UNASSIGNED: The Northern Territory (NT) has the highest prevalence of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) in Australia. The Hep B PAST program aims to improve health outcomes for people living with CHB.
UNASSIGNED: This mixed methods study involves First Nations peoples living in the NT. We used participatory action research principles across three steps: 1. Foundation step: establishing hepatitis B virus (HBV) status and linkage to care; 2. Capacity building: training the health workforce; 3. Supported transition to primary healthcare: implementation of the \"Hub and Spoke\" model and in-language resources. Analysis occurred at three time points: 1. Pre-Hep B PAST (2018); 2. Foundation step (2020); and 3. Completion of Hep B PAST (2023). Evaluation focuses on four key indicators, the number of people: 1) with documented HBV status; 2) diagnosed with CHB; 3) receiving care; and 4) receiving treatment.
UNASSIGNED: Hep B PAST (2018-23) reached 40,555 people. HBV status was documented in 11% (1192/10,853), 79.2% (26,075/32,915) and 90.8% (28,675/31,588) of people at pre-Hep B PAST, foundation step, and completion respectively. An estimated 99.9% (821/822) of people were diagnosed, 86.3% (709/822) engaged in care, and 24.1% (198/822) on antiviral treatment at completion. CHB prevalence in the study population is 2.6%, decreasing from 6.1% to 0.4% in the pre- and post-vaccination cohorts.
UNASSIGNED: Hep B PAST is an effective model of care. Partner health services are exceeding elimination targets. This model could enable other countries to enhance the cascade of care and work towards eliminating HBV.
UNASSIGNED: National Health and Medical Research Council.

BACKGROUND: Fear of a global public health issue and fresh infection wave in the persistent COVID-19 pandemic has been enflamed by the appearance of the novel variant Omicron BF.7 lineage. Recently, it has been seeing the novel Omicron subtype BF.7 lineage has sprawled exponentially in Hohhot. More than anything, risk stratification is significant to ascertain patients infected with COVID-19 who the most need in-hospital or in-home management. The study intends to understand the clinical severity and epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 Omicron subvariant BF.7. lineage via gathering and analyzing the cases with Omicron subvariant in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia.
METHODS: Based upon this, we linked variant Omicron BF.7 individual-level information including sex, age, symptom, underlying conditions and vaccination record. Further, we divided the cases into various groups and assessed the severity of patients according to the symptoms of patients with COVID-19. Clinical indicators and data might help to predict disadvantage outcomes and progression among Omicron BF.7 patients.
RESULTS: In this study, in patients with severe symptoms, some indicators from real world data such as white blood cells, AST, ALT and CRE in patients with Omicron BF.7 in severe symptoms were significantly higher than mild and asymptomatic patients, while some indicators were significantly lower.
CONCLUSIONS: Above results suggested that the indicators were associated with ponderance of clinical symptoms. Our survey emphasized the value of timely investigations of clinical data obtained by systemic study to acquire detailed information.

Dementia is a leading cause of disability and dependence in older adults worldwide. The aim of this pilot study was to explore the effect of using a kazoo instrument to improve pulmonary function and cognitive reserve in middle-aged and older adults in rural areas. This quasi-experimental study was conducted at two community care stations selected using cluster sampling from a rural district in southern Taiwan. We enrolled 85 middle-aged and older adults who were randomly assigned into self-learner and in-class groups. Both groups received a 6-month kazoo program. Cognitive and pulmonary function were compared before and after the intervention between the two groups. Significantly improved pulmonary function with regards to forced vital capacity (p < .05) was found in the self-learner group, and significantly improved maximum expiratory flow 75% (p < .001) was found in both groups. Mini-Mental State Examination scores significantly improved in the self-learner group (p < .01), but there was no significant change in the in-class group. Our results suggest that community care stations could consider implementing wind instrument programs such as a kazoo to enhance pulmonary function and cognitive reserve in middle-aged and older adults residing in rural areas.

Background and objective The global HIV epidemic has evolved in the past 30 years with a decline in mortality and morbidity and improved survival since the introduction of antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, this has brought on new challenges through the emergence of non-communicable disease (NCD) as a pandemic at par with, if not more serious than, HIV, and patients well maintained on ART are now faced with the increased risk of developing NCDs such as hypertension, which also require lifelong therapy. This study was designed to determine the burden of hypertension in patients under HIV care in Masvingo province, Zimbabwe. Methods A retrospective cohort study was conducted in six districts of Masvingo province based on the data collected from the electronic Patient Monitoring System (ePMS), along with an analysis of secondary data. Of the 94,821 records gathered, 877 met the inclusion criteria to be included in the study. Data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and Stata statistical software and statistical analysis was performed using the χ2 test. Results The study revealed a hypertension prevalence of 7.64% among the 877 patients analyzed and the independent risk factors for the development of hypertension were determined to be the age of patients, with a one-year increase in age resulting in an 8% increase in the risk of developing hypertension, and the duration on ART, with a one-year increase on ART duration increasing the risk of hypertension by 27%, and an increase in BMI by a factor of 1 increasing the risk of getting hypertension by 9%. Conclusion Our findings showed that there are patients who have both hypertension and HIV on ART care, and they would need to be managed for both. There is a need for improved data collection of important variables that improve the quality of care of clients. Clinical management of HIV needs to evolve with the evolving needs of patients and NCD care has to be factored in.

The \"One Health\" concept has resulted in a rich research literature that integrates human and animal systems, with a focus on zoonotic diseases; however, this narrow focus is at the expense of one of the leading causes of global human mortality: non-infectious, chronic diseases. Here, we provide a viewpoint that applying the integrated One Health framework to public health issues such as the impact of stressful urban environments on the process of human aging has the potential to elucidate potential causal mechanisms that have previously gone unnoticed. Given the success of the One Health paradigm in studying human health in rural areas, we posit that this model would be a useful tool for studying human, animal, and environmental interactions in urban settings.

BACKGROUND: In order to capture the differences in burden between the subtypes of depression, the Global Burden of Disease 2010 Study for the first time estimated the burden of dysthymia and major depressive disorder separately from the previously used umbrella term \'unipolar depression\'. A global summary of epidemiological parameters are necessary inputs in burden of disease calculations for 21 world regions, males and females and for the year 1990, 2005 and 2010. This paper reports findings from a systematic review of global epidemiological data and the subsequent development of an internally consistent epidemiological model of dysthymia.
METHODS: A systematic search was conducted to identify data sources for the prevalence, incidence, remission and excess-mortality of dysthymia using Medline, PsycINFO and EMBASE electronic databases and grey literature. DisMod-MR, a Bayesian meta-regression tool, was used to check the epidemiological parameters for internal consistency and to predict estimates for world regions with no or few data.
RESULTS: The systematic review identified 38 studies meeting inclusion criteria which provided 147 data points for 30 countries in 13 of 21 world regions. Prevalence increases in the early ages, peaking at around 50 years. Females have higher prevalence of dysthymia than males. Global pooled prevalence remained constant across time points at 1.55% (95%CI 1.50-1.60). There was very little regional variation in prevalence estimates.
CONCLUSIONS: There were eight GBD world regions for which we found no data for which DisMod-MR had to impute estimates.
CONCLUSIONS: The addition of internally consistent epidemiological estimates by world region, age, sex and year for dysthymia contributed to a more comprehensive estimate of mental health burden in GBD 2010.