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Background Whether pediatric rotavirus infection is associated with extraintestinal complications remains unknown. Methods We conducted a case-control study to investigate the incidences and risks of rotavirus-associated extraintestinal complications in hospitalized newborns, infants, and children younger than 5 years. Results A total of 1325 young inpatients with rotavirus infection (754 male and 539 newborns) and 1840 controls without rotavirus infection (1035 male and 836 newborns) were included. The incidences of neurological disease were higher among rotavirus individuals compared with controls: newborns, 7.24% (39/539) versus 2.87% (24/836), P <.001; infants and young children, 19.59% (154/786) versus 12.35% (124/1004), P <.001. The associated odd ratios (ORs) for neurological disease frequency following rotavirus infection was 2.64 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.57–4.44) for newborns and 1.73 (95% CI, 1.34–2.24) for infants and young children, which increased to 2.56 (95% CI, 1.57–4.18) in case-control (1:1) matching analysis and 1.85 (95% CI, 1.41–2.42) in confounder adjustment. Rotavirus infection was associated with other extraintestinal complications, depending on study population and disease severity. Outcome analysis revealed rotavirus infection and its consequences had a significant impact on hospitalization and discharge. Conclusions Rotavirus exposure was associated with a spectrum of extraintestinal complications, particularly neurological disease. Rotavirus infection and subsequent consequences resulted in poor clinical outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Influenza vaccination has been associated with decreased risk of influenza‐related infections. However, associations between influenza vaccination and the severity of influenza cases have not been systematically summarized. We conducted a meta‐analysis to evaluate whether influenza vaccination could attenuate symptom severity in vaccinated influenza patients. Methods: A systematic literature search was performed using the PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, and Scopus databases. A quantitative synthesis of the data was conducted using a fixed/random effects model in the meta‐analysis. Results: A total of seven studies, involving 6342 vaccinated and 7036 non‐vaccinated patients were included. Compared with non‐vaccinated, vaccinated patients were significantly less likely to develop a fever (OR = 0.66, 95% CI: 0.43–0.89), be admitted to the ICU (OR = 0.79, 95% CI: 0.64–0.97), suffer mortality (OR = 0.55, 95% CI: 0.34–0.89), stay in the ICU (WMD = ‐1.37, 95% CI: ‐2.15 to ‐0.60) or stay in the hospital (WMD = ‐0.32, 95% CI: ‐0.61 to ‐0.04). Conclusion: Those benefits that could be highlighted in the communication material to enhance the uptake of influenza vaccination among both the public health nurses and the community as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a clonal B-cell malignancy charactered by the aberrant proliferation of malignant plasma cells in the bone marrow. MM is still an incurable malignancy. In this regard, novel treatments are urgently required. MUC1 (mucin 1), a type І transmembrane protein, is overexpressed and aberrantly glycosylated in many carcinomas particularly in MM resulting in an antigenically distinct molecule and may be a potential target for specific immunotherapy. In this study, we first designed a unique DNA vaccine, termed MUC1-2-VNTR (various number tandem repeats) to investigate whether the vaccine could specifically suppress tumor growth in a murine multiple myloma model. Our results showed that the constructed DNA vaccine pcDNA3.1-VNTR elicited both humoral and cellular tumor-specific immune responses in the MM mouse model leading to delay in tumor growth and prolonged survival of the mice. Consequently, our study indicates that this DNA vaccine shows promise to be used as a novel strategy for the treatment of MM.