Background: VHWs play an important role in primary health care. The Chuongmy district, Hatay province had only 50% of VHWs compared to the national rate of 90%. \r\n', u'Objectives: This study aims to describe the current activities of VHWs in Chuongmy district and identify the related factors. \r\n', u'Subjects and methods: The study adopted the cross sectional design, combined qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques with VHWs and the leaders of local authority and health facilities. \r\n', u'Results: VHWs play an important role in implementing health programs and health care activities in the villages. Almost all tasks and functions of VHWs were carried out in the villages but with different rate and quality. The major activities that VHWs carried out were preventive medicine and treatment of common diseases. Nevertheless, the quality of many activities should be improved. The performance and stability of VHWs depend on different factors such as training, income, qualification, support monitoring and supervision of local authority and health sectors. \r\n', u'Conclusions: The local authority and health sectors should have policies to provide update training to VHWs, incentives to retain them to work and enhance the supportive supervision of VHWs activities. \r\n', u'
village health works ; influencing factor

Background: There are about 600.000 deaths related to pregnancy and delivery in the world every year. In Vietnam, the rate of maternal death is 165/100.00. The majority of maternity and new born deaths occurred in the first week after delivery, especially 24 hours after delivery. Objective: To investigate the status of delivery and various factors related to home delivery and propose recommendations to reduce the rate of home delivery in Luong Son, Hoa Binh. Subject and method: The cross sectional study using a structured questionnaire with women who gave birth in 2003 was conducted in two communes of Luong Son district. Result: The home delivery rate was high (31.5%) and only 36.1% women decided themselves where to deliver. The main reasons for home delivery was perception related to last home delivery was normal, therefore this delivery should be at home (53.8%). Among 108 women interviewed, only 72% gave birth with the assistance of health professionals and 28% delivered with none health professional assistance. The rate of obstetric complications and new born death was relatively high among those that had homebirths. Conclusion: In order to increase the delivery rate at health care facilities and with the assistance of health professionals, there is required the cooperation of stakeholders for improving infrastructure, economic development, health education for increasing awareness of people on safe delivery. The public should change their perception, custom and behavior toward homebirths. Besides, the health sector should better manage the maternal health care program, monitor the pregnant women, plan the delivery dates and advocate their families (husbands and parent in laws) to take the women to deliver at the health care facilities.
Home delivery ; maternal death ; Hoa Binh province

Background: Currently, tracking, monitoring insecticide resistance of mosquitoes transmitting disease is an urgent need.\r\n', u'Objectives: To evaluate resistance to insecticide of three mosquito species: Aedes Aegypti, Culex quinquefasciatus and culex tritaenyorhynchus in Ha Noi\r\n', u'Subject and method: Aedes Aegypti, Culex quinquefasciatus culex tritaenyorhynchus mosquito species was collected from some districts of Ha Noi city. These mosquito species was tested sensitivity with 4 insecticides: permethrin 0.75%, lambda-cyhalothrin 0.05%, alpha-cypermethrin 30mg/m2 and DDT 4.0%.\r\n', u'Results: Three main vectors of Dengue fever, Japanese Encephalic and Filariasis mosquitoes were found in a very high density in some areas of Ha Noi City. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in the districts of Thanh Xuan (TX), Dong Da (DD) and Hoang Mai (HM) was found highly resistant to permethrin, alpha - cypermethrin, lambda - cyhalothrin and DDT with the mortalities rates of 51 % (TX) and 59%(DD); 70%(HM); 90%, 82% and 96%; 74%, 54% and 59%; 1 %, 8% and 32%, respectively. \r\n', u'Culex tritaenyorhynchus was found also highly resistant to permethrin with the mortality rate of 29%, alphacypermethrin - 18%, lambdacyhalothrin - only 3% and DDT x36%. Culex quinquefasciatus was found also highly resistant to those insecticides. \r\n', u'Conclusion: Other insecticides should choose to replace the chemicals used in this experiment to control, kill mosquitoes when epidemics occur.\r\n', u'
Insecticides ; resistance ; Aedes Aegypti ; Culex quinquefasciatus ; culex tritaenyorhynchus

