In China, sample-based mortality surveillance systems, such as the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s disease surveillance points system and the Ministry of Health’s vital registration system, have been used for decades to provide nationally representative data on health status for health-care decision-making and performance evaluation. However, neither system provided representative mortality and cause-of-death data at the provincial level to inform regional health service needs and policy priorities. Moreover, the systems overlapped to a considerable extent, thereby entailing a duplication of effort. In 2013, the Chinese Government combined these two systems into an integrated national mortality surveillance system to provide a provincially representative picture of total and cause-specific mortality and to accelerate the development of a comprehensive vital registration and mortality surveillance system for the whole country. This new system increased the surveillance population from 6 to 24% of the Chinese population. The number of surveillance points, each of which covered a district or county, increased from 161 to 605. To ensure representativeness at the provincial level, the 605 surveillance points were selected to cover China’s 31 provinces using an iterative method involving multistage stratification that took into account the sociodemographic characteristics of the population. This paper describes the development and operation of the new national mortality surveillance system, which is expected to yield representative provincial estimates of mortality in China for the first time.

Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a public health emergency of international concern and has caused traumatic experience for nurses worldwide. However, the prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms in nurses, and how psychosocial factors influence nurses in this public crisis are unknown. Objectives To determine the effect of COVID-19 on the mental health of nurses and the prevalence of anxiety and depression symptoms among nurses in China during the outbreak. Design A cross-sectional study. Settings and participants A total of 3,228 nurses in Sichuan Province and Wuhan City were selected by convenience sampling. All participants were invited to complete the questionnaire through WeChat from January 27 to February 3, 2020. Methods A self-reported questionnaire combining depression and anxiety scale was used to collect data anonymously. Binary and multivariate logistic regression was applied to measure the odds of psychosocial factors of anxiety and depression and perceived health, respectively. Results The total incidence of depression (34.3%) and anxiety (18.1%) during the COVID-19 outbreak was lower than that during the SARS outbreak; however, the rate of depression in our study (47.1%) was high and similar in a recent study (50.4%) about the health care workers exposed to COVID-19 in China. The results indicated that COVID-19-related stress, relationship quality with family, and demographic characteristics were associated with depression, anxiety, and perceived health status. Furthermore, the prevalence of depression was similar between nurses working in low-risk COVID-19 wards was as high as working in high-risk COVID-19 wards (OR, 1.078; 95% CI, 0.784–1.481). Conclusions Our study revealed the high prevalence of depression and anxiety among nurses during the outbreak of COVID-19. COVID-19 factors and psychosocial factors were associated with mental health of nurses. The results suggest that hospitals should implement effective mental health promotion programs focused on occupational safety and family support to improve the well-being of nurses.

Asthma is a common chronic pulmonary inflammatory disease, featured with mucus hyper-secretion in the airway. Recent studies found that glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analogs, including liraglutide and exenatide, possessed a potent anti-inflammatory property through a protein kinase A (PKA)-dependent signaling pathway. Therefore, the aim of current study was to investigate the value of GLP-1 analog therapy liraglutide in airway inflammation and mucus secretion in a murine model of ovalbumin (OVA)-induced asthma, and its underlying molecular mechanism. In our study, BALB/c mice were sensitized and challenged by OVA to induce chronic asthma. Pathological alterations, the number of cells and the content of inflammatory mediators in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), and mucus secretion were observed and measured. In addition, the mRNA and protein expression of E-selectin and MUC5AC were analyzed by qPCR and Western blotting. Then, the phosphorylation of PKA and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) p65 were also measured by Western blotting. Further, NF-κB p65 DNA binding activity was detected by ELISA. OVA-induced airway inflammation, airway mucus hyper-secretion, the up-regulation of E-selectin and MUC5AC were remarkably inhibited by GLP-1 in mice (all p < 0.01). Then, we also found that OVA-reduced phosphorylation of PKA, and OVA-enhanced NF-κB p65 activation and NF-κB p65 DNA binding activity were markedly improved by GLP-1 (all p < 0.01). Furthermore, our data also figured out that these effects of GLP-1 were largely abrogated by the PKA inhibitor H-89 (all p < 0.01). Taken together, our results suggest that OVA-induced asthma were potently ameliorated by GLP-1 possibly through a PKA-dependent inactivation of NF-κB in mice, indicating that GLP-1 analogs may be considered an effective and safe drug for the potential treatment of asthma in the future.

