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Summary: Background: Children in low and middle-income countries remain vulnerable following hospital-discharge. We estimated the incidence and correlates of hospital readmission among young children admitted to nine hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Methods: This was a secondary analysis of the CHAIN Network prospective cohort enrolled between 20th November 2016 and 31st January 2019. Children aged 2–23 months were eligible for enrolment, if admitted for an acute illness to one of the study hospitals. Exclusions were requiring immediate resuscitation, inability to tolerate oral feeds in their normal state of health, had suspected terminal illness, suspected chromosomal abnormality, trauma, admission for surgery, or their parent/caregiver was unwilling to participate and attend follow-up visits. Data from children discharged alive from the index admission were analysed for hospital readmission within 180-days from discharge. We examined ratios of readmission to post-discharge mortality rates. Using models with death as the competing event, we evaluated demographic, nutritional, clinical, and socioeconomic associations with readmission. Findings: Of 2874 children (1239 (43%) girls, median (IQR) age 10.8 (6.8–15.6) months), 655 readmission episodes occurred among 506 (18%) children (198 (39%) girls): 391 (14%) with one, and 115 (4%) with multiple readmissions, with a rate of: 41.0 (95% CI 38.0–44.3) readmissions/1000 child-months. Median time to readmission was 42 (IQR 15–93) days. 460/655 (70%) and 195/655 (30%) readmissions occurred at index study hospital and non-study hospitals respectively. One-third (N = 213/655, 33%) of readmissions occurred within 30 days of index discharge. Sites with fewest readmissions had the highest post-discharge mortality. Most readmissions to study hospitals (371/450, 81%) were for the same illness as the index admission. Age, prior hospitalisation, chronic conditions, illness severity, and maternal mental health score, but not sex, nutritional status, or physical access to healthcare, were associated with readmission. Interpretation: Readmissions may be appropriate and necessary to reduce post-discharge mortality in high mortality settings. Social and financial support, training on recognition of serious illness for caregivers, and improving discharge procedures, continuity of care and facilitation of readmission need to be tested in intervention studies. We propose the ratio of readmission to post-discharge mortality rates as a marker of overall post-discharge access and care. Funding: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1131320).

Computer-aided disease diagnosis and prognosis based on medical images is a rapidly emerging field. Many Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architectures have been developed by researchers for disease classification and localization from chest X-ray images. It is known that different thoracic disease lesions are more likely to occur in specific anatomical regions compared to others. This article aims to incorporate this disease and region-dependent prior probability distribution within a deep learning framework. We present the ThoraX-PriorNet, a novel attention-based CNN model for thoracic disease classification. We first estimate a disease-dependent spatial probability, i.e., an anatomical prior, that indicates the probability of occurrence of a disease in a specific region in a chest X-ray image. Next, we develop a novel attention-based classification model that combines information from the estimated anatomical prior and automatically extracted chest region of interest (ROI) masks to provide attention to the feature maps generated from a deep convolution network. Unlike previous works that utilize various self-attention mechanisms, the proposed method leverages the extracted chest ROI masks along with the probabilistic anatomical prior information, which selects the region of interest for different diseases to provide attention. The proposed method shows superior performance in disease classification on the NIH ChestX-ray14 dataset compared to existing state-of-the-art methods while reaching an area under the ROC curve (%AUC) of 84.67. Regarding disease localization, the anatomy prior attention method shows competitive performance compared to state-of-the-art methods, achieving an accuracy of 0.80, 0.63, 0.49, 0.33, 0.28, 0.21, and 0.04 with an Intersection over Union (IoU) threshold of 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, and 0.7, respectively. The proposed ThoraX-PriorNet can be generalized to different medical image classification and localization tasks where the probability of occurrence of the lesion is dependent on specific anatomical sites.

A study was conducted in five regions of Bangladesh, specifically Gazipur, Bogura, Jamalpur, Jashore, and Chattogram, each characterized by suitable agro-ecologies for sweet potato cultivation. The purpose of this data article was to demonstrate the correlations between traits and the selection of stable varieties based on the multi-trait stability index (MTSI). The data indicated a direct link between multiple characteristics and both the yield and factors contributing to yield. This implies that enhancing these traits might result in a higher overall production of sweet potato storage roots. Furthermore, the factor analysis for MTSI demonstrated that the desired goal for selection was achieved for all traits, except for mean vine length (VL) and storage root dry weight (DW). The broad sense heritability ranged from 0 to 0.97, and the selection gain percentage ranged from 0 to 42.8. The MTSI analysis identified the sweet potato variety BARI Mistialu-15 as the most stable among the other studied varieties.

Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) have already brought unprecedented success in the detection of various diseases of plant leaves, fruits, buds, flowers, etc. Besides, computer science and related field researchers are widely trying to use specific ML and DL methods to classify images and get better results in the field of agriculture and technology. Considering these, Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (DCNN) have been applied in this research. We first applied the Gaussian filter and the Median filter separately on the main dataset and saved the filtered images into two separate directories. We then applied two color models (HSI and CMYK) separately to the images in each directory. Thus, we pre-processed the images in four different ways with the main objective of finding the best combination of the filtering methods and the color models. We then applied our selected DCNN models to each output obtained from the pre-processing steps and finally chose the best methodology based on the accuracy. At last, we have found the highest accuracies (98.27% in Vgg-19, 94.98% in MobileNet-V2, and 99.53% in the ResNet-50) by using the Gaussian Blur and the Gaussian Noise filters with the RGB to CMYK color conversion method.

The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones has grown rapidly in both civilian and military operations over the last few decades. Multi-UAV systems are preferred to single-UAV systems, as they are more efficient and cost-effective when completing missions collaboratively. However, like other ad-hoc networks, UAV networks face the challenge of effective communication. Existing research in mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) and vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs) does not fully address the unique characteristics of UAV networks, which can exhibit varying levels of dynamism, intermittent links, and fluid topology. Moreover, drones need to communicate with each other and ground stations in Flying Ad-hoc Networks. Therefore, routing protocols in such networks must select the most effective paths for communication while ensuring reliable and stable data transmission. This article examines several recently developed routing protocols in UAV communication, detailing their construction methods. As routing is quite challenging in UAVs, where communication performance depends on various factors, this research introduces performance metrics to analyze the efficiency of these protocols. Routing protocols in UAV networks must adapt to high mobility, dynamic topology, intermittent links, power constraints, and changing link quality. Since the lifespan of UAV nodes is limited, seamless handovers are crucial, and the energy efficiency of protocols at different layers should also be considered. Although the reviewed protocols address several aspects of designing routing protocols for UAV communication, some challenges remain. Thus, this article provides a comprehensive exploration of routing protocols in UAV communication, along with a discussion of some open research areas.

Healthcare data is highly sensitive and must be safeguarded. Personal and sensitive data, such as names and addresses, is stored in Encrypted Electronic Health Records (EHRs). This paper proposes a Blockchain-based distributed application platform for Bangladesh’s public and private healthcare service providers. The proposed application framework enables users to create secure digital agreements for commerce or collaboration by leveraging data immutability and smart contracts. As a result, all stakeholders can collaborate securely over the same Blockchain network, taking advantage of their data’s openness and read/write nature. The proposed application is made up of various application interfaces for various stakeholders. The proposed solution employs Hyperledger Fabric and Blockchain to ensure data integrity, privacy, permissions, and service availability. In the application portal, each user has a profile. The creation of a unique identity for each user, as well as the establishment of digital information centers across the country, has greatly aided the process. This application collects health data from each user in a systematic manner, which is useful for research institutes and healthcare-related organizations. For this application, a national data warehouse in Bangladesh is feasible, and various healthcare-related analyses can be performed using the collected data, assisting the strategy and planning department in making informed decisions regarding the healthcare sector in Bangladesh. Because Bangladesh has both public and private healthcare providers, a simple digital strategy is essential for all organizations to accomplish their services. This study proposes a solution to achieve this goal.

Abstract The novel coronavirus COVID-19 has caused a global pandemic with many long-ranging effects on the physiological balance of the human body. The impact of COVID-19 on the thyroid axis remains uncertain. Our aim was to assess the long-term consequences of COVID-19 infection and its vaccination with thyroid hormones. Thirty laboratory-confirmed COVID-19-positive patients with no vaccination record, thirty COVID-19-negative patients with vaccination records, and ten healthy subjects were retrospectively, and cross-sectionally enrolled in this study. An ELISA assay was performed to evaluate thyroid function tests, including the total triiodothyronine (TT3), total thyroxine (TT4), and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH). We found decreased levels of TT3, average or low plasma T4 levels, and standard or slightly decreased TSH levels in unvaccinated COVID-19-positive patients than in the healthy group, while the vaccinated COVID-19-negative group had normal thyroid hormone levels compared to controls. The correlation between TT3 and TSH levels gradually shifted from no association to a negative pattern in the unvaccinated COVID-19-positive group. Again, a highly significant negative correlation between TSH and TT3 was observed on days above 150, although a slight fluctuation was noted on day 90. This pilot study from Bangladesh shows that abnormalities in thyroid function can be observed during COVID-19 infection and after vaccination, which gradually recovers over time.

