The baseline characteristics and interim analyses of the high-risk sentinel cohort of the Vietnam Initiative on Zoonotic InfectiONS (VIZIONS)

Abstract

The Vietnam Initiative for Zoonotic Infections (VIZIONS) includes community-based ‘high-risk sentinel cohort’ (HRSC) studies investigating individuals at risk of zoonotic infection due to occupational or residential exposure to animals. A total of 852 HRSC members were recruited between March 2013 and August 2014 from three provinces (Ha Noi, Dak Lak, and Dong Thap). The most numerous group (72.8%) corresponded to individuals living on farms, followed by slaughterers (16.3%) and animal health workers (8.5%). Nasal/pharyngeal and rectal swabs were collected from HRSC members at recruitment and after notifying illness. Exposure to exotic animals (including wild pigs, porcupine, monkey, civet, bamboo rat and bat) was highest for the Dak Lak cohort (53.7%), followed by Ha Noi (13.7%) and Dong Thap (4.0%). A total of 26.8% of individuals reported consumption of raw blood over the previous year; 33.6% slaughterers reported no use of protective equipment at work. Over 686 person-years of observation, 213 episodes of suspect infectious disease were notified, equivalent of 0.35 reports per person-year. Responsive samples were collected from animals in the farm cohort. There was noticeable time and space clustering of disease episodes suggesting that the VIZIONS set up is also suitable for the formal epidemiological investigation of disease outbreaks.

Genetic diversity and cross-species transmission of kobuviruses in Vietnam

“…Bat faecal samples ( n = 179) were collected from roosting sites. Faecal samples from 45 dogs and 13 cats that belonged to members of the high-risk cohort were also collected ( Carrique-Mas et al 2015 ).…”

The Virome of Acute Respiratory Diseases in Individuals at Risk of Zoonotic Infections

“…The clinical samples used in this study were derived from a sentinel cohort study described previously [5,14]. The cohort study is a community-based component of The Vietnamese Initiative on Zoonotic Infections (VIZIONS) project [15,16], which was conducted to detect potential zoonotic transmission. In brief, individuals, including animal-raising farmers, slaughterers, animal health workers, and rat-traders from Dong Thap and Dak Lak provinces in Vietnam, were recruited in the cohort study and followed for 3 years, 2013 to 2016 [14].…”

Respiratory viruses in individuals with a high frequency of animal exposure in southern and highland Vietnam

“…As such, for the detection of novel zoonotic viruses in humans and animals, during 2012-2015 the Vietnam Initiative on Zoonotic InfectiONS (VIZIONS) project, consisting of the various hospitaland community-based studies, was conducted across Vietnam. 21,22 Herein, we focus our analysis on a community-based study, which was designed to capture the cross-species transmission events of zoonotic viruses among individuals with a high risk of zoonotic infections in southern and highland Vietnam. In this study, our aim was to describe the frequency of common respiratory viruses in clinical samples collected from these individuals, later called cohort members, at baseline and when a respiratory disease episode was reported during the study period.…”

“…This study was a part of the High-Risk Sentinel Cohort (HRSC) study which was a community-based component of the VIZIONS project. 21 The HRSC study was first commenced in June 2013 in Dong Thap and then in February 2014 in Dak Lak. These are provinces located in southern and highland of Vietnam, respectively, representing two different geographic areas in Vietnam.…”