Status of water use and potential of rainwater harvesting for replacing centralized supply system in remote mountainous areas: a case study.

The failure of the centralized water supply system forced XY community to become more dependent on uncertain and unstable water sources. The results of surveying 50 households showed that 89.18% of total households depended on water collected from rivers, which contributed 58.3% of the total water volume used for the domestic demands. The average water volume consumed was 19.5 liters/person/day (l/p/d), and 86.5% of households used more than one source; 13.5% of households collected water only from rivers, and 45.94% of families had rainwater harvesting (RWH) for their activities (domestic water demand); however, RWH only provided 9.9% of total water consumption. In this study, basic methods were applied to calculate the storage tanks necessary to balance the water deficit created by drought months. Three levels of water demand (14, 20, and 30 l/p/d) can be the best choices for RWH; for a higher demand (40 and 60 l/p/d), small roof area (30-40 m2), and many people (six to seven) per family, RWH might be impractical because of unsuitable rainfall or excessively large storage tanks

A low-cost method using steel-making slag to quench the residual phosphorus from wastewater effluent

This study demonstrates a novel application of steel-making slag for quenching residual phosphorus in wastewater effluent after chemical precipitation. The results showed that the phosphorus removal efficiency was low without the supernatant pH adjustment. Decreased pH of the supernatant resulted in increased removal efficiency. At the optimal conditions (i.e. pH 8.5 and steel-making slag dosage of 5 g/L), approximately 98% phosphorus removal could be achieved with the output level of less than 0.1 mg/L. The results also demonstrated that enhanced phosphorus removal by pH adjustment resulted from the involvement of adsorption in the removal process. This observation was evidenced via the compliance with Langmuir isotherm of the adsorption of phosphorus to steel-making slag at decreased pH. In addition, the results indicated that the presence of inorganic carbon in the supernatant could facilitate phosphorus removal via co-precipitation effects

Newly isolated Paecilomyces lilacinus and Paecilomyces javanicus as novel biocontrol agents for Plutella xylostella and Spodoptera litura

Biocontrol offers an attractive alternative to the use of chemical pesticides in agricultural pest management. The development of high levels of resistance to chemical pesticides have forced researchers to find more alternative biological control agents. The aims of this study were to isolate Paecilomyces spp. with high virulence against diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) and Oriental leafworm moth (Spodoptera litura), and to investigate suitable agro-industrial residues as a substrate used for solid state fermentation for sporulation of isolates. In this study, Paecilomyces spp. were isolated from soil and insects and identified by morphological and sequencing analyses. The pathogenicity of these isolates was evaluated on Pl. xylostella and S. litura to identify strains with the highest virulence. In addition, agro-industrial residues were used as a cheap substrate for investigating a suitable medium for sporulation on an industrial scale. Six strains of Paecilomyces spp. were isolated including one strain of P. lilacinus and five strain of P. javanicus. P. lilacinus PL01 showed the highest virulence against both Pl. xylostella and S. litura with respective LT50 values of 2.51 and 7.09 days. The five isolated P. javanicus strains also strongly infected Pl. xylostella with LT50 values of 2.52~6.59 days. For sporulation, brown rice alone or brown rice mixed with rice husks and wheat bran or rice bran was suitable for cultivating these isolates. Two newly isolated species of Paecilomyces, P. lilacinus and P. javanicus, can be used as biological control agents for controlling Pl. xylostella and S. litura.</jats:p

