Berbagai penelitian berbasis populasi mencatat tingginya prevalensi skabies di tengah-tengah pemukiman yang padat penduduk, terutama pada anak-anak yang tinggal di daerah tropis. Maka dilakukanlah penelitian oleh Karimkhani dkk. yang bertujuan untuk mengestimasi beban global skabies berdasarkan data penelitian beban global terhadap penyakit (GBD) pada tahun 2015. Metodologi yang dilakukan meliputi identifikasi data epidemi skabies yang bersumber penelitian literatur yang luas dan data asuransi dari rumah sakit, serta data analisis dari alat pemodelan meta-regresi Bayesian, DisMod-MR 2.1, untuk mendapatkan estimasi-estimasi prevalensi. Kemudian, estimasi-estimasi prevalensi tersebut dikombinasikan dengan berat disabilitas, pengukuran kerusakan, gatal, dan nyeri yang disebabkan oleh skabies, untuk mendapatkan angka hidup dengan kecacatan dalam tahun (YLDs). Asumsi yang digunakan adalah mortalitas skabies adalah nol, dimana YLDs ekuivalen dengan angka kehidupan dalam keadaan cacat dalam tahun (DALYs). Estimasi DALYs dari 195 negara yang terbagi dalam 21 wilayah, berdasarkan jenis kelamin, 20 kelompok usia, antara tahun 1990 – 2015. Hasilnya ditemukan skabies bertanggungjawab dari 0,21% angka DALYs dari semua jenis penyakit yang diteliti oleh GBD 2015 di seluruh dunia.Wilayah Asia Timur (standar usia DALYs 136,32), Asia Tenggara (134,57), Oseania (120,34), wilayah tropis Amerika Latin (99,94), dan Asia Selatan (69,41), memikul beban DALYs terberat akibat skabies. Perubahan persentase nilai rata-rata laju DALY dari tahun 1990 sampai 2015 kurang dari 8% di seluruh wilayah dunia, terkecuali Amerika Utara yang mengalami peningkatan sebesar 23,9%. Lima negara dengan beban skabies terberat adalah Indonesia (standar usia DALYs 153,86), Tiongkok (138,25), Timor Leste (136,67), Vanuatu (131,59), dan Fiji (130.91). Standar deviasi terbesar standar usia DALYs pada 20 kelompok usia yang diobservasi di Asia Tenggara (60,1), Oseania (58,3), dan Asia Timur (56,5), dengan beban DALYs terbesar pada kelompok usia anak, remaja, dan lanjut usia. Kesimpulannya adalah beban skabies lebih besar di wilayah-wilayah tropis dan pada kelompok usia anak, remaja, serta lanjut usia. Sebagai penilaian epidemiologi di seluruh dunia, GBD 2015 memberikan hasil pengukuran terbaru yang bersifat luas dan rutin mengenai beban skabies dalam hubungannya dengan pengaruh pada kulit. Data-data global ini dapat membantu protokol penelitian dan usaha-usaha penyusunan prioritas serta fokus terhadap terapi dan pengendalian skabies.

Malaria resistance by the sickle cell trait (genotype HbAS) has served as the prime example of genetic selection for over half a century. Nevertheless, the mechanism of this resistance remains the subject of considerable debate. While it probably involves innate factors such as the reduced ability of Plasmodium falciparum parasites to grow and multiply in HbAS erythrocytes, recent observations suggest that it might also involve the accelerated acquisition of malaria-specific immunity. Williams et al. studied the age-specific protection afforded by HbAS against clinical malaria in children living on the coast of Kenya. They found that protection increased with age from only 20% in the first 2 y of life to a maximum of 56% by the age of 10 y, returning thereafter to 30% in participants greater than 10 y old. They suggested that malaria protection by HbAS involves the enhancement of not only innate but also acquired immunity to the parasite. A better understanding of the underlying mechanisms might yield important insights into both these processes.