The Pasur River estuary (PRE) provides vital fishery resources and supports millions of livelihoods in the southwestern coastal region of Bangladesh. Our research focused on phytoplankton community assemblages, alpha diversity indices, and the seasonal succession of major phytoplankton species in relation to physicochemical parameters in the tidal mangrove creeks of the Pasur River estuary. Spatial and temporal variations were assessed by water sampling at 17 stations in the study area from January to December 2019. The mean salinity level in the tidal mangrove creeks of the PRE was significantly (p < 0.05) higher during the dry season than during the wet season. Spatially, no significant variation (p > 0.05) was observed in the dissolved inorganic nitrogen and dissolved inorganic phosphorus between PRE and mangrove creeks, but temporally, the variables varied significantly (p < 0.05). Spatially, no significant variation (p > 0.05) was observed in the alpha diversity of the phytoplankton community but significantly (p < 0.05) varied temporally. Blue-green algae became dominant in the oligohaline conditions during the wet season, while diatoms were dominant during the dry season which severely depleted dissolved silica. In terms of phytoplankton species diversity, our study classifies the study areas as highly diversified zones. Phytoplankton succession from diatoms (dry season) to blue-green algae (wet season) is attributed to the changes in the physicochemical and nutrient parameters depending on seasonal environmental parameter fluctuations. This study illustrated that phytoplankton diversity and density varied with the degrees of habitat and seasonal changes, implying the potential impacts of anthropogenic activities and natural causes on their community structure in tropical estuaries and mangrove creeks.

Immunity status after mass vaccination program against SARS CoV-2 has not been evaluated in Bangladesh. This study aims to assess the IgG response against SARS-CoV-2 among the vaccine receivers in Bangladesh. After signed consent, blood samples were tested for SARS CoV-2 IgG from volunteers between March, 21 and April, 22 using ELISA where IgG index ≥0.9 was considered as positive Among 3034 participants, IgG positivity was calculated approximately 82% for vaccine recipients; lowest (58%) during March–April, 21 which increased to 85–95% later. IgG positivity and mean index was 82% and 3.04 in vaccinated whereas 56% and 1.5 in unvaccinated cases. IgG positivity and mean index reduced with age: 90% and 2.56, 79% and 2.23, 73% and 2.13 in 18–40 y, 41–60 y, >60 y group respectively. Vaccinated with COVID-19 history showed highest IgG positivity and index (94% and 3.1) compared to vaccinated without COVID-19 history (76% and 1.6), unvaccinated with COVID-19 history (75% and 1.5) and unvaccinated without COVID-19 history (51% and 0.9). IgG positivity and index reduced as interval between IgG testing and vaccination increases. Our findings suggest a robust IgG response among the vaccine recipients. Negative correlation of IgG positivity and index with age and time necessitates continuous monitoring of immunity status.

Introduction Diarrhoea is one of the leading causes of under-5 childhood mortality and accounts for 8% of 5.4 million global under-5 deaths. In severely malnourished children, diarrhoea progresses to shock, where the risk of mortality is even higher. At icddr,b Dhaka Hospital, the fatality rate is as high as 69% in children with severe malnutrition and fluid refractory septic shock. To date, no study has evaluated systematically the effects of inotrope or vasopressor or blood transfusion in children with dehydrating diarrhoea (eg, in cholera) and severe acute malnutrition (SAM) or severe underweight who are in shock and unresponsive to WHO-recommended fluid therapy. To reduce the mortality of severely malnourished children presenting with diarrhoea and fluid refractory shock, we aim to compare the efficacy of blood transfusion, dopamine and epinephrine in fluid refractory shock in children who do not respond to WHO-recommended fluid resuscitation.Methods and analysis In this randomised, three-arm, controlled, non-masked clinical trial in children 1–59 months old with SAM or severe underweight and fluid refractory shock, we will compare the efficacy of dopamine or epinephrine administration versus blood transfusion in children who failed to respond to WHO-recommended fluid resuscitation. The primary outcome variable is the case fatality rate. The effect of the intervention will be assessed by performing an intention-to-treat analysis. Recruitment and data collection began in July 2021 and are now ongoing. Results are expected by May 2023.Ethics and dissemination This study has been approved by the icddr,b Institutional Review Board. We adhere to the ‘Declaration of Helsinki’ (2000), guidelines for Good Clinical Practice. Before enrolment, we collect signed informed consent from the parents or caregivers of the children. We will publish the results in a peer-reviewed journal and will arrange a dissemination seminar.Trial registration number NCT04750070.

