ObjectiveTo analyze the epidemiological characteristics of 8 major respiratory pathogens in influenza-like illness (ILI) cases with acute respiratory infections at fever clinics in Huangpu District, Shanghai from 2015 to 2024, and to provide a scientific basis for the prevention and treatment of respiratory diseases. MethodsA retrospective study was conducted in Huangpu District. Individuals meeting the case definition of ILI from 2015 to 2024 was registered. Their nasopharyngeal swabs were collected for pathogen detection. A total of 8 respiratory viruses were tested, including Influenza A virus (Flu A), Influenza B virus (Flu B), adenovirus (ADV), enterovirus/human rhinovirus (EV/HRV), human parainfluenza virus (HPIV), human coronavirus (HCoV), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and human metapneumovirus (HMPV). ResultsFrom 2015 to 2019, a total of 344 ILI cases were tested, of which 192 out of 344 cases (55.81%) were tested positive for single respiratory pathogen. From 2023 to 2024, 1 557 ILI cases were tested, with 572 out of 1 557 cases (36.74%) being positive for single pathogen. From 2023 to 2024, the positive rate of single pathogen in ILI cases was significantly lower than that in 2015‒2019 (χ²=42.66, P<0.001). Specifically, the positive rate of Flu A (χ²=74.43, P<0.001) decreased, while that of HPIV (χ²=8.66, P=0.003) increased, both with statistically significant differences. According to the seasonal pattern, the epidemic intensity of Flu A decreased in summer, while that of HPIV increased in summer and autumn. Demographic results showed statistically significant differences in the positive rates of EV/HRV between genders (χ²=22.38, P<0.001), with males exhibiting a higher positive rate than females. No statistically significant differences were identified in the positive rates of single pathogen among different age groups (χ²=4.42, P=0.110). Nevertheless, statistically significant differences were noted when comparing the positive rates of EV/HRV, Flu A, Flu B and HPIV across different age groups (P<0.05). EV/HRV was more commonly detected in the 15‒<25 age group (10.93%), while Flu A and HPIV had the highest positive rates in the ≥60 age group (21.24% and 4.77%). Flu B had the highest positive rate in the 25‒<60 age group (11.26%). 52.63% of cases with co-infections occurred during winter, with the primary pathogens involved being EV/HRV (9 cases) and HCoV (6 cases). The most prevalent combination of co-infection was Flu A with EV/HRV. ConclusionThe prevalence of respiratory pathogens among ILI cases from 2023 to 2024 exhibited notable fluctuations compared to that from 2015 to 2019. Therefore, influenza surveillance should be strengthened, and attention should also be paid to the prevalence of respiratory pathogens such as HPIV. These findings have profound implications for future research, surveillance, vaccine planning, and public health policy making.

β-thalassemia is a single-gene genetic disease caused by β globin gene mutations leading to the fact that red blood cells are unable to form normal adult hemoglobin, and then patients develop hemolytic anemia. Current treatment regimens mainly include allogenetic hematologic stem cell transplantation, symptomatic regular blood transfusions and the use of iron removers to reduce iron load. Some severe patients have quite poor prognoses and deadly consequences if not treated timely. Genetically modified autohematopoietic stem cells can provide a new treatment option for patients with β thalassemia, which may achieve a long-term and stable increase in hemoglobin level through a single dose, making one-time cure β-thalassemia possible. This paper reviews the key elements of clinical trial design for β-thalassemia gene therapy from the aspects of efficacy evaluation endpoints, clinical trial design, enrollment population, and subject monitoring in order to provide a reference for pharma-therapeutic research and development enterprises.

This article referred to the relevant guidelines for vaccine clinical trials and the accumulated experience in the development and review of human rabies vaccines, as well as combined the technical recommendations for human rabies vaccines from major health facilities such as WHO, to discuss the key considerations in the design of clinical trials for human rabies vaccines, including control vaccines, evaluation of efficacy endpoints, clinical subjects, the sample size, immunity persistence, re-exposure immunization schedule and post-marketing study. This article aimed to provide reference for the design of human rabies vaccine clinical trials.

The safety of prophylactic vaccine is one of the key points both in clinical trials and evaluation. Based on the review practice of vaccine registration clinical trials in recent years, we puts forward a series of thoughts and suggestions on the common problems of safety study on vaccine, including the hypothesis of safety study, the consideration of inclusion/exclusion criteria and suspension/termination criteria for study; the routine requirements of safety study and some special issue such as medical laboratory test index, vaccine virus shedding and safety of adjuvant, and further clarifies the requirements of safety observation on sequential enrollment; also emphasized the scientific judgment of causality and the quality of safety monitoring. It can be used for reference by vaccine researchers and to explore appropriate solutions to promote vaccine research & development and risk control in China.

The safety of prophylactic vaccine is one of the key points both in clinical trials and evaluation. Based on the review practice of vaccine registration clinical trials in recent years, we summarized the common problems in safety analysis and report and accordingly puts forward a series of thoughts and suggestions, including discussing the role of statistics in safety analysis, putting forward the framework of safety analysis and report involved analysis content, analysis index and analysis dimension, in which attention is paid to the severity analysis; emphasizing the initiative analysis on risk signal and encouraging the evidence-based initiative safety evaluation. At the same time, this paper discusses the basic principles of the presentation of safety data in the package inserts, as well as the comprehensive consideration of the safety data of each phase of the trial and different subjects. It can be used for reference by sponsor to promote vaccine clinical research and evaluation in China.