Based on our previous study, we evaluated the modulatory effects on LPS-induced IL-1β and IL-10 cytokine production in RAW 264.7 macrophages of several medicinal herbs, including P. scandens. The results showed that P. scandens extract showed significant effects on LPS-induced IL-1β and IL-10 cytokine production in RAW 264.7 macrophages. Therefore, in the current research, we focused on the P. scandens sample. Cytokine production effects bioassay-guided isolation of ethyl acetate fraction of 70% ethanol extract from roots of Paramignya scandens (XL) obtained seven coumarins (1–7). Their chemical structures were identified using spectroscopic methods (NMR and MS) and compared with those previously published data to be xanthyletin (1), luvangetin (2), clausenidin (3), nordentatin (4), dentatin (5), clausarin (6), and anisocoumarin E (7). This study represents the first report on the presence of compounds 3, 6, and 7 in the Paramignya genus and compounds 1 and 2 in XL. All isolates (1–7) exhibited significant inhibition of LPS-induced interleukin (IL)-1β production compared to the LPS 5 ng/mL control group, with IL-1β concentrations ranging from 42.77 to 69.76 pg/mL. Additionally, the IL-10 production induced by compounds 1‒7 in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages ranged from 175.98 to 321.56 pg/mL, demonstrating a marked increase as compared to the LPS 5 ng/mL control group. The stimulatory effect on IL-10 production and inhibitory effect on IL-1β production of compounds 1, 2, and 6 gradually increased with the test concentration in both RAW 264.7 macrophages and LPS-induced RAW 264.7 macrophages. Compounds 1, 2, and 6 inhibited IL-1β production in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 macrophages with IC 50 values of 10.70 ± 1.18 µM, 8.57 ± 1.05 µM, and 17.43 ± 1.05 µM, respectively. These findings highlight the potential of all the compounds derived from P. scandens roots in inducing IL-1β and IL-10 cytokines activity in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages. The results contributed to expanding the knowledge of the chemistry and bioactivities of P. scandens and provided valuable data for future investigations on this species.

Background: The multiplex polymerase chain reaction can rapidly differentiate taenia spp adults and cysticercose cysts.\r\n', u'Objective: The study aimed to identify taenia spp adults and cysticercose cysts in human by using multiplex PCR\r\n', u'Subjects and methods: The multiplex PCR was applied by using the 4 forward and one reverse primer to amplify the target gene cytochrome c oxydase subunit I (COXI) of the Taenia spp in human. T\r\n', u'Results:4 molecular sizes of PCR products were appeared: 269 bp,720 bp, 827 bp, 984 bp. Seventy six samples including 65 flat worms and 11 cysticercose cysts which collected from the patients who are living in 19 different provinces and cities of Northern part of Viet Nam and treated in the clinic of NIMPE were examined. Of 65 flat worms analyzed 35 samples were T.asiatica (58.46%), 27 were T.saginata (41.54%). All 11 cysticercose cysts were T.solium (100%). \r\n', u'Conclusion: The result also indicated that some time 3 Taenia species were found at the same area. A remarkable difference of infection rate was found between men and women, also adults and children. \r\n', u'\r\n', u'
Taenia spp adults ; cysticercose cysts ; multiplex PCR

Background: Highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIVs) is an extremely contagious and high mortality rates in chickens resulting in substantial economic impact on the poultry sector. Therefore, it is necessary to elucidate the pathogenic mechanism of HPAIV for infection control. Objective: Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) can effectively avoid the limitations of subjective screening for differential gene expression. Therefore, we performed GSEA to compare HPAI-infected resistant and susceptible Ri chicken lines. Methods: The Ri chickens Mx(A)/BF2(B21) were chosen as resistant, and the chickens Mx(G)/ BF2(B13) were selected as susceptible by genotyping the Mx and BF2 genes. The tracheal tissues of HPAIV H5N1 infected chickens were collected for RNA sequencing followed by GSEA analysis to define gene subsets to elucidate the sequencing results. Results: We identified four differentially expressed pathways, which were immune-related pathways with a total of 78 genes. The expression levels of cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-12), chemokines (CCL4 and CCL5), type interferons and their receptors (IFN-β, IFNAR1, IFNAR2, and IFNGR1), Jak-STAT signaling pathway genes (STAT1, STAT2, and JAK1), MHC class I and II and their co-stimulatory molecules (CD80, CD86, CD40, DMB2, BLB2, and B2M), and interferon stimulated genes (EIF2AK2 and EIF2AK1) in resistant chickens were higher than those in susceptible chickens. Conclusions Resistant Ri chickens exhibit a stronger antiviral response to HPAIV H5N1 compared with susceptible chickens. Our findings provide insights into the immune responses of genetically disparate chickens against HPAIV.