Abstract Given the high prevalence of child undernutrition in Bangladesh, multi‐sectoral approaches involving livelihood promotion have potential to mitigate the burden of undernutrition. This study examined the impact of an economic development (ED) program providing poultry assets, gardening skills and saving training added to the Positive Deviant (PD)/Hearth program (PDH/ED), compared to PD/Hearth only (PDH). A total of 1029 children who attended PD/Hearth sessions in September–November 2018 at 6–13 months of age were enrolled in the cohort study in July–August 2019. The cohort, comprised of 532 children in the PDH/ED group and 593 children in the PDH group, was reassessed in November 2020. The program impact on child nutrition, food security, crop production, dietary quality and household income was estimated using a difference‐in‐differences approach accounting for the sociodemographic differences between PDH/ED and PDH groups. Compared to the PDH group, the PDH/ED group showed increases in child dietary diversity score (DDS) (+0.32), child minimum dietary diversity (13.7 percentage points [pp]), and maternal DDS (+0.28) (all p

IntroductionFoodborne viruses are a serious concern in public health. This study investigated the prevalence of eight foodborne viruses norovirus (NoV), adenovirus (AdV), sapovirus (SapoV), astrovirus, hepatitis A virus (HAV), hepatitis E virus (HEV), rotavirus, aichivirus, and influenza A virus (IAV).Material and methodA total of 316 chicken samples were collected from three poultry processing plants to commercial markets (local and online). RT-qPCR- and PCR-positive amplicons obtained from monitoring were confirmed by sequence analysis.ResultsFoodborne viruses and IAV were not found in poultry processing plants. Of the 100 chickens purchased from the local and online markets, 19 (19.0%) AdV and 2 (2.0%) SapoV were detected. NoV, astrovirus, HAV, HEV, rotavirus, aichivirus, and IAV were not detected in the retailed chickens. Phylogenetic analysis identified 18 human AdV-41, one porcine AdV, and two SapoV-GI.1. It was the first case of the discovery of the SapoV gene in chicken. The average contamination level of detected AdV was 2.4 log DNA copies/g, but there were cases where the highest level was 5.35 log DNA copies/g.DiscussionThis study highlights the importance of chicken's contribution to the transmission of AdV with the possibility of annual variability with emerging symptoms. The prevention of AdV contamination in the food chain from slaughterhouses to retail markets should be monitored and controlled in further study.

Summary: Background: A better understanding of which children are likely to die during acute illness will help clinicians and policy makers target resources at the most vulnerable children. We used machine learning to characterise mortality in the 30-days following admission and the 180-days after discharge from nine hospitals in low and middle-income countries (LMIC). Methods: A cohort of 3101 children aged 2–24 months were recruited at admission to hospital for any acute illness in Bangladesh (Dhaka and Matlab Hospitals), Pakistan (Civil Hospital Karachi), Kenya (Kilifi, Mbagathi, and Migori Hospitals), Uganda (Mulago Hospital), Malawi (Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital), and Burkina Faso (Banfora Hospital) from November 2016 to January 2019. To record mortality, children were observed during their hospitalisation and for 180 days post-discharge. Extreme gradient boosted models of death within 30 days of admission and mortality in the 180 days following discharge were built. Clusters of mortality sharing similar characteristics were identified from the models using Shapley additive values with spectral clustering. Findings: Anthropometric and laboratory parameters were the most influential predictors of both 30-day and post-discharge mortality. No WHO/IMCI syndromes were among the 25 most influential mortality predictors of mortality. For 30-day mortality, two lower-risk clusters (N = 1915, 61%) included children with higher-than-average anthropometry (1% died, 95% CI: 0–2), and children without signs of severe illness (3% died, 95% CI: 2–4%). The two highest risk 30-day mortality clusters (N = 118, 4%) were characterised by high urea and creatinine (70% died, 95% CI: 62–82%); and nutritional oedema with low platelets and reduced consciousness (97% died, 95% CI: 92–100%). For post-discharge mortality risk, two low-risk clusters (N = 1753, 61%) were defined by higher-than-average anthropometry (0% died, 95% CI: 0–1%), and gastroenteritis with lower-than-average anthropometry and without major laboratory abnormalities (0% died, 95% CI: 0–1%). Two highest risk post-discharge clusters (N = 267, 9%) included children leaving against medical advice (30% died, 95% CI: 25–37%), and severely-low anthropometry with signs of illness at discharge (46% died, 95% CI: 34–62%). Interpretation: WHO clinical syndromes are not sufficient at predicting risk. Integrating basic laboratory features such as urea, creatinine, red blood cell, lymphocyte and platelet counts into guidelines may strengthen efforts to identify high-risk children during paediatric hospitalisations. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation OPP1131320.

