Factors Associated With Changes in Alcohol Use During Pregnancy and the Postpartum Transition Among People With HIV in South Africa and Uganda.

Identifying factors associated with alcohol use changes during pregnancy is important for developing interventions for people with HIV (PWH). Pregnant PWH (n = 202) initiating antiretroviral therapy in Uganda and South Africa completed two assessments, 6 months apart (T1, T2). Categories were derived based on AUDIT-C scores: "no use" (AUDIT-C = 0 at T1 and T2), "new use" (AUDIT-C = 0 at T1, >0 at T2), "quit" (AUDIT-C > 0 at T1, =0 at T2), and "continued use" (AUDIT-C > 0, T1 and T2).

Provider and Public Health Adaptation to Changing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Guidance for Zika Virus, 2015-2017.

In 2015, Harris County (Texas) Public Health responded to the Zika virus (ZIKV) threat by investigating every report of potential ZIKV infection, including those with negative laboratory results, through December 2017. Before investigations, 40.6% of patients who were indicated for testing received it in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

Influenza A (H3) Outbreak at a Hurricane Harvey Megashelter in Harris County, Texas: Successes and Challenges in Disease Identification and Control Measure Implementation.

ABSTRACTWhen Hurricane Harvey landed along the Texas coast on August 25, 2017, it caused massive flooding and damage and displaced tens of thousands of residents of Harris County, Texas. Between August 29 and September 23, Harris County, along with community partners, operated a megashelter at NRG Center, which housed 3365 residents at its peak. Harris County Public Health conducted comprehensive public health surveillance and response at NRG, which comprised disease identification through daily medical record reviews, nightly "cot-to-cot" resident health surveys, and epidemiological consultations; messaging and communications; and implementation of control measures including stringent isolation and hygiene practices, vaccinations, and treatment.

Advances in Non-Viral DNA Vectors for Gene Therapy.

Uses of viral vectors have thus far eclipsed uses of non-viral vectors for gene therapy delivery in the clinic. Viral vectors, however, have certain issues involving genome integration, the inability to be delivered repeatedly, and possible host rejection. Fortunately, development of non-viral DNA vectors has progressed steadily, especially in plasmid vector length reduction, now allowing these tools to fill in specifically where viral or other non-viral vectors may not be the best options.

Effects of Circular DNA Length on Transfection Efficiency by Electroporation into HeLa Cells.

The ability to produce extremely small and circular supercoiled vectors has opened new territory for improving non-viral gene therapy vectors. In this work, we compared transfection of supercoiled DNA vectors ranging from 383 to 4,548 bp, each encoding shRNA against GFP under control of the H1 promoter. We assessed knockdown of GFP by electroporation into HeLa cells.