Please cite this paper as: Huai et al. (2010) A primary school outbreak of pandemic 2009 influenza A (H1N1) in China. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses DOI: 10.1111/j.1750‐2659.2010.00150.x. Background  We investigated the first known outbreak of pandemic 2009 influenza A (H1N1) at a primary school in China. Objectives  To describe epidemiologic findings, identify risk factors associated with 2009 H1N1 illness, and inform national policy including school outbreak control and surveillance strategies. Methods  We conducted retrospective case finding by reviewing the school’s absentee log and retrieving medical records. Enhanced surveillance was implemented by requiring physicians to report any influenza‐like illness (ILI) cases to public health authorities. A case–control study was conducted to detect potential risk factors for 2009 H1N1 illness. A questionnaire was administered to 50 confirmed cases and 197 age‐, gender‐, and location‐matched controls randomly selected from student and population registries. Results  The attack rate was 4% (50/1314), and children from all grades were affected. When compared with controls, confirmed cases were more likely to have been exposed to persons with respiratory illness either in the home or classroom within 7 days of symptom onset (OR, 4·5, 95% CI: 1·9–10·7). No cases reported travel or contact with persons who had traveled outside of the country. Conclusions  Findings in this outbreak investigation, including risk of illness associated with contacting persons with respiratory illness, are consistent with those reported by others for seasonal influenza and 2009 H1N1 outbreaks in school. The outbreak confirmed that community‐level transmission of 2009 H1N1 virus was occurring in China and helped lead to changes in the national pandemic policy from containment to mitigation.

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Empathy, including cognitive and emotional empathy, refers to the ability to infer the mental states of others and to the capacity to share emotions. The neural mechanisms involved in empathy are complex and not yet fully understood, and previous studies have shown that both cognitive and emotional empathy are closely associated with the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). In this study, we examined whether empathy can be modulated by high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) of the right IFG. Twenty-three healthy participants took part in all three experimental conditions (i.e., anodal, cathodal and sham stimulation) in a randomized order. Participants then completed the Chinese version of the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET), which assesses both cognitive and emotional empathy. The results show that scores obtained for cognitive empathy following cathodal stimulation are significantly lower than those obtained following sham stimulation. In addition, scores obtained for cognitive empathy following anodal stimulation are higher than those obtained following sham stimulation, though the difference is only marginally significant. However, the results fail to show whether the stimulation of the right IFG via HD-tDCS plays a role in emotional empathy. Our results suggest that the right IFG plays a key role in cognitive empathy and indicate that HD-tDCS can regulate cognitive empathy by inducing excitability changes in the right IFG.

--Introduction: This study was performed to observe the efficacy of a modified surgical wound dressing applied as part of decannulation wound care after tracheotomy. Methods: Eighty-four patients were randomly allocated into a traditional care group, a surgical wound dressing group, and a modified surgical wound dressing group. Each group comprised 28 patients. The following outcomes were observed and analyzed: infection rate, wound closure time, dressing change frequency, cost of wound care, and patients' comfort. Results: The infection rate, wound closure time, dressing change frequency, and cost of wound care were much higher in the traditional care group than in the surgical wound dressing group and modified surgical wound dressing group. The study data indicated that patients in the modified surgical dressing group felt more comfortable than those patients in the other two groups. The differences among the three groups were statistically significant (P < 0.05). Discussion: The design of the herein-described modified surgical wound dressing is based on a butterfly shaped adhesive and mirrors the advantages of a modern surgical wound dressing. Its shape is suitable for the physiological structure of the neck, making it more comfortable to use. Aseptic packaging and a high degree of adhesiveness guarantee continuous fixation and pulling. At the same time, the design of the dressing decreases the chance of infection.