The Pasur River estuary (PRE), the largest estuary in the Sundarbans mangrove area, provides vital fishery resources and supports millions of livelihoods in the southwestern coastal region of Bangladesh. This study focused on the tidal and run-off effects on the outwelling of nutrients from the Sundarbans mangrove creeks to the PRE. Spatial and temporal variations of nutrient and chlorophyll-a concentrations were assessed by water sampling at 11 stations in the study area from January to December 2019. Dissolved inorganic nutrients and chlorophyll-a were analyzed by standard methods using a spectrophotometer. In the tidal mangrove creeks, dissolved inorganic nitrogen, phosphate, and silica concentrations were significantly higher (p < 0.05) during the spring tide than those during the neap tide, suggesting that these nutrients were flushed from the mangrove area by the inundation and tidal mixing of the spring tide. In general, chlorophyll-a (mean ± SD) concentrations in the PRE and the tidal mangrove creeks were 5.62 ± 1.30 μg/L and 9.03 ± 0.59 μg/L in the wet season, respectively. During the dry season, the chlorophyll-a decreased to 4.37 μg/L ± 0.68 and 4.94 ± 1.52 μg/L in the PRE and the tidal mangrove creek, respectively. The amount of nutrients outwelled from the mangrove creeks to the estuary was 1.53 ± 0.67 mg/L DIP, 0.001 ± 0.0004 mg/L DIN, and 1.38 ± 0.48 mg/L dissolved silica. DIP, silica, and chlorophyll-a concentrations were significantly higher (p < 0.05) during the spring tide compared to the neap tide, but salinity was not significantly (p > 0.05) different between the two tidal levels. This study showed that the mangrove creeks formed an important link in transporting nutrients from the mangrove forest to the estuary.

Summary: Risk-assessing and controlling virus transmission from soil-rich post-washing water (PWW) are crucial during harvesting raw vegetables. However, viruses are normally difficult to concentrate because of their low concentrations and complex backgrounds. Here, ultrafiltration (UF), virus adsorption-elution (VIRADEL), and optimized paper filtration-coupled ultrafiltration (PFC-UF) methods were employed to evaluate the recovery of non-enveloped murine norovirus (MNV-1), hepatitis A virus (HAV), and enveloped human coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E) from soil-rich PWW. Among the three methods, PFC-UF outperformed the other methods in the recovery of viruses from PWW with soil content. Under the highest soil condition with virus seeded at a titer of 102 plaque-forming unit (PFU) or TCID50, the PFC-UF method exhibited an exceedingly consistent recovery rate of 78.8 ± 13.3 (MNV-1) and 44.4 ± 25.2% (HAV). However, the recovery of enveloped HCoV-229E was inferior to non-enveloped viruses. Overall, PFC-UF provided a reliable method for recovering viruses in soil-rich PWW.

Emerging infectious diseases (EID) in humans and animals are proving to be a serious health concern. This study investigated the prevalence of emerging or re-emerging human enteric viruses in porcine stools and swabs. Eleven enteric EID viruses were selected as target viruses for the current study and ranked based on their impact on public health and food safety: enterovirus (EV), hepatitis E virus, norovirus GI and GII, sapovirus (SaV), adenovirus (AdV), astrovirus, rotavirus, hepatitis A virus, aichivirus, and bocavirus. Using real-time RT-PCR or real-time PCR, EID viruses were detected in 129 (86.0%) of 150 samples. The most prevalent virus was EV, which was detected in 68.0% of samples, followed by AdV with a detection rate of 38.0%. In following sequencing and phylogenetic analyses, 33.0% (58/176) of the detected viruses were associated with human enteric EID viruses, including AdV-41, coxsackievirus-A2, echovirus-24, and SaV. Our results show that porcine stools frequently contain human enteric viruses, and that few porcine enteric viruses are genetically related to human enteric viruses. These findings suggest that enteric re-emerging or EID viruses could be zoonoses, and that continuous monitoring and further studies are needed to ensure an integrated “One Health” approach that aims to balance and optimize the health of humans, animals, and ecosystems.

Abstract Background Children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) have inadequate levels of fatty acids (FAs) and limited capacity for enteral nutritional rehabilitation. We hypothesized that topical high-linoleate sunflower seed oil (SSO) would be effective adjunctive treatment for children with SAM. Methods This study tested a prespecified secondary endpoint of a randomized, controlled, unblinded clinical trial with 212 children with SAM aged 2 to 24 months in two strata (2 to

Salmonella is one of the main foodborne pathogens that affect humans and farm animals. The Salmonella genus comprises a group of food-transmitted pathogens that cause highly prevalent foodborne diseases throughout the world. The aim of this study was to appraise the viability of Salmonella Typhimurium biofilm under water treatment at room temperature on different surfaces, specifically stainless steel (SS), plastic (PLA), rubber (RB), and eggshell (ES). After 35 D, the reduction of biofilm on SS, PLA, RB, and ES was 3.35, 3.57, 3.22, and 2.55 log CFU/coupon without water treatment and 4.31, 4.49, 3.50, and 1.49 log CFU/coupon with water treatment, respectively. The dR value (time required to reduce bacterial biofilm by 99% via Weibull modeling) of S. Typhimurium without and with water treatment was the lowest on PLA (176.86 and 112.17 h, respectively) and the highest on ES (485.37 and 2,436.52 h, respectively). The viability of the S. Typhimurium on ES and the 3 food-contact surfaces was monitored for 5 wk (35 D). The results of this study provide valuable information for the control of S. Typhimurium on different surfaces in the food industry, which could reduce the risk to consumers.

