Humans ; Poliomyelitis/prevention & control* ; Vaccination

Humans ; COVID-19 ; Vaccination ; Neoplasms/epidemiology*

Humans ; Atrial Fibrillation/surgery* ; Anti-Arrhythmia Agents/therapeutic use* ; Treatment Outcome ; Catheter Ablation ; Recurrence

INTRODUCTION: Three doses of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines have been recommended for cancer patients to reduce the risk of severe disease. Anti-neoplastic treatment, such as chemotherapy, may affect long-term vaccine immunogenicity. METHOD: Patients with solid or haematological cancer were recruited from 2 hospitals between July 2021 and March 2022. Humoral response was evaluated using GenScript cPASS surrogate virus neutralisation assays. Clinical outcomes were obtained from medical records and national mandatory-reporting databases. RESULTS: A total of 273 patients were recruited, with 40 having haematological malignancies and the rest solid tumours. Among the participants, 204 (74.7%) were receiving active cancer therapy, including 98 (35.9%) undergoing systemic chemotherapy and the rest targeted therapy or immunotherapy. All patients were seronegative at baseline. Seroconversion rates after receiving 1, 2 and 3 doses of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination were 35.2%, 79.4% and 92.4%, respectively. After 3 doses, patients on active treatment for haematological malignancies had lower antibodies (57.3%±46.2) when compared to patients on immunotherapy (94.1%±9.56, P<0.05) and chemotherapy (92.8%±18.1, P<0.05). SARS-CoV-2 infection was reported in 77 (28.2%) patients, of which 18 were severe. No patient receiving a third dose within 90 days of the second dose experienced severe infection. CONCLUSION This study demonstrates the benefit of early administration of the third dose among cancer patients.
Humans ; SARS-CoV-2 ; COVID-19/prevention & control* ; Treatment Outcome ; Neoplasms/drug therapy* ; Hematologic Neoplasms ; Vaccination ; RNA, Messenger ; Antibodies, Viral ; Immunogenicity, Vaccine

Poliomyelitis, or polio, is a highly infectious disease and can result in permanent flaccid paralysis of the limbs. Singapore was certified polio-free by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 29 October 2000, together with 36 other countries in the Western Pacific Region. The last imported case of polio in Singapore was in 2006. Fortunately, polio is vaccine-preventable-the world saw the global eradication of wild poliovirus types 2 and 3 achieved in 2015 and 2019, respectively. However, in late 2022, a resurgence of paralytic polio cases from vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) was detected in countries like Israel and the US (specifically, New York); VDPV was also detected during routine sewage water surveillance with no paralysis cases in London, UK. Without global eradication, there is a risk of re-infection from importation and spread of wild poliovirus or VDPV, or new emergence and circulation of VDPV. During the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide routine childhood vaccination coverage fell by 5% to 81% in 2020-2021. Fortunately, Singapore has maintained a constantly high vaccination coverage of 96% among 1-year-old children as recorded in 2021. All countries must ensure high poliovirus vaccination coverage in their population to eradicate poliovirus globally, and appropriate interventions must be taken to rectify this if the coverage falters. In 2020, WHO approved the emergency use listing of a novel oral polio vaccine type 2 for countries experiencing circulating VDPV type 2 outbreaks. Environmental and wastewater surveillance should be implemented to allow early detection of "silent" poliovirus transmission in the population, instead of relying on clinical surveillance of acute flaccid paralysis based on case definition alone.
Child ; Humans ; Infant ; Public Health Surveillance ; Pandemics ; Wastewater ; Wastewater-Based Epidemiological Monitoring ; COVID-19/epidemiology* ; Poliomyelitis/prevention & control* ; Poliovirus ; Poliovirus Vaccine, Oral ; Vaccination ; Global Health

INTRODUCTION: Despite promising trials, catheter ablation is still regarded as an adjunct to antiarrhythmic drugs (AADs) in the treatment of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF). This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of various ablation therapies and AADs. METHOD: Randomised controlled trials or propensity score-matched studies comparing atrial tachyarrhythmia recurrence among any combination of ablation modalities or AAD were retrieved. Kaplan-Meier curves and risk tables for this outcome were graphically reconstructed to extract patient-level data. Frequentist network meta-analysis (NMA) using derived hazard ratios (HRs), as well as 2 restricted mean survival time (RMST) NMAs, were conducted. Treatment strategies were ranked using P-scores. RESULTS: Across 24 studies comparing 6 ablation therapies (5,132 patients), Frequentist NMA-derived HRs of atrial fibrillation recurrence compared to AAD were 0.35 (95% confidence interval [CI]=0.25-0.48) for cryoballoon ablation (CBA), 0.34 (95% CI=0.25-0.47) for radiofrequency ablation (RFA), 0.14 (95% CI=0.07-0.30) for combined CBA and RFA, 0.20 (95% CI=0.10-0.41) for hot-balloon ablation, 0.43 (95% CI=0.15-1.26) for laser-balloon ablation (LBA), and 0.33 (95% CI=0.18-0.62) for pulmonary vein ablation catheter. RMST-based NMAs similarly showed significant benefit of all ablation therapies over AAD. The combination of CBA + RFA showed promising long-term superiority over CBA and RFA, while LBA showed favourable short-term efficacy. CONCLUSION The advantage of ablation therapies over AAD in preventing atrial tachyarrhythmia recurrence suggests that ablation should be considered as the first-line treatment for PAF in patients fit for the procedure. The promising nature of several specific therapies warrants further trials to elicit their long-term efficacy and perform a cost-benefit analysis.
Humans ; Anti-Arrhythmia Agents/therapeutic use* ; Atrial Fibrillation/surgery* ; Catheter Ablation/methods* ; Heart Atria ; Network Meta-Analysis ; Recurrence ; Treatment Outcome ; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic

Pregnancy ; Female ; Humans ; Mosaicism ; Prenatal Diagnosis ; Prenatal Care ; Aneuploidy

Humans ; Endophthalmitis/microbiology* ; Eye Infections, Bacterial/microbiology* ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use* ; Retrospective Studies

Humans ; Female ; Mastectomy, Segmental ; Margins of Excision ; Reoperation ; Breast Neoplasms/surgery* ; Retrospective Studies ; Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast/surgery* ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local

Humans ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/therapy* ; Self Care ; Renal Insufficiency, Chronic/complications*