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In recent years, hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) incidence has been becoming a severe public health problem again due to its significant increase in Shaanxi Province, China. Baoji, located in the Guanzhong Plain in the central parts of Shaanxi Province, has been severely affected by HFRS since its first emergence in 1955. To better understand the epidemiology of orthohantaviruses infection in humans and the causative agents carried by the rodents, the long-term incidence patterns were analyzed and a molecular epidemiological investigation of orthohantaviruses infection in humans and rodents was performed. During 1984–2019, 13,042 HFRS cases were registered in Baoji, including 275 death cases. Except the first high prevalence of HFRS in 1988–1993, another two epidemic peaks were observed in 1998–2003 and 2012, respectively, although vaccination project was started since 1996. During the same period, HFRS cases in Baoji mainly were recorded in winter suggesting they may be caused by Hantaan orthohantavirus (HTNV), while a small peak of HFRS was also found in summer with unknown reason. Nucleotide identity and phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that a novel clade of HTNV sequences recovered from HFRS cases were closely related to those from rodents, including species close contact with humans, suggesting a direct viral transmission from rodents to humans and the important role in the HTNV transmission the nontraditional rodent hosts may play. Moreover, two distant related Dabieshan orthohantavirus (DBSV) lineages were also identified in Niviventer niviventer in this area demonstrating its considerable genetic diversity. Our data indicated that continual spillover of HTNV from rodents to humans, contributing to the high prevalence of HFRS in humans in Baoji. Author summary: Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is a serious public health problem and affected Baoji in Shaanxi, China despite onset of free vaccination in populations. Hence, the epidemiology of HFRS was analyzed and a molecular investigation was performed in Baoji. During 1984–2019, a total of 13,042 HFRS cases were recorded and three epidemic peaks were observed. Moreover, 275 deaths were registered, with an average fatality rate of 2.10%. Phylogenetic analysis was indicative of directive transmission of Hantaan orthohantavirus (HTNV) from rodents, including nontraditional rodent hosts to humans because viral sequences obtained from patients in Baoji were very closely related to those from rodents. Our limited data indicated a continual spillover of HTNV from rodents to humans occurred in Baoji, responsible for the periodic high prevalence of HFRS, highlighting the need of continuous surveillance of HTNV in rodents and humans. In addition, two novel Dabieshan orthohantavirus (DBSV) lineages were also identified, suggesting its high genetic diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To examine trends in the prevalence of wasting, stunting, overweight, and obesity among children in Luoding, a lower-middle-income city in southern China, we collected height, weight and other information on 65,908 pre-school children aged 2 to 7 years from 23 kindergartens, in which health examinations were conducted annually between 2004 and 2013. We used the growth standards of the World Health Organization (WHO) to calculate Z-scores for height and body mass index (BMI), and used the cut-offs recommended by WHO to define wasting, stunting, overweight, and obesity for each child. From 2004 to 2013, the prevalence of overweight increased from 3.70% to 7.27% and of obesity increased from 1.04% to 2.08%. Meanwhile, the prevalence of wasting decreased from 0.91% to 0.72% and of stunting decreased from 9.29% to 5.22%. These trends suggest there was still a double burden of nutritional status there. The nutritional interventions focusing on pre-school children should be comprehensively elaborated in lower-middle-income areas such as Luoding., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Objective: A few studies have suggested that the consumption of fruit and vegetables (FV) may benefit bone health, but limited data are available in Asian subjects. We examined the association between FV intake and bone mineral density (BMD) and osteoporosis in Chinese adults., Methods: This population-based cross-sectional study involved 2083 women and 1006 men aged 40-75 years in Guangzhou, China. Habitual dietary data was collected from a 79-item food frequency questionnaire by face-to-face interviews. The BMD was measured for the whole body (WB), lumbar spine (LS), total hip (TH) and femur neck (FN) with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry., Results: After adjustment for potential covariates, we observed dose-dependent associations between total FV intake and BMD and osteoporosis risk. The mean BMD was higher in tertile 3 vs. tertile 1 by 1.33% (TH) and 1.31% (FN) for FV, and 1.10% (WB), 1.57% (TH), and 2.05% (FN) for fruit (all P-trends < 0.05). Significant beneficial associations with BMD at some sites were also found in most fruit categories but not in total vegetables or their subgroups. The odds ratios (95% confidence interval) of osteoporosis (T-score ≤ -2.5) in tertile 3 (vs. 1) were 0.73 (0.58-0.92), 0.37 (0.22-0.60), and 0.71 (0.52-0.97) for FV; 0.82 (0.66-1.03), 0.48 (0.30-0.77) and 0.89 (0.61-1.12) for fruit; and 0.80 (0.64-1.01), 0.57 (0.35-0.92) and 0.76 (0.55-1.05) for vegetables at the LS, TH, and FN, respectively. The favorable association between FV intake and the occurrence of osteoporosis was evident only in subjects with lower BMI (<24.0 kg/m2, P-trends < 0.05)., Conclusions: Greater intake of FV was independently associated with a higher BMD and a lower presence of osteoporosis in middle-aged and elderly Chinese subjects with lower BMI. Fruit tended to have more contribution to the favorable association than vegetables., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

As recent studies have described an association between vitamin D and allergic rhinitis, we hypothesized that vitamin D pathway-related genes may be candidate genes for susceptibility to allergic rhinitis. Thus, we sought to evaluate whether polymorphisms in the vitamin D receptor (VDR) and CYP2R1 genes are associated with mite-sensitized persistent allergic rhinitis (PER) in a Han Chinese population. A hospital-based case-control study consisting of 519 patients with mite-sensitized PER and 447 healthy controls was conducted. Five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in VDR and CYP2R1 were selected for genotyping. The genotype and allele frequencies of rs9729, rs2228570, rs1544410, and rs731236 in VDR as well as rs2060793 in CYP2R1 were not significantly associated with susceptibility to mite-sensitized PER. After stratification analyses, however, both the CT and CT/TT genotypes of rs2228570 in VDR exhibited a significantly decreased risk (CT: adjusted odds ratio (OR)=0.58, 95% confidence intervals (CI)=0.37-0.91;, Ct/tt: adjusted OR=0.61, 95% CI=0.40-0.93) of mite-sensitized PER, while the AA genotype of rs2060793 in CYP2R1 exhibited a significantly increased risk (adjusted OR=1.85, 95% CI=1.03-3.34) of PER in the age subgroup of <16 years old. Both the AG and AG/GG genotypes of rs731236 in VDR exhibited a significantly decreased risk (AG: adjusted OR=0.43, 95% CI=0.21-0.89;, Ag/gg: adjusted OR=0.46, 95% CI=0.23-0.94) of PER in the female subgroup. Analysis of the locus-locus interactions of VDR and CYP2R1 revealed two models that involved combined SNPs of VDR and CYP2R1 were statistically significant (P<0.05). Our data suggest that age and gender may have an impact on the association of three SNPs (rs2228570, rs731236, and rs2060793) in genes of the vitamin D pathway with the risk of mite-sensitized PER in this Chinese population. The VDR and CYP2R1 variants may be involved in genetic interactions in the pathogenesis of PER.