Research Publications (Food Safety)

Journal of Applied Toxicology, EarlyView.

Henipaviruses, including Nipah virus, are regarded as pathogens of notable epidemic potential because of their high pathogenicity and the paucity of specific medical countermeasures to control infections in humans. We review the evidence of medical countermeasures against henipaviruses and project their cost in a post-COVID-19 era.

Our findings suggest an overall increased risk of Bell's palsy after CoronaVac vaccination. However, the beneficial and protective effects of the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine far outweigh the risk of this generally self-limiting adverse event. Additional studies are needed in other regions to confirm our findings.

IgG seropositivity was lower after CoronaVac than after BNT162b2 and declined over time since vaccination for CoronaVac recipients but not BNT162b2 recipients. Prolonged IgG monitoring will allow further evaluation of seropositivity overtime, providing data, in conjunction with effectiveness studies, for possible future re-assessment of vaccination strategies.

To minimise SARS-CoV-2 infection, at-risk populations must be targeted in efforts to boost vaccine effectiveness and infection control measures. Our findings might support caution around relaxing physical distancing and other personal protective measures in the post-vaccination era, particularly around frail older adults and individuals living in more deprived areas, even if these individuals are vaccinated, and might have implications for strategies such as booster vaccinations.

This large national study found a higher hospital admission or emergency care attendance risk for patients with COVID-19 infected with the delta variant compared with the alpha variant. Results suggest that outbreaks of the delta variant in unvaccinated populations might lead to a greater burden on health-care services than the alpha variant.

Global Health Security–a blueprint for the future, by Lawrence O. Gostin, is a sweeping journey across current and future issues in health security and the urgency of addressing current gaps in governance. Gostin begins with the COVID-19 pandemic, arguably the greatest global catastrophe in over 100 years, and asks the question why the world was so unprepared.

Scientists working with AstraZeneca to investigate vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia have identified a molecular mechanism that might explain the life-threatening condition seen in a very small number of people after receipt of viral-vectored COVID-19 vaccines. The team studied ChAdOx1, the adenovirus used in the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

As the COVID-19 situation worsens across Europe, many countries are considering vaccine mandates and reintroduction of interventions. Talha Burki reports.

Boris Revollo and colleagues reported that a combination of same-day screening with antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDT), wearing facemasks, and optimised air ventilation creates a safe indoor environment without the need for physical distancing.1 I commend the authors for planning and conducting a randomised controlled trial in this serious pandemic situation. However, I would like to voice a few concerns.

Only a small fraction of people living in low-income countries will have received at least one dose of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine by the end of 2021.

In a previous Correspondence,1 we demonstrated the appearance of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in pooled donor plasma and intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) products from these pools over the period of May–December, 2020. In this update, we describe increasing levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in pooled plasma and IVIG products up to September, 2021, and neutralising activity of these antibodies against wild-type virus and variants of concern (VOC).

The important analysis by Anika Singanayagam and colleagues1 demonstrated that individuals fully vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 with breakthrough infections have similar peak viral loads to unvaccinated people and might infect other fully vaccinated individuals within the same household.

With interest we read the paper by Anika Singanayagam and colleagues1 assessing the secondary attack rate (SAR) of SARS-CoV-2 in 204 vaccinated and unvaccinated household contacts exposed to 138 vaccinated and unvaccinated index cases. Here, we want to point out the importance of adjusting for age when comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals.

Vaccine effectiveness studies have conclusively demonstrated the benefit of COVID-19 vaccines in reducing individual symptomatic and severe disease, resulting in reduced hospitalisations and intensive care unit admissions.1 However, the impact of vaccination on transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 needs to be elucidated.

Point-of-care (lateral flow) assays with an antigen rapid test (ART) for SARS-CoV-2 became commercially available in November 2020 worldwide, as a supplement to real-time PCR (rtPCR).1 ARTs are self-administered and detect SARS-CoV-2 antigens from anterior nares swabs and return results within minutes.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is now better controlled in settings with access to fast and reliable testing and highly effective vaccination rollouts. Several studies have found that people who recovered from COVID-19 and tested seropositive for anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies have low rates of SARS-CoV-2 reinfection. There are still looming questions surrounding the strength and duration of such protection compared with that from vaccination.

In the past 100 days, more than 3 billion doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines have been administered globally.1 With 20 vaccines currently authorised in at least one country and 108 under clinical development as of July 20, 2021,2 there is ongoing public concern regarding the possible adverse effects of SARS-CoV-2 immunisation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the deep inequalities of our times. Differences in behaviour, political will, and technological capacity between affected countries have contributed to distinct outcomes.1 18 months after the COVID-19 pandemic began in China, mortality is highest among vulnerable populations without access to vaccination and those ideologically opposed to vaccination, in a way confirming that vaccines save lives.

The SARS-CoV-2 delta (B.1.617.2) variant was first detected in India in December, 2020. Since then, the delta variant has rapidly become the main variant in some regions, including in the UK. As of July 27, 2021, the UK had reported the highest number of SARS-CoV-2 delta variant cases, with 167 856 patients.1

On Nov 24, South Africa alerted the world to the latest SARS-CoV-2 variant, omicron (B.1.1.529). The omicron variant distinguishes itself from previous variants by harbouring in its genomic sequence 49 mutations (30 of which occur within the spike protein)—a jump from the 13 mutations found within the delta variant (B.1.617.2).

We consider epidemiological modeling for the design of COVID-19 interventions in university populations, which have seen significant outbreaks during the pandemic. A central challenge is sensitivity of predictions to input parameters coupled with uncertainty about these parameters. Nearly 2 y into the pandemic, parameter uncertainty remains because of changes in...

Hemachromatosis (iron-overload) increases host susceptibility to siderophilic bacterial infections that cause serious complications, but the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. The present study demonstrates that oral infection with hyperyersiniabactin (Ybt) producing Yersinia pseudotuberculosis Δfur mutant (termed Δfur) results in severe systemic infection and acute mortality to hemochromatotic mice due to rapid...

COVID-19 remains a stark health threat worldwide, in part because of minimal levels of targeted vaccination outside high-income countries and highly transmissible variants causing infection in vaccinated individuals. Decades of theoretical and experimental data suggest that nonspecific effects of non–COVID-19 vaccines may help bolster population immunological resilience to new pathogens....

After binding to its cell surface receptor angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) enters the host cell through directly fusing with plasma membrane (cell surface pathway) or undergoing endocytosis traveling to lysosome/late endosome for membrane fusion (endocytic pathway). However, the endocytic entry regulation by...