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This study evaluates the pre-vaccination prevalence of HPV infection in women from Vojvodina, Serbia, according to age and cytological status. A total of 1,495 women, ranging from 18 to 65 years of age, with different cytological results were enrolled. The HPV genotyping assay was performed using the EUROArray HPV test in order to detect thirty genitally relevant HPV subtypes. In our study, the most prevalent genotypeswere HPV 16, 31, 51, and 53. Among these, HPV 16 was consistently present in all cytological subgroups. Twelve HPV genotypes classified as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1) were detected in 77.8.0% of HSIL/ASCH and 55.0% of NILM with abnormal colposcopy findings. Six possible carcinogens—HRs (group 2B) were often found in women with normal cytology (14.8%) and mild abnormalities (ASCUS and LSIL), but with lower frequence in HSIL/ASCH lesions (7.1%). HPVs 6 and 11(Group 3) were not found in the cases of HSIL/ASCH. Unclassified HPV types were equally distributed in all cytology groups: 20.7%, 19.1%, 16.3% and 13% of NILM, ASCUS, LSIL and HSIL/ASCH, respectively. Our findings highlight that majority of abnormal Pap test results are caused by Group 1 HPVs among women from our region. Low frequency HPVs of group 2A/2B, especially HSIL/ASCH, supports the conclusion that individual genotypes require consideration of each type as an individual agent. We expect a positive impact of HPV vaccine in reducing HPV-associated cervical lesions among women from Vojvodina province, after establishing vaccination programs in our country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/aim: The aim of this study was to determine the presence and age distribution of different oncogenic human papilloma virus (HPV) types in women in the South Backa region and its relationship to Pap results. Materials and methods: In a group of 1087 women with normal and abnormal cytology, the commercial HR HPV Real-TM kit (Sacace Biotechnologies, Italy) was used. Results: Overall, 50.5% of the women were HPV positive. The presence of HPV types 18, 31, 51, and 58 was significantly influenced by age, while the presence of HPV types 16 and 45 was significantly influenced by cervical cytology. Results of the LSD test show a wide spectrum of high risk HPV among women with normal cytology and women with a low grade cervical lesion rate (atypical squamous cell of undetermined significance (ASCUS) and low grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL). The most prevalent HPV types found were 16, 31, 51, 18, and 52. In the HSIL group the most prevalent HPV types were 16 and 45. Conclusion: The reported results provide new data on the circulation of oncogenic HPV genotypes and frequency of multiple infections among women in Vojvodina and suggest that a prophylactic vaccine against HPV 16 and 18 has the potential to prevent approximately half of the high-grade lesions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Substantial genetic diversity of the NA gene of influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses was found. • Permisive mutations V241, N369K, N386K and K432E were found. • Five potential T-cell epitopes within the NA were detected. • Fourteen sequences within the NA were identified as potential B-cell epitopes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The main purpose of this paper is to estimate the pre-vaccination prevalence of 12 hrHPV types among 564 women from Vojvodina province (Serbia). The corrected contingency coefficient (Ccorr) was used to estimate the importance of association of examined HPV types and cytological diagnosis. The highest association with the abnormal cytology was observed for HPV 16 (Ccorr = 0.493) in all age groups of participants. The effect of HPV 16 was especially clear within the group of women older than 35 years (Ccorr = 0.691), compared with women younger than 35 (Ccorr = 0.333). The molecular characterization at the level of L1 gene of HPV 16, 18, 31 and 33 variants was for the first time assessed in our region. Nearly all HPV 16 isolates cluster with variant lineage A (96.4%) the remaining isolates clustering with variant lineage D. All of HPV 18 and HPV 33 isolates are clustering within the lineage A while isolates of HPV 31 group with lineages A and C. This contributes to understanding of intrinsic geographical and biological differences of examined HPV types and could be useful for development of cervical cancer screening strategies in Vojvodina (Serbia) and diagnosis of HPV related cervical cancer in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efforts to detect West Nile virus (WNV) in the Vojvodina province, northern Serbia, commenced with human and mosquito surveillance in 2005, followed by horse (2009) and wild bird (2012) surveillance. The knowledge obtained regarding WNV circulation, combined with the need for timely detection of virus activity and risk assessment resulted in the implementation of a national surveillance programme integrating mosquito, horse and bird surveillance in 2014. From 2013, the system showed highly satisfactory results in terms of area specificity (the capacity to indicate the spatial distribution of the risk for human cases of West Nile neuroinvasive disease - WNND) and sensitivity to detect virus circulation even at the enzootic level. A small number (n = 50) of Culex pipiens ( pipiens and molestus biotypes, and their hybrids) females analysed per trap/night, combined with a high number of specimens in the sample, provided variable results in the early detection capacity at different administrative levels (NUTS2 versus NUTS3). The clustering of infected mosquitoes, horses, birds and human cases of WNND in 2014–2015 was highly significant, following the south-west to north-east direction in Vojvodina (NUTS2 administrative level). Human WNND cases grouped closest with infected mosquitoes in 2014, and with wild birds/mosquitoes in 2015. In 2014, sentinel horses showed better spatial correspondence with human WNND cases than sentinel chickens. Strong correlations were observed between the vector index values and the incidence of human WNND cases recorded at the NUTS2 and NUTS3 levels. From 2010, West Nile virus was detected in mosquitoes sampled at 43 different trap stations across Vojvodina. At 14 stations (32.56%), WNV was detected in two different (consecutive or alternate) years, at 2 stations in 3 different years, and in 1 station during 5 different years. Based on these results, integrated surveillance will be progressively improved to allow evidence-based adoption of preventive public health and mosquito control measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to estimate dynamic changes in seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii within the general population living in the northern part of the Republic of Serbia (Province of Vojvodina) during a 14-year period. The differences in prevalence of anti-toxoplasma antibodies were analyzed in correlation with age, gender, residential area (rural/urban) and meteorological factors. In this cohort retrospective study, 24,440 subjects between 1 and 88 years old were enrolled. To determine the presence of T. gondii -specific IgM and IgG antibodies in serum samples, commercially available ELISA kits were used (Euroimmun, Luebeck, Germany). During the study period, the overall T. gondii seroprevalence was 23.5%. The seroprevalence continuously decreased over time from 31.7% in 2008 to 20.4% in 2021 (0.81% per year, p < 0.001). Approximately 2% of patients had a serologic profile positive for both anti-Toxoplasma IgG and IgM antibodies. The seroprevalence was higher (28.87%) among men compared to women (24.28%), while urban residents (24.94%) had lower seroprevalence than the rural population (28.17%). A statistically significant negative correlation (r = −0.559) was found between serologic profile of patients positive for both T. gondii IgG and IgM antibodies and the annual mean air temperature. No significant association was observed between seropositivity to T. gondii infection and examined meteorological factors. These data could be useful to national and regional health authorities to create an optimal health policy to reduce rate of T. gondii infections. • This study evaluated the dynamic changes of T. gondii prevalence among general population of the Vojvodina Province, Serbia • AA decrease of the T.gondii seroprevalence was documented from 31.7% in 2008 to 20.4% in 2021, i. e. of 0.81% per year • A significant correlation (r = -0.559) was found between patients positive for T. gondii IgG/IgM and the mean air temperature [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]