The study was conducted to investigate the effect of different levels of protein supplements on fertility and assess the fertility gene (BMP15 and GDP9) in sheep of Bangladesh. Thirty six ewes fed two protein level (Treatment 1, T1 and treatment 2, T2) and no protein supplement ration (control, T0). Polymerase chain reactions (PCR) were performed from blood cell DNA following standard protocols. PCR products were sequenced using Sanger sequencing and MEGA6 software were used for molecular analysis. The conception rate of ewes was significantly higher (P

Abstract Little is known about the usefulness of biomarkers to study the influence of prenatal nutrition supplementation in improving child growth. Anthropometry is not always straightforward to understand how nutrition might impact growth, especially in settings with high rates of malnutrition and infections. We examined the effects of prenatal supplementation on growth and growth biomarkers and the relationship between anthropometric measures and growth biomarkers of children at 4.5 and 9 years of age. Children were enrolled from a longitudinal cohort, where mothers were randomized into daily supplementation with either early‐food (≤9 gestation week [GW]) or usual‐food (~20 GW) (608 kcal 6 days/week); they were further randomized to receive 30‐mg or 60‐mg iron with 400‐μg folic acid, or multiple micronutrients (MM) in rural Bangladesh. Anthropometric data were collected from mothers at GW8 and children at 4.5 (n = 640) and 9 years (n = 536). Fasting blood was collected from children at each age. Early‐food supplementation showed reduced stunting and underweight at 4.5 and 9 years age respectively compared to usual‐food. Prenatal supplementations did not have any effect on growth biomarkers except for STAT5b expression which was lower in the early‐food compared to the usual‐food group (β = −0.21; 95 CI% = −0.36, −0.07). Plasma concentrations of 25‐hydroxy vitamin D and calcium were both inversely associated with weight‐for‐age and body mass index‐for‐age Z‐scores at 9 years, particularly in early‐food and MM groups. Although there was minimal effect on child growth by prenatal supplementations, the associations of biomarkers with anthropometric indices were predominantly driven by timing of food or MM supplementations.

The outbreak of COVID-19 is a global problem today, and, to reduce infectious cases and increase recovered cases, it is relevant to estimate the future movement and pattern of the disease. To identify the hotspot for COVID-19 in Bangladesh, we performed a cluster analysis based on the hierarchical k-means approach. A well-known epidemiological model named “susceptible-infectious-recovered (SIR)” and an additive regression model named “Facebook PROPHET Procedure” were used to predict the future direction of COVID-19 using data from IEDCR. Here we compare the results of the optimized SIR model and a well-known machine learning algorithm (PROPHET algorithm) for the forecasting trend of the COVID-19 pandemic. The result of the cluster analysis demonstrates that Dhaka city is now a hotspot for the COVID-19 pandemic. The basic reproduction ratio value was 2.1, which indicates that the infection rate would be greater than the recovery rate. In terms of the SIR model, the result showed that the virus might be slightly under control only after August 2022. Furthermore, the PROPHET algorithm observed an altered result from SIR, implying that all confirmed, death, and recovered cases in Bangladesh are increasing on a daily basis. As a result, it appears that the PROPHET algorithm is appropriate for pandemic data with a growing trend. Based on the findings, the study recommended that the pandemic is not under control and ensured that if Bangladesh continues the current pattern of infectious rate, the spread of the pandemic in Bangladesh next year will increase.

Introduction & background Prolonged (duration >7 to 13 days) diarrhea (ProD) in under-five children is a universal health problem including Bangladesh. Data on epidemiology and associated or risk factors of ProD are limited, particularly in Bangladesh where a high burden of ProD is reported. This study intended to assess the case load of ProD and its associated or risk factors compared to acute diarrhea (AD, duration ≤7 days). Methods We analyzed the data collected between 1996–2014 from a hospital-based Diarrheal-Disease-Surveillance-System (DDSS) in the ‘Dhaka Hospital’ of International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases, Bangladesh (icddr,b). The DDSS enrolled a 2% systematic sample, regardless of age, sex, and diarrhea severity. The data included information on socio-demographic factors, environmental history, clinical characteristics, nutritional status, and diarrhea-pathogens. After cleaning of data, relevant information of 21,566 under-five children were available who reported with ≤13 days diarrhea (including AD and ProD), and their data were analyzed. Variables found significantly associated with ProD compared to AD in bi-variate analysis were used in logistic regression model after checking the multicollinearity between independent variables. Results The mean±SD age of the children was 14.9±11.7 months and 40.4% were female; 7.6% had ProD and 92.4% had AD. Age Conclusion A considerable proportion (7.6%) of under-five children reporting to icddr,b hospital suffered from ProD. Understanding the above-mentioned associated or risk factors is likely to help policy makers formulating appropriate strategies for alleviating the burden and effectively managing ProD in under-five children.