Objective:To analyze the epidemiological characteristics of a cluster of 5 confirmed COVID-19 cases related with the transmission in incubation period of initial case, and find out the infection source and transmission chain.Methods:According to "The Prevention and Control Protocol for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Third Edition)" issued by the National Health Commission, a field epidemiological survey was conducted for the 5 cases in January 2020. Nasopharyngeal swabs and sputum samples were collected from them for the detection of 2019-nCoV by real time RT-PCR. Multi prevention and control measures were taken, such as tracking and screening close contacts, medical isolation observation, investigating the epidemiological link, analyzing transmission chain.Results:Case 1, who had common environmental exposure with other COVID-19 cases, got sick on 20 January, 2020 and was confirmed on 1 February. Case 2 became symptomatic on 22 January and was confirmed on 27 January. Case 3 got sick on 25 January and was confirmed on 30 January. Case 4 had illness onset on 20 January and was confirmed on 1 February. Case 5 got sick on 23 January and was confirmed on 31 January. Among the 5 cases, case 2 died and the illness of other cases were effectively controlled. After exclusion of other common exposure factors, case 1 had a 6-hour meeting with case 2 and case 3 on 19 January. Case 2 and case 3 might be infected by case 1 during the incubation period. It is the key point for epidemiological investigation.Conclusion:The epidemiological investigation indicates that the transmission might occur in the incubation period of COVID-19 case, close attention should be paid to it in future COVID-19 prevention and control.

The safety of prophylactic vaccine is one of the key points both in clinical trials and evaluation. Based on the review practice of vaccine registration clinical trials in recent years, we puts forward a series of thoughts and suggestions on the common problems of safety study on vaccine, including the hypothesis of safety study, the consideration of inclusion/exclusion criteria and suspension/termination criteria for study; the routine requirements of safety study and some special issue such as medical laboratory test index, vaccine virus shedding and safety of adjuvant, and further clarifies the requirements of safety observation on sequential enrollment; also emphasized the scientific judgment of causality and the quality of safety monitoring. It can be used for reference by vaccine researchers and to explore appropriate solutions to promote vaccine research & development and risk control in China.

The safety of prophylactic vaccine is one of the key points both in clinical trials and evaluation. Based on the review practice of vaccine registration clinical trials in recent years, we summarized the common problems in safety analysis and report and accordingly puts forward a series of thoughts and suggestions, including discussing the role of statistics in safety analysis, putting forward the framework of safety analysis and report involved analysis content, analysis index and analysis dimension, in which attention is paid to the severity analysis; emphasizing the initiative analysis on risk signal and encouraging the evidence-based initiative safety evaluation. At the same time, this paper discusses the basic principles of the presentation of safety data in the package inserts, as well as the comprehensive consideration of the safety data of each phase of the trial and different subjects. It can be used for reference by sponsor to promote vaccine clinical research and evaluation in China.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T lymphocyte has shown attractive prospects in the treatment of lymphohematopoietic malignancies including B-cell lymphoblastic leukemia, B-cell lymphoma and multiple myeloma. Many applicants have submitted investigational new drug (IND) applications to Center for Drug Evaluation of National Medical Products Ggency, however, many of the INDs have problems in patient selection, prognostic indicators and risk management, etc, which might hinder the evaluation of the safety and efficacy of CAR-T cells. Thus, we made some suggestions on the above-mentioned problems through summarizing clinical experience and communicating with domestic clinical experts, which the sponsors and researchers can refer to when conducting CAR-T cell clinical trials for registration.

Objective: To analyze vaccination situation of oral live attenuated rotavirus vaccine (LLR strain) among children from six provinces in China. Methods: In 2014, we selected 12 counties in Guangdong, Jiangsu, Chongqing, Jiangxi, Heilongjiang and Gansu provinces by using stratified cluster random sampling method and extract information of children born from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2012 from Children's Immunization Information System. We investigated ten children of each birth cohort in each county by checking the vaccination certification, and a total of 606 children were investigated. A survey was conducted to check the information of the children's vaccination certification with the data of Children's Immunization Information System by questionnaire including the basic information (province, county, name, gender, birth date, etc) and the rotavirus vaccination (vaccination date, dose, etc) to analyze the rotavirus vaccination situation. Results: 340 of 606 children were male. There were 121, 124, 122, 119 and 120 children born in 2008-2012, respectively. The proportions of the first and the second dose of rotavirus vaccination were 32.8% (199) and 9.7% (59). The proportion of the third dose of rotavirus vaccination among children born between 2008 and 2010 was 3.5% (13) since children born in 2011 and 2012 did not reach the age of third dose vaccination. The proportion of the first dose of rotavirus vaccination in high, middle and low per capita disposable income areas was 45.0% (91), 37.7% (77) and 15.5% (31) respectively (χ²= 43.15, P<0.001). Among 199 children vaccinated with the first dose of vaccine, the vaccination age mainly concentrated in 2 to 21 months, of which the peak was 5 to 13 months (66.8%, 133). The intervals between 2 doses of vaccination were mainly from 12 to 13 months (42.4%, 25) among the 59 children who received at least 2 doses of vaccine. In the 13 children vaccinated with 3 doses, the intervals between the second and the third dose were 12 months (5). Of the 271 doses of rotavirus vaccine vaccinated during 2008-2014, 34.7% (94 doses) were vaccinated in June-August, 88 were vaccinated simultaneously with 18 other vaccines, accounting for 32.5% of the total. Of the 18 other vaccines, inactivated vaccines such as diphtheria vaccine (30 doses), Hib vaccine (14 doses), group A meningitis vaccine (10 doses) were predominant. Conclusion The proportion of rotavirus vaccination was low and the vaccination age was relatively late. The vaccination mode was different from the recommendation of WHO. It is recommended that routine immunization of rotavirus vaccines should be carried out in early-months of children.