Age-specificity of clinical dengue during primary and secondary infections

Background: This study aims to estimate the age-specific risks of clinical dengue attack (i.e., the risk of symptomatic dengue among the total number of dengue virus (DENV) infections) during primary and secondary infections. Methods: We analyzed two pieces of epidemiological information in Binh Thuan province, southern Vietnam, i.e., age-specific seroprevalence and a community-wide longitudinal study of clinical dengue attack. The latter data set stratified febrile patients with DENV infection by age as well as infection parity. A simple modeling approach was employed to estimate the age-specific risks of clinical dengue attack during primary and secondary infections. Results: Using the seroprevalence data, the force of infection was estimated to be 11.7% (95% confidence intervals (CI): 10.8-12.7) per year. Median age (and the 25-75 percentiles) of dengue fever patients during primary and secondary infections were 12 (9-20) and 20 (14-31) years, respectively. The estimated age-specific risk of clinical dengue increases as a function of age for both primary and secondary infections; the estimated proportion of symptomatic patients among the total number of infected individuals was estimated to be <7% for those aged <10 years for both primary and secondary infections, but increased as patients become older, reaching to 8-11% by the age of 20 years. Conclusions/Significance: For both primary and secondary infections, higher age at DENV infection was shown to result in higher risk of clinical attack. Age as an important modulator of clinical dengue explains recent increase in dengue notifications in ageing countries in Southeast Asia, and moreover, poses a paradoxical problem of an increase in adult patients resulting from a decline in the force of infection, which may be caused by various factors including time-dependent variations in epidemiological, ecological and demographic dynamics. © 2011 Thai et al.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

The application of sample pooling for mass screening of SARS-CoV-2 in an outbreak of COVID-19 in Vietnam

We sampled nasal–pharyngeal throat swabs from 96,123 asymptomatic individuals at risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and generated 22,290 pools at collection, each containing samples from two to seven individuals. We detected SARS-CoV-2 in 24 pools, and confirmed the infection in 32 individuals after resampling and testing of 104 samples from positive pools. We completed the testing within 14 days. We would have required 64 days to complete the screening for the same number of individuals if we had based our testing strategy on individual testing. There was no difference in cycle threshold (Ct) values of pooled and individual samples. Thus, compared with individual sample testing, our approach did not compromise PCR sensitivity, but saved 77% of the resources. The present strategy might be applicable in settings, where there are shortages of reagents and the disease prevalence is low, but the demand for testing is high

C-reactive protein point of care testing in the management of acute respiratory infections in the Vietnamese primary healthcare setting - a cost benefit analysis

Aim We assess the cost-benefit implications of C-reactive protein (CRP) testing in reducing antibiotic prescription for acute respiratory infection in Viet Nam by comparing the incremental costs of CRP testing with the economic costs of antimicrobial resistance averted due to lower antibiotic prescribing. Findings Patients in the CRP group and the controls incurred similar costs in managing their illness, excluding the costs of the quantitative CRP tests, provided free of charge in the trial context. Assuming a unit cost of $1 per test, the incremental cost of CRP testing was$0.93 per patient. Based on a previous modelling analysis, the 20 percentage point reduction in prescribing observed in the trial implies a societal benefit of $0.82 per patient. With the low levels of adherence to the test results observed in the trial, CRP testing would not be cost-beneficial. The sensitivity analyses showed, however, that with higher adherence to test results their use would be cost-beneficial.</p

An open label randomized controlled trial of tamoxifen combined with amphotericin B and fluconazole for cryptococcal meningitis

Background: Cryptococcal meningitis has high mortality. Flucytosine is a key treatment but is expensive and rarely available. The anticancer agent tamoxifen has synergistic anti-cryptococcal activity with amphotericin in vitro. It is off-patent, cheap, and widely available. We performed a trial to determine its therapeutic potential. Methods: Open label randomized controlled trial. Participants received standard care – amphotericin combined with fluconazole for the first 2 weeks – or standard care plus tamoxifen 300 mg/day. The primary end point was Early Fungicidal Activity (EFA) – the rate of yeast clearance from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Trial registration https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03112031. Results: Fifty patients were enrolled (median age 34 years, 35 male). Tamoxifen had no effect on EFA (−0.48log10 colony-forming units/mL/CSF control arm versus −0.49 tamoxifen arm, difference −0.005log10CFU/ml/day, 95% CI: −0.16, 0.15, p=0.95). Tamoxifen caused QTc prolongation. Conclusions: High-dose tamoxifen does not increase the clearance rate of Cryptococcus from CSF. Novel, affordable therapies are needed. Funding: The trial was funded through the Wellcome Trust Asia Programme Vietnam Core Grant 106680 and a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Fellowship to JND grant number WT097147MA