COVID-19 is still being a pandemic with high morbidity and mortality rate. In Indonesia, there were about 4 million cases with 150 thousand of them ending up in death. The approved COVID-19 vaccines have been successful in decreasing their morbidity and mortality rate, with mRNA-based vaccines such as BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 having high efficacy. There are reports about the post-vaccination adverse events such as myocarditis, therefore a literature review was written about the problem. This article was made as a literature review, collecting previous research articles about myocarditis induced by the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. Data collecting was done subjectively, without using any structured planning systematic and narratively presented. There are seven research articles investigating post-vaccination myocarditis, which 5 of them concluded about an increased risk of myocarditis event due to mRNA vaccine, one article stated that mRNA vaccine whether it is BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273, is safe to be used, and one article stated there is no correlation between myocarditis and mRNA vaccination due to a very small incident rate. mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are safe to be used due to their high efficacy in preventing severe clinical manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 infection. A post-vaccination adverse event like myocarditis is very rare and has a temporary and mild clinical manifestation in nature.

The Kato-Katz technique is recommended for the diagnosis of helminth infections in epidemiological surveys, drug efficacy studies, and monitoring of control interventions. Leuenberger etc. were conducting a research to assess the comparability of the average amount of faeces generated by three Kato-Katz templates included in test kits from two different providers. Nine hundred Kato-Katz thick smear preparations were done; 300 per kit. Empty slides, slides plus Kato-Katz template filled with stool and slides plus stool after careful removal of the template were weighed to the nearest 0.1 mg. The average amount of stool that was generated on the slide was calculated for each template, stratified by standard categories of stool consistency (i.e. mushy, soft, sausage-shaped, hard, and clumpy). The average amount of stool generated on slides was 40.7 mg (95% confidence interval CI: 40.0 – 41.4 mg), 40.3 mg (95% CI: 39.7 – 40.9 mg) and 42.8 mg (95% CI: 42.2 – 43.3 mg) for the standard Vestergaard Frandsen template, and two different templates from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), respectively. Mushy stool resulted in considerably lower average weights when the Vestergaard Frandsen (37.0 mg; 95% CI: 34.9 – 39.0 mg) or new China CDC templates (37.4 mg; 95% CI: 35.9 – 38.9 mg) were used, compared to the old China CDC template (42.2 mg; 95% CI: 40.7 – 43.7 mg) and compared to other stool consistency categories. The average amount of stool generated by three specific Kato-Katz templates was similar (40.3 – 42.8 mg). Since the multiplication factor is somewhat arbitrary and small changes only have little effect on infection intensity categories, Leuenberger etc. suggested that the standard multiplication factor of 24 should be kept for the calculation of eggs per gram of faeces for all investigated templates.

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Molecular-based testing is used to diagnose COVID-19, and serologic testing of antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 is used to detect past infection. While most serologic assays are qualitative, a quantitative serologic assay was recently developed that measures antibodies against the S protein, the target of vaccines. Quantitative antibody determination may help determine anti- body titer and facilitate longitudinal monitoring of the antibody response, including antibody response to vaccines. We evaluated the quantitative Roche Elecsys anti-SARS- CoV-2 S assay. Specimens from 167 PCR-positive patients and 103 control specimens were analyzed using the Elecsys anti-SARS-CoV-2 S assay on the cobas e411 (Roche Diagnostics). Analytical evaluation included assessing linearity, imprecision, and analyti- cal sensitivity. Clinical evaluation included assessing clinical sensitivity, specificity, cross-reactivity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and se- rial sampling from the same patient. The Elecsys anti-SARS-CoV-2 S assay exhibited its highest sensitivity (84.0%) at 15 to 30 days post-PCR positivity and exhibited no cross- reactivity, a specificity and PPV of 100%, and an NPV between 98.3% and 99.8% at ≥ 14days post-PCR positivity, depending on the seroprevalence estimate. Imprecision was ,2% at 9.06 U/ml across 6days, the negative quality control (QC) was consis- tently negative (,0.40 U/ml), the manufacturer’s claimed limit of quantitation of 0.40 U/ml was verified, and linearity across the analytical measuring range was observed, except at the low end (,20 U/ml). Lastly, antibody response showed high interindivid- ual variation in level and time of peak antibody titer and trends over time.