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Purpose: The aim was to describe the prevalence, molecular epidemiology and clinical manifestations of human bocavirus (HBoV) in patients attended at a tertiary hospital in Barcelona, Spain. Methods: From October 2014 to May 2017, respiratory specimens from paediatric patients were collected for respiratory viruses' laboratory-confirmation. Phylogenetic analyses from partial VP1 sequences were performed from all HBoV laboratory-confirmed specimens. Clinical features were retrospectively studied. Results: 178/10271 cases were HBoV laboratory-confirmed. The median age was 1.53 (IQR 1.0–2.3). Co-detection was highly reported (136; 76%). All viruses belonged into HBoV1 genotype but one into HBoV2. Non-reported mutations were observed and two sites were suggestive to be under negative selection. 61% (109/178) cases had lower RTI (LRTI), of whom 84 had co-detections (77%) and 76 had comorbidities (70%). LRTI was the cause of hospitalization in 85 out of 109 cases (78%), and no differences were found regarding severity factors during hospitalization between co- and single-detections, except for median length of respiratory support, which was longer in cases with co-detections. Conclusions: Close monitoring of predominant HBoV1 showed a high similarity between viruses. The presence of comorbidities might explain the high prevalence of LRTI. Symptomatology in HBoV single-detected cases suggest that HBoV is a true pathogen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is the major cause of acute viral hepatitis in several countries in Europe. HEV is acquired mainly by consumption of contaminated pork but can also be transmitted through blood transfusion. HEV infection is usually self-limited but can become persistent in immunocompromised persons. During the first 30 months of HEV RNA universal screening of blood donations in Catalonia, Spain, we identified 151 HEV RNA-positive donations (1/4,341 blood donations). Most infected donors reported consumption of pates and sausages, and 58% were negative for HEV IgM and IgG. All HEV isolates belonged to genotype 3. All infected donors spontaneously resolved the infection, and no neurologic symptoms and reinfections were observed after 1 year of follow-up. Since the implementation of HEV RNA universal screening, no new cases of transfusion-transmitted HEV infection were reported. Our data indicate HEV screening of blood donations provides safer blood for all recipients, especially for immunosuppressed persons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In some European countries, indirect or partial legal recognition of sign languages (SLs) has been granted in the last few decades through specific policies on deaf education, SL interpreting, or public media, but, in general, full legal recognition by dedicated laws has not been achieved. I present and analyze the recent legal initiatives for SLs in Spain (2007) and Catalonia (2006, 2010) (Spanish and Catalan SLs, respectively). They are shown to exemplify two different approaches to the reality of minority languages in the visual-gestural modality: The former act formulates SL recognition as part of the regulation of the accessibility means for deaf people, both signers and nonsigners; the latter regulates Catalan SL instead, leaving accessibility issues for deaf people for regulation by a separate bill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]