Background: There is no consensus whether tobacco smoking increases risk of tuberculosis (TB) infection, disease, or mortality. Whether this is so has substantial implications for tobacco and TB control policies.Objective: To quantify the relationship between active tobacco smoking and TB infection, pulmonary disease, and mortality using meta-analytic methods.
Many studies have evaluated the role of Cryptosporidium spp. in outbreaks of enteric illness, but few studies have evaluated sporadic cryptosporidiosis in the United States. To assess the risk factors for sporadic cryptosporidiosis among immunocompetent persons, a matched case-control study was conducted in seven sites of the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) involving 282 persons with laboratoryidentified cryptosporidiosis and 490 age-matched and geographically matched controls. Risk factors included international travel (odds ratio [OR] ؍ 7.7; 95% confidence interval [95% CI] ؍ 2.7 to 22.0), contact with cattle (OR ؍ 3.5; 95% CI ؍ 1.8 to 6.8), contact with persons >2 to 11 years of age with diarrhea (OR ؍ 3.0; 95% CI ؍ 1.5 to 6.2), and freshwater swimming (OR ؍ 1.9; 95% CI ؍ 1.049 to 3.5). Eating raw vegetables was protective (OR ؍ 0.5; 95% CI ؍ 0.3 to 0.7). This study underscores the need for ongoing public health education to prevent cryptosporidiosis, particularly among travelers, animal handlers, child caregivers, and swimmers, and the need for further assessment of the role of raw vegetables in cryptosporidiosis.
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