Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/10/news-scan-oct-02-2020
News Scan for Oct 02, 2020
Fecal transplant registry results; Bots and vaccine tweets; H9N2 avian flu case in China
Filed Under:
Antimicrobial Stewardship; Adult (non-flu) Vaccines; Childhood Vaccines; Public Health; Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)
Early national study results indicate FMT safe, effective for C diff
Initial results from the FMT (fecal microbiota transplantation) National Registry indicate that FMT is highly effective for treating Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), with a good safety profile, US researchers reported yesterday in Gastroenterology.
The FMT National Registry is an ongoing, prospective, observational, multicenter registry of North American patients who receive FMT for any indication, designed to assess FMT methods of delivery, as well as the safety and effectiveness of the procedure. Data are collected by participating sites at baseline and at 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years after the procedure. The primary outcome analyzed in this study was cure of CDI at 1 month. Safety outcomes included patient symptoms, infections, hospitalizations, deaths, and changes in current medical conditions or development of new conditions.
Of the first 259 participants enrolled at 20 sites, 222 completed follow-up at 1 month, and 123 had follow-up at 6 months. All procedures were performed for CDI, and 249 (96%) used stool from an unknown donor, primarily a stool bank. The primary method of delivery was colonoscopy (221 patients, 85%). Of the 222 patients with 1-month follow-up, 200 (90%) had CDI cure, with 197 (98%) requiring only one treatment to achieve cure. Among 112 with initial cure who were followed to 6 months, 4 (4%) had CDI recurrence.
Severe symptoms reported within 1 month of FMT included diarrhea (2 patients, 5%), abdominal pain (4 patients, 2%). Hospitalizations were reported in 27 patients (12%), but only 3 hospitalizations (1%) were possibly related to FMT. At 6 months, new diagnoses of irritable bowel syndrome were made in 2 patients (1%) and inflammatory bowel disease in 2 patients (1%).
"CDI cure rates were excellent at approximately 90% and in line with those reported in RCTs [randomized controlled trials] of FMT and in a National Pediatric FMT Registry," the authors of the study wrote. "Thus, patients can expect to achieve high rates of success with FMT for refractory CDI in standard clinical practice."
The authors say assessment of new conditions at long-term follow-up is planned as the registry grows and will be important for determining the full safety profile of FMT.
Oct 2 Gastroenterology abstract
Twitter bots may have less effect on vaccine misinformation than most think
According to a study led by University of Sydney researchers published in the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) yesterday, the average US Twitter user potentially saw 757 vaccine-related posts from 2017 to 2019. Of those, only 27 (3.6%) were critical of vaccination, and most people didn't see any vaccine-related posts created by a bot.
Researchers randomly selected more than 53,000 active, US-based Twitter accounts and studied how they engaged with more than 20 million vaccine-related tweets. While the measured tweets were created by both human- and bot-run accounts, the team determined that "an overwhelming majority" of the content was created by humans.
The study reported that 36.7% of active Twitter users posted or retweeted about vaccines, 4.5% retweeted content that was critical of vaccines, and only 2.1% of users retweeted a bot. The study also mentions a subgroup who were more engaged with vaccine-related topics—about 5.8% of US Twitter users—and said that a vast majority generally engaged with other humans, not bots.
Prior to this, a 2018 study also published in AJPH looked at the frequency and content of vaccine-related tweets from bots, trolls and content polluters from 2014 to 2017. Those researchers wrote, "Whereas bots that spread malware and unsolicited content disseminated antivaccine messages, Russian trolls promoted discord. Accounts masquerading as legitimate users create false equivalency, eroding public consensus on vaccination."
In a University of Sydney press release on today's study, the researchers indirectly address this, advocating for resources to go toward media literacy as opposed to efforts to control the bots and trolls. "By focusing investigations only on counting what bots, trolls, and malicious users post without looking at what people potentially see and engage with," study leader Adam Dunn, PhD, said, "there is the risk of unnecessarily amplifying that content and could make it seem much more important than it really is."
Oct 1 AJPH study
Oct 1 University of Sydney press release
H9N2 avian flu infects Chinese child
China has reported another H9N2 avian flu case, which involves a 4-year-old girl from Guangdong province who was hospitalized in early August with mild symptoms and has since recovered, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said in its latest weekly communicable disease threat report.
An investigation found that the girl had contact with domestic poultry and that none of her contacts had symptoms.
So far this year, six H9N2 flu cases have been reported, all from China, which reported its last such illness in May.
H9N2 cases in humans are rare but have been reported in areas where H9N2 is endemic in poultry. In humans, the virus hasn't been linked to sustained transmission. Children have been the most affected group, and when infections occur, they are typically mild.
