J Formos Med Assoc
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Healthcare personnel (HCP) at the front line of care are exposed to occupational hazards that place them at risk for infection, which then endanger patient safety and compromise the capability of the healthcare workforce. As of March 8, 2021 more than 420,170 HCP in US had been infected with SARS CoV-2 with 1388 deaths. In two Taiwan hospitals COVID-19 outbreaks involved HCP and resulted in shutdown of service. This report describes our prospective health surveillance of the HCP and COVID-19 containment measures in a teaching hospital in Taiwan during Jan. 1 through June 30, 2020. ⋯ We attribute our success in preventing COVID-19 infections among HCP to rapid, proactive, decisive, integrated national and institutional response in the early stages of the epidemic.
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Genetic and environmental factors play significant roles in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD). Recently, 17 novel risk loci of PD were identified in a meta-analysis of genome-wide association study (GWAS) in the European populations. In order to clarify if these risk loci are associated with PD in Taiwanese population, we conducted a case-control study including 14 of the novel risk loci and analyzed the genetic distribution and allele frequency. ⋯ This study suggests that ITPKB, IL1R2 and COQ7 have influence on the risk of PD in Taiwan.
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The risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is reduced but not eliminated after nucleos(t)ide analogue (NA) therapy in chronic hepatitis B (CHB). We aimed to investigate the role of serum Prothrombin Induced by Vitamin K Absence or Antagonist-II (PIVKA-II) and alpha-fetoprotein in predicting HCC and mortality in cirrhotic CHB patients at virological remission (VR) following NA therapy. ⋯ In patients with CHB-related cirrhosis, serum alpha-fetoprotein >7 ng/mL and PIVKA-II >50 mAU/mL at the time of antiviral therapy-induced VR is associated with a greater risk of HCC. PIVKA-II is a predictive marker for HCC in patients with low normal alpha-fetoprotein level.
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We estimated loss-of-life expectancy (LE) and lifetime medical expenditures (LME) stratified by stages to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of breast cancer (BC) screening in Taiwan. ⋯ Mammography could detect BC early and be cost-saving after adjustment for different distributions of age and calendar year of diagnosis. Future studies exploring healthcare expenditure and impaired quality of life for false-positive cases are warranted.