Incidence of infectious diseases after earthquakes: a systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVES

Evaluation of the incidence of infectious diseases after natural disasters can help develop healthcare policies. This study provides a global review of the most prevalent infectious diseases observed after earthquakes.

STUDY DESIGN

A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed.

METHODS

A systematic review was performed on electronic databases, including PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science, up to March 2020 (with no time limitations). Studies addressing earthquakes and infectious diseases were collected based on specified inclusion and exclusion criteria. Subsequently, the quality of the studies was assessed by the Newcastle-Ottawa scale (NOS). Data analyses were carried out on six subgroups under five different disease categories using comprehensive meta-analysis software.

RESULTS

In total, 24 studies qualified for the systematic review and 18 were included in the meta-analysis. The incidences of gastrointestinal infections, dermal infections, respiratory infections, central nervous system infections and other infectious diseases were as follows: odds ratio (OR) 163.4 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 31.0-858.1), OR 84.5 (95% CI: 27.1-262.8), OR 9.9 (95% CI: 3.5-27.7), OR 0.5 (95% CI: 0.2-1.1) and OR 4.4 (95% CI: 1.9-9.9) cases per 100,000 people, respectively. The association between the incidences of infectious diseases before and after earthquakes was significant, namely, 1.561 (95% CI: 1.244-1.957) with a P-value <0.001.

CONCLUSIONS

The results show an increase in the prevalence of infectious diseases after earthquakes. Governments should take essential measures to be better prepared for such unpredictable catastrophes.

A quantitative model for dermal infection and oedema in BALB/c mice pinna

Background

Pharmaceutical industry demands innovation for developing new molecules to improve effectiveness and safety of therapeutic medicines. Preclinical assays are the first tests performed to evaluate new therapeutic molecules using animal models. Currently, there are several models for evaluation of treatments, for dermal oedema or infection. However, the most common or usual way is to induce the inflammation with chemical substances instead of infectious agents. On the other hand, this kind of models require the implementation of histological techniques and the interpretation of pathologies to verify the effectiveness of the therapy under assessment.

This work was focused on developing a quantitative model of infection and oedema in mouse pinna. The infection was achieved with a strain of Streptococcus pyogenes that was inoculated in an injury induced at the auricle of BALB/c mice, the induced oedema was recorded by measuring the ear thickness with a digital micrometer and histopathological analysis was performed to verify the damage. The presence of S. pyogenes at the infection site was determined every day by culture.

Results

Our results showed that S. pyogenes can infect the mouse pinna and that it can be recovered at least for up to 4 days from the infected site; we also found that S. pyogenes can induce a bigger oedema than the PBS-treated control for at least 7 days; our results were validated with an antibacterial and anti-inflammatory formulation made with ciprofloxacin and hydrocortisone.

Conclusions

The model we developed led us to emulate a dermal infection and allowed us to objectively evaluate the increase or decrease of the oedema by measuring the thickness of the ear pinna, and to determine the presence of the pathogen in the infection site. We consider that the model could be useful for assessment of new anti-inflammatory or antibacterial therapies for dermal infections.

The first genetically confirmed case of Dioctophyme renale (Nematoda: Dioctophymatida) in a patient with a subcutaneous nodule

We describe a nematode larva in a subcutaneous nodule excised from a 44-year-old Chinese male who had been living in Japan for 15 years. Morphological features suggested that the worm was a dioctophimatid nematode. PCR amplification and sequencing of small subunit ribosomal DNA and mitochondrial cytochrome subunit c oxidase genes allowed us to identify the larva as the giant kidney worm, Dioctophyme renale (Goeze, 1972). This is the first molecularly confirmed human case of a dermal D. renale infection.