In this study, we evaluated the performance of the in-house developed rRT-PCR assay for SARS-CoV-2 RNA targeting the envelope (E) and nucleocapsid (N) genes with internal control as human RNase P. A total of 50 positive samples and 50 negative samples of SARS-CoV-2 were tested by a reference kit at site 1 and a subset (30 positives and 16 negatives) of these samples are tested blindly at site 2. The limit of detection (LoD) was calculated by using a replication-deficient complete SARS-CoV-2 genome and known copy numbers, where Pseudo-virus samples were used to evaluate accuracy. On site 1, among the 50 SARS-CoV-2 positive samples 24, 18, and eight samples showed high (Ct < 26), moderate (26 < Ct ≤ 32), and low (32 < Ct ≤ 38) viral load, respectively, whereas in site 2, out of 30 SARS-CoV-2 positive samples, high, moderate, and low viral loads were found in each of the 10 samples. However, SARS-CoV-2 was not detected in the negative sample. So, in-house assays at both sites showed 100% sensitivity and specificity with no difference observed between RT PCR machines. The Ct values of the in-house kit had a very good correlation with the reference kits. LoD was determined as 100 copies/mL. It also displayed 100% accuracy in mutant and wild-type SARS-CoV-2 virus. This Bangasure™ RT-PCR kit shows excellent performance in detecting SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA compared to commercially imported CE-IVD marked FDA authorized kits.

ABSTRACT: Salmonella is a foodborne pathogen and an emerging zoonotic bacterial threat in the food industry. The aim of this study was to evaluate the biofilm formation by a cocktail culture of 3 wild isolates of Salmonella enterica serotype Kentucky on plastic (PLA), silicon rubber (SR), and chicken skin surfaces under various temperatures (4, 10, 25, 37, and 42°C) and pH values (4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, and 8.0). Then, at the optimum temperature and pH, the effects of supplementation with glucose (0, 0.025, 0.05, and 0.4% w/v) on biofilm formation were assessed on each of the surfaces. The results indicated that higher temperatures (25 to 42°C) and pH values (7.0 and 8.0) led to more robust biofilm formation than lower temperatures (4 and 10°C) and lower pH levels (4.0 to 6.0). Moreover, biofilm formation was induced by 0.025% glucose during incubation at the optimum temperature (37°C) and pH (7.0) but inhibited by 0.4% glucose. Consistent with this finding, virulence related gene (rpoS, rpoH, hilA, and avrA) expression was increased at 0.025% glucose and significantly reduced at 0.4% glucose. This results also confirmed by field emission scanning electron microscope, confocal laser scanning microscopy, and autoinducer-2 determination. This study concluded that optimum environmental conditions (temperature 37°C, pH 7.0, and 0.25% glucose) exhibited strong biofilm formation on food and food contract surfaces as well as increased the virulence gene expression levels, indicating that these environmental conditions might be threating conditions for food safety.

Early development is a vital phase in childhood life. The study aimed to identify factors that were associated with the early development of 36–59 months children in Bangladesh. The findings of this study will formulate the design of appropriate policy and programmed responses.Utilizing Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey data, influencing components of child development status were evaluated for both rural and urban areas of Bangladesh. A total of 23,099 children under the age of five were included in this analysis. Chi-square analysis was conducted to assess the association between outcome variables and selected covariates. At the same time, this study uses two separate multivariate binary logistics regression models (respectively for urban areas and rural areas) to determine the risk factors that are primarily related to child development.Our research estimates that more than 70 percent of children develop early throughout the country. The multivariate analysis on the determinants of child development index among children aged between 36 and 59 months old regarding residence discovered a significant impact on child age and sex, maternal education, child education, wealth status, reading children's books. The adjusted odds of child nutrition status, playthings, and maternal functional difficulties have had a major impact on early child development in rural Bangladesh.Based on the findings, educational status, nutritional status, wealth-status, and some determinants of children care the most noteworthy findings in this study. Hence, policymakers should emphasize on such factors for improving children's development in residence.

