Search

Abstract Background Acute otitis media (AOM) is a prevalent childhood acute illness, with 13.6 million pediatric office visits annually, often stemming from upper respiratory tract infections (URI) and affected by environmental factors like air pollution and cold seasons. Methods Herein, we made use of territory-wide hospitalization data to investigate the relationships between meteorological factors, air pollutants, influenza infection, and AOM for children observed from 1998 to 2019 in Hong Kong. Quasi-Poisson generalized additive model, combined with a distributed-lag non-linear model, was employed to examine the relationship between weekly AOM admissions in children and weekly influenza-like illness-positive (ILI +) rates, as well as air pollutants (i.e., oxidant gases, sulfur dioxide, and fine particulate matter), while accounting for meteorological variations. Results There were 21,224 hospital admissions due to AOM for children aged ≤ 15 years throughout a 22-year period. The cumulative adjusted relative risks (ARR) of AOM were 1.15 (95% CI, 1.04–1.28) and 1.07 (95% CI, 0.97–1.18) at the 95th percentile concentration of oxidant gases (65.9 ppm) and fine particulate matter (62.2 μg/m3) respectively, with reference set to their medians of concentration. The ARRs exhibited a monotone increasing trend for all-type and type-specific ILI + rates. Setting the reference to zero, the cumulative ARRs of AOM rose to 1.42 (95% CI, 1.29–1.56) at the 95th percentile of ILI + Total rate, and to 1.07 (95% CI, 1.01–1.14), 1.19 (95% CI, 1.11–1.27), and 1.22 (95% CI, 1.13–1.32) for ILI + A/H1N1, A/H3N2, and B, respectively. Conclusions Our findings suggested that policy on air pollution control and influenza vaccination for children need to be implemented, which might have significant implications for preventing AOM in children.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a neurological condition that causes significant loss of sensory, motor, and autonomic functions below the level of injury. Current clinical treatment strategies often fail to meet expectations. Hyaluronidase is typically associated with tumor progression and bacterial infections. Analysis showed that hyaluronidase also persistently increased in a rat total excision model. In this study, we designed a highly biocompatible dual-responsive hydrogel. Hyaluronic acid (HA)-Gelatin (Gel) served as the base for the hydrogel, crosslinked via an amide reaction to form the hydrogel. The hydrogel was further combined with Neurotrophic growth factor (NGF) and Fe3O4 nanoparticles, exhibiting low toxicity, good mechanical properties, self-healing ability, and sustained drug release. In cellular experiments, the novel hydrogel significantly promoted neural axon growth and development under an external magnetic field. Therapeutic results were confirmed in a rat spinal cord resection model, where inflammation was reduced, chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans decreased and a favorable environment for nerve regeneration was provided; neural regeneration improved hind limb motor function in SCI rats. These results underscore the therapeutic potential of hydrogel.

The rapid spread of dengue fever (DF) infection has posed severe threats to global health. Environmental factors, such as weather conditions, are believed to regulate DF spread. While previous research reported inconsistent change of DF risk with varying weather conditions, few of them evaluated the impact of extreme weather conditions on DF infection risk. This study aims to examine the short-term associations between extreme temperatures, extreme rainfall, and DF infection risk in South and Southeast Asia. A total of 35 locations in Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand were included, and weekly DF data, as well as the daily meteorological data from 2012 to 2020 were collected. A two-stage meta-analysis was used to estimate the overall effect of extreme weather conditions on the DF infection risk. Location-specific associations were obtained by the distributed lag nonlinear models. The DF infection risk appeared to increase within 1–3 weeks after extremely high temperature (e.g. lag week 2: RR = 1.074, 95 % CI: 1.022–1.129, p = 0.005). Compared with no rainfall, extreme rainfall was associated with a declined DF risk (RR = 0.748, 95 % CI: 0.620–0.903, p = 0.003), and most of the impact was across 0–3 weeks lag. In addition, the DF risk was found to be associated with more intensive extreme weathers (e.g. seven extreme rainfall days per week: RR = 0.338, 95 % CI: 0.120–0.947, p = 0.039). This study provides more evidence in support of the impact of extreme weather conditions on DF infection and suggests better preparation of DF control measures according to climate change.