Introduction: Rickettsioses are diseases caused by intracellular Gram-negative bacteria of the Rickettsiaceae family and transmitted through the bite of infected ticks or mites. Aim of Study: To investigate the clinical and subclinical characteristics and prognostic severe factors of the disease caused by Rickettsiaceae. Methods: A prospective, descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Department of Infectious Diseases of two military hospitals in Northern Vietnam from May 2013 to June 2019, in which 88 adult febrile patients caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi (50 patients) or Rickettsia spp. (38 patients) were enrolled. We recorded information regarding epidemiological characteristics (age, geography, residence, occupation), medical history, clinical and subclinical findings, life-threatening complications during treatment, outcomes and some factors predicting serious life-threatening complications in a case record form. Results: Scrub typhus (ST) patients had eschar (70%), skin-conjunctiva congestion (60%) and lymphadenopathy (44%). Rickettsia patients had a higher rate of maculopapular rash (39.5%), no ulcers and no lymphadenopathy detected. The majority of patients had elevated PCT >0.05 ng/µL and increase in liver enzymes and thrombocytopenia. Major prognostic factors for severe complications included diffuse infiltrates on lung X-ray (OR: 19.5; p = 0.014), coarse crackles (OR: 18; p = 0.016), respiratory rate ≥25 cycles/minute (OR: 18; p = 0.016), shortness of breath (OR: 7.44; p = 0.003), pleural fluid (OR: 4.3; p = 0.035) and increase in AST ≥ 200 UI/l (OR: 4.42; p = 0.012). The PCT value is able to distinguish between the two groups with quite high reliability (the area under the ROC curve is 0.75). Conclusion: Eschar and peripheral lymphadenopathy were two valuable clinical symptoms for the diagnosis of scrub typhus and distinguishing 2 groups of diseases. Respiratory distress, increase in AST ≥ 200 UI/l and level of PCT were used as major prognostic factors in patients with Rickettsiaceae.

Trombiculid “chigger” mites (Acari) are ectoparasites that feed blood on rodents and another animals. A crosssectional survey was conducted in 7 ecosystems of southern Vietnam from 2015 to 2016. Chigger mites were identified with morphological characteristics and assayed by polymerase chain reaction for detection of rickettsiaceae. Overall chigger infestation among rodents was 23.38%. The chigger index among infested rodents was 19.37 and a mean abundance of 4.61. A total of 2,770 chigger mites were identified belonging to 6 species, 3 genera, and 1 family, and pooled into 141 pools (10-20 chiggers per pool). Two pools (1.4%) of the chiggers were positive for Orientia tsutsugamushi. Ricketsia spp. was not detected in any pools of chiggers. Further studies are needed including a larger number and diverse hosts, and environmental factors to assess scrub typhus.

Background: We determined the occurrence frequency of Clinical signs, subclinical characteristics on positive anti-IgG Toxocara ELISA cases, and clinical response results after 1 month of albendazole-specific treatment.  Methods: A number of 103 clinically treated patients were studied between 2018 and 2019 in two hospitals. Relevant data are collected from examination and medical records such as age, sex, job, resident, clinical and sub-clinical signs. Sera samples were subjected to anti-IgG Toxocara antigen using ELISA.  Results: The median age of the patient was 43.6 ± 14.4 years. The most common symptom groups were the skin and mucosa (88.3%), followed by neurological symptoms (44%). There are 76.7% of patients with risk factors for contact with pet dogs and cats. The majority of eosinophils in the normal range (< 8%) accounted for 85.4%, the major results of the OD value of ELISA were in the group (≥ 0.3-< 1.5) accounted for 75.7%. The skin and mucosa lesions in toxocariasis patients related to IgE values were statistically significant (P <0.05). The effectiveness of anthelmintic treatment is low with nearly half of patients having no clinical symptoms after 1 month of post-treatment. It is statistically significant between exposure to dogs/cats and treatment outcomes on clinical symptoms (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Toxocara infections in Vietnamese people often have skin allergies and liver damage, rarely with severe neurological symptoms. The efficacy of albendazole treatment after one month is not clear. In the near future, research with a confirmatory test other than Anti-IgG Toxocara ELISA is needed to screen for in-hospital diagnosis.

Năng lực giải quyết vấn đề là một trong những năng lực cần trang bị cho học sinh. Do đó, việc hình thành và phát triển năng lực này là nhiệm vụ hết sức quan trọng, góp phần hiện thực hóa chủ trương đổi mới phương pháp dạy học. Trên cơ sở sơ lược lí luận về năng lực giải quyết vấn đề; đánh giá thực trạng, nguyên nhân dẫn đến hạn chế; từ đó bài báo đề xuất biện pháp phát triển năng lực giải quyết vấn đề cho học sinh trung học phổ thông vùng Đồng bằng sông Cửu Long.    

This article argues that local adaptive capacity of the smallholder farmers determines their decision to adopt climate change adaptation strategies in the upland farming communities in the Philippines. This argument is based on the research conducted in the selected upland farming communities in the Philippines, Vietnam and Timor-Leste in 2017-2018 using the Local Adaptive Capacity (LAC) framework as the theoretical foundation. The study involved a survey of 637 upland farmers who were selected using simple random sampling; focus group discussion; key informant interviews; and, farm visits. Results revealed that the smallholder farmers across the three countries had low level of adaptive capacity. Binary logistics regression also indicates that leadership (p=.078) and innovations (p=.000) are the factors that influence farmers to adopt climate change adaptation strategies in the Philippines, while knowledge (p=0.000) and community assets (p=0.000) as the determinants among the smallholder farmers in Vietnam. In Timor-Leste, the decision to adopt climate change adaptation strategies are community assets (p=0.001), knowledge (p=0.000), and innovations (p=0.007). These results suggest an urgent need of enhancing the local adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers to be able to adapt to the impacts of climate change.