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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is challenging the public health response system worldwide, especially in poverty-stricken, war-torn, and least developed countries (LDCs). Methods: We characterized the epidemiological features and spread dynamics of COVID-19 in Niger, quantified the effective reproduction number (Rt ), evaluated the impact of public health control measures, and estimated the disease burden. Results: As of 4 July 2020, COVID-19 has affected 29 communes of Niger with 1093 confirmed cases, among whom 741 (67.8%) were males. Of them 89 cases died, resulting in a case fatality rate (CFR) of 8.1%. Both attack rates and CFRs were increased with age (P < 0.0001). Health care workers accounted for 12.8% cases. Among the reported cases, 39.3% were isolated and treated at home, and 42.3% were asymptomatic. 74.6% cases were clustered in Niamey, the capital of Niger. The Rt fluctuated in correlation to control measures at different outbreak stages. After the authorities initiated the national response and implemented the strictest control measures, Rt quickly dropped to below the epidemic threshold (

Background: The ongoing outbreak of COVID-19 is challenging the Chinese public health response system We aim to understand the epidemic dynamics and underlying

Background: Although homocysteine (Hcy) and white matter hyperintensities (WMH) have been proven to be correlated with increased risks of ischemic stroke, there have been few studies addressing the association between serum Hcy and WMH in a population with asymptomatic intracranial arterial stenosis (aICAS). Thus, the aim of the present study is to describe the association between Hcy and WMH in rural-dwelling Chinese people with aICAS. Methods: In this study, 150 participants diagnosed as aICAS by magnetic resonance angiography were recruited from the Kongcun Town Study, which was a population-based study aimed to investigate the prevalence of aICAS in general population aged 40 to 90 years old, free of ischemic stroke history, and living in the Kongcun town, Pingyin county, Shandong, China. Data on demographics, risk factors, and serum Hcy levels were collected via interview, clinical examination, and laboratory tests. The WMH volumes were calculated through the lesion segmentation tool system for the Statistical Parametric Mapping package based on magnetic resonance imaging. The association between Hcy and WMH volume was analyzed using both linear and logistic regression analysis. Results: After adjusting for all confounders, high Hcy (HHcy) (serum Hcy ≥15umol/L) was significantly associated with severe WMH (the highest quartile in WMH volume) (OR: 2.972, 95%CI: 1.017-7.979, P

The ongoing pandemic of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is challenging global public health response system. We aim to identify the risk factors for the transmission of COVID-19 using data on mainland China. We estimated attack rate (AR) at county level. Logistic regression was used to explore the role of transportation in the nationwide spread. Generalized additive model and stratified linear mixed-effects model were developed to identify the effects of multiple meteorological factors on local transmission. The ARs in affected counties ranged from 0.6 to 9750.4 per million persons, with a median of 8.8. The counties being intersected by railways, freeways, national highways or having airports had significantly higher risk for COVID-19 with adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of 1.40 (p = 0.001), 2.07 (p

Life course epidemiology should practically illustrate how risk exposures and their dynamic changes influence the occurrence, development and prognosis of chronic diseases from early life to the elderly. This paper develops the lifespan risk exposure measurement instrument (LREMI) in the framework of retrospective study to collect lifestyle, diet, physical activity information across subjects'life courses from 18-years-old to current age. Through a pilot study, the result of the test-retest analysis demonstrated the reliability of LREMI. In Shandong Multicenter Cohort, the LREMI showed its feasibility, for it could measure the exposure spectrum on both individuals and population with different life experiences. Moreover, it had good differentiation ability for identifying cases versus controls in population-based case-control study. However, further studies should be conducted in an already available prospective cohort to ascertain that our results could match prospective data.