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Existing surveillance systems monitor nonfatal and fatal opioid overdoses but do not monitor severe nonfatal overdoses that require intensive medical interventions.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Drug Overdose Surveillance and Epidemiology system was used to query emergency department data from local syndromic systems and the Natio ...

In the United States, hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection occurs primarily through injection drug use (IDU), but transmission also occurs through other ways. This study examined HCV prevalence and disparities among US residents aged 12-59 years with no IDU history.We analysed 2013-March 2020 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data to ca ...

Integrating and advancing health equity are a core tenant of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's mission. Comprehensive frameworks that clearly conceptualise equity are needed to prioritise and inform the advancement of health equity within public health.To help meet this need, the investigative team developed The Continuum of Health E ...

This study examined the factors affecting the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) among US agriculture producers, specifically focusing on chemical, respiratory, and hearing protection. The primary goals were to identify demographic and farm-related factors linked to lower PPE usage and to explore the associations between PPE use and self-re ...

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) increase the risk for poor mental health (MH) and substance use. We describe relationships between adolescents' ACEs, substance use, and poor MH occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic.We conducted a secondary analysis of data among U.S. high school students aged <18 years, who participated in the nationally representative Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey. Data were collected from January to June 2021. Bivariate and multivariable analyses assessed associations between individual ACEs (physical, emotional abuse by parent or caregiver, parent or caregiver job loss, food insecurity, sexual violence, physical dating violence, or cyber bullying) and cumulative ACEs (0, 1-2, 3, 4+) experienced during the pandemic and substance use; stratified analyses assessed effects of poor MH on associations between ACEs and substance use.Use of all substances was higher among adolescents with ACEs, particularly those who experienced both ACEs and poor MH during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prevalence of substance use was especially high among adolescents exposed to any sexual violence or physical dating violence. Compared to adolescents without ACEs, a higher percentage of adolescents with 4+ ACEs reported current use of alcohol (adjusted prevalence ratio [aPR], 5.32) or marijuana (aPR, 5.86), misuse of prescription pain medications (aPR, 8.82), binge drinking (aPR, 7.70), and increased alcohol (aPR, 6.54) or drug (aPR, 7.09) use during the pandemic.The individual and combined impact of ACEs and MH on adolescent substance use reinforce the need for trauma-informed care and primary prevention of ACEs to prevent and mitigate poor MH and substance use among adolescents.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are prevalent in consumer products used indoors. However, few measurements of ionic PFAS exist for indoor air. We analyzed samples collected on PMquartz fiber filters (QFFs) in 11 North Carolina homes 1-3 times in living rooms (two QFFs in series), and immediately outside each home (single QFF), for 26 ion ...

Pesticides may impact respiratory health, yet evidence of their impact on pediatric asthma morbidity is limited, particularly among urban children.To characterize pesticide biomarker concentrations and evaluate their associations with pediatric asthma morbidity among predominantly low-income, Black children in Baltimore City, USA.We measured urinar ...

Transgender women continue to face a significant burden of health disparities with HIV infection as a critical public health concern. Substance use is higher among transgender women than among cisgender women. However, little is known about transgender women who inject drugs and risk for HIV in the United States. The objectives were to explore HIV ...

We compared racial and ethnic disparities in HIV diagnosis rates among adults in census tracts with the most disadvantaged vs. the most advantaged levels of social determinants of health.In this ecologic analysis, we used the National HIV Surveillance System data from 2021 and social determinants of health data from 2017-2021 American Community Sur ...

Here we describe the development and pilot testing of the first artificial intelligence (AI) software "copilot" to help train novices to competently perform flexible fiberoptic laryngoscopy (FFL) on a mannikin and improve their uptake of FFL skills.Supervised machine learning was used to develop an image classifier model, dubbed the "anatomical reg ...

Optimizing antibiotic use is critical for reducing adverse drug events and slowing the development of antimicrobial resistance. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has led efforts to track and report national antibiotic prescribing practices.1,2 A previously published analysis using IQVIA® Xponent data showed a decrease in ove ...

During shortages, elastomeric half-mask respirators (EHMRs) are an alternative to reusing N95 filtering facepiece respirators but require between-use disinfection. The objectives of this study were to (a) measure microbial reductions on EHMR surfaces under laboratory conditions by a standardized procedure using wipes impregnated with health care di ...

Using data from the nationally representative National Immunization Survey (NIS), we applied conditional linear regression tree methodology to examine relationships between demographic and geographic factors and propensity of receiving various doses of COVID-19 vaccine over time; these analyses identified temporal changes in these relationships tha ...

The OraQuick In-Home HIV self-test represents a fast, inexpensive, and convenient method for users to assess their HIV status. If integrated thoughtfully into existing testing practices, accompanied by efficient pathways to formal diagnosis, self-testing could enhance both HIV awareness and reduce HIV incidence. However, currently available self-te ...

While the health of all depends on the food chain, few studies have focused systematically on the health of food chain workers themselves (production, manufacturing, wholesale, retail, and commercial and institutional services). In this study we used 2018 and 2019 data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to examine health-re ...

Previous time-integrated (2 h to 4 h) measurements show that total gas-phase water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) is 10 to 20 times higher inside homes compared to outside. However, concentration dynamics of WSOCand total particle phase WSOC (WSOC)-are not well understood. During the Chemical Assessment of Surfaces and Air (CASA) experiment, we meas ...

Non-Hispanic Black Iowans have substantially higher incidence of and mortality from cancer than their non-Hispanic White (NHW) counterparts in all but the oldest age groups; rates are particularly high in Black Hawk County, which contains the city of Waterloo, a highly segregated city with a documented history of redlining and distinct racial diffe ...

Availability of school-based infectious disease surveillance data (eg, COVID-19 cases, student absences) based on experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic were studied using a national sample of public kindergarten through 12th grade schools (n = 1602). Based on surveys administered to school administrators throughout the 2021-2022 school year, we ...

Health disparities, leading to worse health outcomes such as elevated COVID-19 mortality rates, are rooted in social and structural factors. These disparities notably impact individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and more socially vulnerable areas. We analyzed the relationship between COVID-19 deaths and social vulnerability using the Min ...

CRISPR guide RNA sequences deriving exactly from natural sequences may not perform optimally in every application. Here we implement and evaluate algorithms for designing maximally fit, artificial CRISPR-Cas13a guides with multiple mismatches to natural sequences that are tailored for diagnostic applications. These guides offer more sensitive detec ...