pollen type.</p
Epidemiologische surveillance van poliomyelitis Poliovirus & niet-polio enterovirussen - 2023
No full textSinds 1999 zijn er in België geen gevallen van poliomyelitis gemeld.
België is momenteel door de WGO geclassificeerd als een land met een gemiddeld risico op overdracht van polio.
De vaccinatiegraad blijft hoog (97,6%, 3 doses), maar kwetsbare bevolkingsgroepen lopen nog steeds risico.
In 2023 werden drie gevallen van acute slappe verlamming gemeld. Om voldoende bewakingsgevoeligheid te hebben, hadden er 19 gevallen gemeld moeten worden.
De huidige surveillancesystemen vereisen een grotere betrokkenheid van professionals in de gezondheidszorg om de dekking ervan te verbeteren.
De implementatie van afvalwatermonitoring kan bestaande monitoringsystemen aanvullen.</p
Genetic relatedness of Staphylococcus aureus isolates within food outbreaks by single nucleotide polymorphisms.
No full textInvestigation of bacterial food outbreaks by whole genome sequencing can rely on the inspection of the genetic relatedness between isolates through the application of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) thresholds. However, there is no consensus for Staphylococcus aureus in the context of food outbreaks. In this study, we propose a SNP cut-off by taking into account the mutation rate and the evolution time of this pathogen in food. Through in vitro microevolution, we determined the mutation rate of three S. aureus strains grown under mimicked food stressing conditions. From the mutation rate, we set a cut-off of 28 SNPs considering 30 days as evolution time based on the average shelf-life of foods contaminated by S. aureus and the timeline for identifying this pathogen in outbreaks. The SNP threshold was applied to retrospectively study ten staphylococcal food outbreaks to assess whether isolates from food and/or of human origin from the same outbreak were epidemiologically related. To interpret SNP distances, phylogenetic tree topologies and bootstraps were integrated and showed that isolates differing by up to 28 SNPs were monophyletic. Our suggested cut-off can be used in outbreak management to identify closely related S. aureus strains.</p
