Binary file ES_Abstracts_Final_ECDC.txt matches

Five cross-sectional surveys were conducted in African refugee camps to assess the level of iron deficiency anemia and vitamin A deficiency in populations dependent on long-term international food aid and humanitarian assistance. The prevalence of anemia in children [hemoglobin (Hb) <110 g/L] was high, with >60% affected in 3 of 5 camps. Iron deficiency [serum transferrin receptor (sTfR) >8.5 mg/L] was also high, ranging from 23 to 75%; there was also a strong ecological correlation between the prevalence of iron deficiency and anemia among different camps. Within camps, sTfR predicted the concentration of Hb with adjusted R(2) values ranging from 0.19 to 0.51. Although children were more affected, anemia was also a public health problem in adolescents and women. The effect of recent recommendations on Hb cutoff values for African populations was assessed and found to produce decreases in the prevalence of anemia of between 5 and 21%; this did not affect the public health categorization of the anemia problem within the most affected camps. Mean serum retinol in children, after adjustment for infection status, ranged from 0.72 +/- 0.2 to 0.88 +/- 0.2 micromol/L in the 4 camps assessed and vitamin A deficiency (<0.7 micromol/L) was present at levels ranging from 20.5 to 61.7%. In areas in which vitamin A capsule distribution programs were in effect, coverage ranged from 3.5 up to 66.2%. The high level of micronutrient deficiencies seen in long-term refugees argues in favor of further enhancements in food aid fortification and the strengthening of nutrition and public health programs.

Although the respiratory tract is the main target of SARS-CoV-2, other tissues and organs are permissive to the infection. In this report, we investigated this wide-spectrum tropism by studying the SARS-CoV-2 genetic intra-host variability in multiple tissues. The virological and histological investigation of multiple specimens from a post-mortem COVID-19 patient was performed. SARS-CoV-2 genome was detected in several tissues, including the lower respiratory system, cardio-vascular biopsies, stomach, pancreas, adrenal gland, mediastinal ganglion and testicles. Subgenomic RNA transcripts were also detected, in favor of an active viral replication, especially in testicles. Ultra-deep sequencing allowed us to highlight several SARS-CoV-2 mutations according to tissue distribution. More specifically, mutations of the spike protein, i.e., V341A (18.3%), E654 (44%) and H655R (30.8%), were detected in the inferior vena cava. SARS-CoV-2 variability can contribute to heterogeneous distributions of viral quasispecies, which may affect the COVID-19 pathogeny.

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