ABSTRACTThe vaccine strains against influenza virus A/H3N2 for the 2010-2011 season and influenza virus B for the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 seasons in Japan are a high-growth reassortant A/Victoria/210/2009 (X-187) strain and an egg-adapted B/Brisbane/60/2008 (Victoria lineage) strain, respectively. Hemagglutination inhibition (HI) tests with postinfection ferret antisera indicated that the antisera raised against the X-187 and egg-adapted B/Brisbane/60/2008 vaccine production strains poorly inhibited recent epidemic isolates of MDCK-grown A/H3N2 and B/Victoria lineage viruses, respectively. The low reactivity of the ferret antisera may be attributable to changes in the hemagglutinin (HA) protein of production strains during egg adaptation. To evaluate the efficacy of A/H3N2 and B vaccines, the cross-reactivities of postvaccination human serum antibodies against A/H3N2 and B/Victoria lineage epidemic isolates were assessed by a comparison of the geometric mean titers (GMTs) of HI and neutralization (NT) tests. Serum antibodies elicited by the X-187 vaccine had low cross-reactivity to both MDCK- and egg-grown A/H3N2 isolates by HI test and narrow cross-reactivity by NT test in all age groups. On the other hand, the GMTs to B viruses detected by HI test were below the marginal level, so the cross-reactivity was assessed by NT test. The serum neutralizing antibodies elicited by the B/Brisbane/60/2008 vaccine reacted well with egg-grown B viruses but exhibited remarkably low reactivity to MDCK-grown B viruses. The results of these human serological studies suggest that the influenza A/H3N2 vaccine for the 2010-2011 season and B vaccine for the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 seasons may possess insufficient efficacy and low efficacy, respectively.
SYBR Green real-time PCR is a useful quantitative tool for analysis of adenovirus DNA. The present results for immunocompetent children with adenovirus infections provided basic data for comparison with data obtained from immunocompromised patients.
Domestic violence (DV) incidents, triggered as a result of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) imposed lockdowns, are being increasingly reported worldwide. In April 2020, the Spousal Violence Counseling and Support Centers conducted 13,272 DV consultations, which was 1.3 times higher than the number in April 2019. The All Japan Women's Shelter Network, a group of private shelters, responded to the DV problems resulting from COVID-19 and submitted a petition to the Japanese government on March 30, 2020. This led to tremendous progress, including the opening of the public DV counseling offices for COVID-19 emergencies, DV Counseling Plus (expansion of services to include telephone, webbased, and social networking service-based counseling), the launch of counseling services for non-Japanese residents, protection of victims, additional support, alliance with private shelters, and individual receipts of $926 Special Cash Payment. The requests were granted as quickly as 1 month after submission. For Japan, this was unprecedented. Until recently, money did not come from the government, so it was not possible to talk to victims over the phone and provide subsequent support. Owing to the new support system for DV, 4,400 survivors used DV Counseling Plus (special DV consultation telephone services specifically relating to COVID-19) from April 20 to May 20, 2020.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.