Abstract Background Diarrheal disease still remains a major public health threat and is often associated with fatal outcome especially in children with shigellosis mostly in developing countries. This study aimed to determine the presence of any associations between drinking shallow tube well (STW) water and childhood shigellosis. A total of 1394 children aged 0–59 months who presented with moderate-to-severe diarrhea (MSD) in Kumudini Women’s Medical College and Hospital, Bangladesh, from December 2007 to March 2011 were enrolled into the study. Results Among the study children, STW users often represented poor families (44% vs. 37%, p = 0.010); less often had household electricity (60% vs. 68%, p = 0.001) and cemented floor material (12% vs. 21%, p

Abstract Childhood obesity has been associated with consumption of energy‐dense foods such as caloric beverages and fast foods. Many low‐ and middle‐income countries like Bangladesh are now experiencing a rising problem of noncommunicable diseases along with the long‐standing problem of stunting and undernutrition. WASH Benefits Bangladesh was a large community‐based cluster randomized controlled trial conducted in rural Bangladesh. Study clusters were randomized into seven arms: single nutrition (N); water (W); sanitation (S); hygiene (H); combined water, sanitation, and hygiene (WSH); WSH and nutrition (N + WSH); and a double sized control (C). Nutrition intervention messages included four promotional components: maternal nutrition, breastfeeding, complementary feeding, and lipid‐based nutrient supplements. The World Health Organization infant food frequency questionnaire (24‐hr recall and 7‐day recall) was administered at Year 1 and Year 2 of intervention. The likelihood of any snack food consumption was significantly lower (odds ratio 0.37: 95% confidence interval [0.28, 0.49]) in the nutrition intervention arms compared to the control arm in Year 2 follow‐up. In addition, in the water intervention arm, fewer children (about 50% less) consumed soft drinks, but not the other sugar‐sweetened beverages, compared with control in Year 2. There were no other differences between groups. Simple messages about balanced diet and feeding family foods were effective in lowering commercially produced snack food consumption of the young children in low‐income rural communities of Bangladesh. Provision of safe water apparently encouraged mothers to reduce offering unhealthy beverages to the young children.

A 2-year-old male child, the second issue of non-consanguineous parents, from average socio-economic status hailing from Dinajpur, Bangladesh was attended at Pediatric Surgery outpatient department with the complaints of vague diffuse abdominal pain in the lower right side of abdomen and around the umbilical region for last 3 days. His mother also reported the feeling of a solid mass in the abdomen during dressing of her child. Then, gradually his problems were increasing in nature with several times of nausea, vomiting, and the passage of blood mixed stool three times before his admission.

The experiment was conducted at the research farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207 during the period from November 2016 to February 2017. The experiment consisted of three different ways of insect visitors foraging for pollination of mustard flowers viz., T1= Open field (Control), i.e., the mustard field was fully open for free movement by the insect pollinators, T2= Netting with honey bee, i.e., the mustard plots was caged with muslin net and the bee hive was placed inside the cage and T3= Netting without honey bee, i.e., the mustard plots was caged with muslin net but the bee hive was not placed inside the cage. BARI Sharisha-8 [Brassica juncea (L.) Czernajew] was used as planting material. Randomized Complete Block Design was selected to lay out the present experiment with 7 replicates. Study showed that, honey bee was the most abundant hymenopterans in the mustard field as a pollinator. The yield and yield contributing traits were significantly influenced by different ways of insect visitors foraging for pollination. The maximum (3.50 g) 1000-seed weight was recorded from treatment T2 followed by T3 and the lowest 1000- seed weight (2.68 g) was recorded from T3. The highest seed yield (2.45 t ha-1) was exhibited from treatment T2 followed by T1 whereas the lowest seed yield (1.67 t ha-1) was recorded from T3. Finally, it can be concluded that providing honey bee colonies to the flowering mustard field can substantially contribute to the yield.

To our knowledge, there are no data on the role of overweight and obesity in childhood pneumonia. We sought to determine that impact of overweight and obesity in such children. In this retrospective chart analysis, we enrolled hospitalized children aged 6 to 59 months in the Dhaka Hospital of the icddr,b, Bangladesh (International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh), from January 2010 to June 2014. Children with pneumonia having overweight and obesity (body mass index Z score [BMIZ] >2.00) constituted cases (n = 25), and those who had pneumonia without overweight and obesity (BMIZ −2.00 to 2.00) constituted controls (n = 75). Controls were 3-fold of the cases and were randomly selected. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory data of the cases and the controls were compared. The cases more often had diarrhea and dehydration (36% vs 12%, P = .013), hypoxemia (SpO 2 < 90% in room air; 28% vs 7%, P = .009) on admission, and required to change antibiotics (32% vs 11%, P = .023) during hospitalization compared to the controls. However, in logistic regression analysis the cases were independently associated with diarrhea ( P < .001) and hypoxemia ( P = .024) on admission. Our data suggest that overweight and obesity in children with pneumonia is prone to be associated with hypoxemia on admission, which may guide clinicians in promptly managing pneumonia in order to evade its ramification in such children. However, future research with larger samples is imperative to consolidate or refute our observation.