Oct 2 ECDC weekly communicable disease threat report
News Scan for Oct 02, 2020
Fecal transplant registry results; Bots and vaccine tweets; H9N2 avian flu case in China
Filed Under:
Antimicrobial Stewardship; Adult (non-flu) Vaccines; Childhood Vaccines; Public Health; Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)
Early national study results indicate FMT safe, effective for C diff
Initial results from the FMT (fecal microbiota transplantation) National Registry indicate that FMT is highly effective for treating Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), with a good safety profile, US researchers reported yesterday in Gastroenterology.
The FMT National Registry is an ongoing, prospective, observational, multicenter registry of North American patients who receive FMT for any indication, designed to assess FMT methods of delivery, as well as the safety and effectiveness of the procedure. Data are collected by participating sites at baseline and at 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years after the procedure. The primary outcome analyzed in this study was cure of CDI at 1 month. Safety outcomes included patient symptoms, infections, hospitalizations, deaths, and changes in current medical conditions or development of new conditions.
Of the first 259 participants enrolled at 20 sites, 222 completed follow-up at 1 month, and 123 had follow-up at 6 months. All procedures were performed for CDI, and 249 (96%) used stool from an unknown donor, primarily a stool bank. The primary method of delivery was colonoscopy (221 patients, 85%). Of the 222 patients with 1-month follow-up, 200 (90%) had CDI cure, with 197 (98%) requiring only one treatment to achieve cure. Among 112 with initial cure who were followed to 6 months, 4 (4%) had CDI recurrence.
Severe symptoms reported within 1 month of FMT included diarrhea (2 patients, 5%), abdominal pain (4 patients, 2%). Hospitalizations were reported in 27 patients (12%), but only 3 hospitalizations (1%) were possibly related to FMT. At 6 months, new diagnoses of irritable bowel syndrome were made in 2 patients (1%) and inflammatory bowel disease in 2 patients (1%).
"CDI cure rates were excellent at approximately 90% and in line with those reported in RCTs [randomized controlled trials] of FMT and in a National Pediatric FMT Registry," the authors of the study wrote. "Thus, patients can expect to achieve high rates of success with FMT for refractory CDI in standard clinical practice."
The authors say assessment of new conditions at long-term follow-up is planned as the registry grows and will be important for determining the full safety profile of FMT.
Oct 2 Gastroenterology abstract
Twitter bots may have less effect on vaccine misinformation than most think
According to a study led by University of Sydney researchers published in the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) yesterday, the average US Twitter user potentially saw 757 vaccine-related posts from 2017 to 2019. Of those, only 27 (3.6%) were critical of vaccination, and most people didn't see any vaccine-related posts created by a bot.
Researchers randomly selected more than 53,000 active, US-based Twitter accounts and studied how they engaged with more than 20 million vaccine-related tweets. While the measured tweets were created by both human- and bot-run accounts, the team determined that "an overwhelming majority" of the content was created by humans.
The study reported that 36.7% of active Twitter users posted or retweeted about vaccines, 4.5% retweeted content that was critical of vaccines, and only 2.1% of users retweeted a bot. The study also mentions a subgroup who were more engaged with vaccine-related topics—about 5.8% of US Twitter users—and said that a vast majority generally engaged with other humans, not bots.
Prior to this, a 2018 study also published in AJPH looked at the frequency and content of vaccine-related tweets from bots, trolls and content polluters from 2014 to 2017. Those researchers wrote, "Whereas bots that spread malware and unsolicited content disseminated antivaccine messages, Russian trolls promoted discord. Accounts masquerading as legitimate users create false equivalency, eroding public consensus on vaccination."
In a University of Sydney press release on today's study, the researchers indirectly address this, advocating for resources to go toward media literacy as opposed to efforts to control the bots and trolls. "By focusing investigations only on counting what bots, trolls, and malicious users post without looking at what people potentially see and engage with," study leader Adam Dunn, PhD, said, "there is the risk of unnecessarily amplifying that content and could make it seem much more important than it really is."
Oct 1 AJPH study
Oct 1 University of Sydney press release
H9N2 avian flu infects Chinese child
China has reported another H9N2 avian flu case, which involves a 4-year-old girl from Guangdong province who was hospitalized in early August with mild symptoms and has since recovered, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said in its latest weekly communicable disease threat report.
An investigation found that the girl had contact with domestic poultry and that none of her contacts had symptoms.
So far this year, six H9N2 flu cases have been reported, all from China, which reported its last such illness in May.
H9N2 cases in humans are rare but have been reported in areas where H9N2 is endemic in poultry. In humans, the virus hasn't been linked to sustained transmission. Children have been the most affected group, and when infections occur, they are typically mild.
Oct 2 ECDC weekly communicable disease threat report