The 5th outbreak of trichinosis occurred in a mountainous area of North Vietnam in 2012, involving 24 patients among 27 people who consumed raw pork together. Six of these patients visited several hospitals in Hanoi for treatment. Similar clinical symptoms appeared in these patients within 5-8 days after eating infected raw pork, which consisted of fever, muscle pain, difficult moving, edema, difficult swallowing, and difficult breathing. ELISA revealed all (6/6) positive reactions against Trichinella spiralis antigen and all cases showed positive biopsy results for Trichinella sp. larvae in the muscle. The larvae detected in the patients were identified as T. spiralis (Vietnamese strain) by the molecular analysis of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit III (cox3) gene.
Adult ; Animals ; Antigens, Helminth/analysis/immunology ; *Disease Outbreaks ; Electron Transport Complex IV/genetics ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Female ; Humans ; Larva ; Male ; Meat/*parasitology ; Mitochondria/genetics ; Muscles/parasitology/pathology ; Swine ; Trichinella spiralis/genetics/immunology/*isolation & purification ; Trichinellosis/*epidemiology/parasitology/pathology ; Vietnam/epidemiology

Animals ; Antibodies, Neutralizing ; Blotting, Western ; Classical swine fever virus ; Classical Swine Fever ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Genotype ; Mortality ; Spleen ; Swine ; Vaccines ; Vaccines, Subunit ; Vietnam ; Virulence

Background: Dengue virus infection is a major public health problem. A hypothesis put forward for severe dengue is the cytokine storm, a sudden increase in cytokines that induces vascular permeability. Previous studies and our recent meta-analysis showed that IL-6, IL-8, IFNγ, TNFα, VEGF-A and VCAM-1 are associated with dengue shock syndrome. Therefore, in this study we aim to validate the association of these cytokines with severe dengue. Methods & Findings: In a hospital based case control study in Vietnam, children with dengue fever, other febrile illness and healthy controls were recruited. Dengue virus infection was confirmed by several diagnostic tests. Multiplex Immunoassay using Luminex technology was used to measure cytokines simultaneously. A positive association with dengue shock syndrome was found for VCAM-1, whereas a negative association was found for IFNγ. Furthermore, the multivariate logistic analysis also showed that VCAM-1 and IFNγ were independently correlated with dengue shock syndrome. Conclusion: IFNγ and VCAM-1 were associated with dengue shock syndrome, although their role in the severe dengue pathogenesis remains unclear. Additional studies are required to further investigate the function of these cytokines in severe dengue.

Background: Dengue virus infection is a major public health problem. A hypothesis put forward for severe dengue is the cytokine storm, a sudden increase in cytokines that induces vascular permeability. Previous studies and our recent meta-analysis showed that IL-6, IL-8, IFNγ, TNFα, VEGF-A and VCAM-1 are associated with dengue shock syndrome. Therefore, in this study we aim to validate the association of these cytokines with severe dengue. Methods & Findings: In a hospital based-case control study in Vietnam, children with dengue fever, other febrile illness and healthy controls were recruited. Dengue virus infection was confirmed by several diagnostic tests. Multiplex immunoassay using Luminex technology was used to measure cytokines simultaneously. A positive association with dengue shock syndrome was found for VCAM-1, whereas a negative association was found for IFNγ. Furthermore, multivariate logistic analysis also showed that VCAM-1 and IFNγ were independently correlated with dengue shock syndrome. Conclusion: IFNγ and VCAM-1 were associated with dengue shock syndrome, although their role in the severe dengue pathogenesis remains unclear. Additional studies are required to shed further light on the function of these cytokines in severe dengue.