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2020

Common Medical and Statistical Problems: The Dilemma of the Sample Size Calculation for Sensitivity and Specificity Estimation

Abstract Sample size calculation in biomedical practice is typically based on the problematic Wald method for a binomial proportion, with potentially dangerous consequences. This work highlights the need of incorporating the concept of conditional probability in sample size determination to avoid reduced sample sizes that lead to inadequate confidence intervals. Therefore, new definitions are proposed […]
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COVID-19: What Is Next for Portugal?

Highly infectious with the possibility of causing severe respiratory complications, the novel COVID-19 began stretching health systems beyond their capacity all over the world and pushing them to breaking points. Giving the devastating effects caused by this infection, unprecedented measures have to be adopted in order to mitigate its impacts on the health system. This […]
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Social determinants of deaths from pneumonia and tuberculosis in children in Brazil: an ecological study

Abstract Objective To identify the risk areas of deaths due to unspecified pneumonia and tuberculosis (TB) in children, and to identify if there is a relationship between these events with higher TB incidence and social determinants. Methods Ecological study carried out in Brazil. All cases of TB or unspecified pneumonia deaths in children under 5 years of […]
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Principalism in public health decision making in the context of the COVID ‐19 pandemic

This research is among top 10 most downloaded papers. Background The COVID‐19 pandemic lead scientists and governmental authorities to issue clinical and public health recommendations based on progressively emerging evidence and expert opinions and many of these fast‐tracked to peer‐reviewed publications. Concerns were raised on scientific quality and generalizability of this emerging evidence. Main argument […]
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Hepatitis delta virus interacts with splicing factor SF3B155 and alters pre‐mRNA splicing of cell cycle control genes

Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is the agent responsible for the most severe form of human viral hepatitis. The HDV genome consists of a single‐stranded circular RNA molecule that encodes for one single protein, the delta antigen. Given its simplicity, HDV must make use of several host cellular proteins to accomplish its life cycle processes, including […]
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Epidemic and Pandemic Viral Infections: Impact on Tuberculosis and the Lung. A Consensus by the World Association for Infectious Diseases and Immunological Disorders (WAidid), Global Tuberculosis Network (GTN) and Members # of ESCMID Study Group for Mycobacterial Infections (ESGMYC)

Major epidemics including some that qualify as pandemics, such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle-Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Human Immunodeficiency Virus, pandemic H1N1/09 and most recently COVID-19 affect the lung. Tuberculosis (TB) remains the top infectious disease killer but apart from the TB-HIV syndemic, little is known regarding the interaction of viral epidemics and […]
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Análise da Disponibilidade e Prontidão de Estruturas Sanitárias com Capacidade de Internamento em Duas Regiões da Guiné-Bissau

RESUMO Introdução: As debilidades do sistema de saúde da Guiné-Bissau estão há muito sinalizadas. O objetivo deste estudo é contribuir com evidência para tomada de decisão sobre a reforma do mapa sanitário do país, pela análise à disponibilidade e prontidão de ser-viços das estruturas sanitárias que poderiam vir a integrar um complexo hospitalar em Bissau, […]
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HIV prevention and treatment in Southern Europe in the aftermath of bailout programmes

Abstract Background The global financial crisis impacted public health in Europe, and had a particularly critical detriment to health systems in Southern Europe. We aim to describe HIV response and progress towards the current global HIV targets in specific Southern European countries, which received financial adjustment programmes. Methods We examined and compared a set of […]
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Sampling bias and incorrect rooting make phylogenetic network tracing of SARS-COV-2 infections unreliable

There is obvious interest in gaining insights into the epidemiology and evolution of the virus that has recently emerged in humans as the cause of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The recent paper by Forster et al. analyzed 160 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) full genomes available (https://www.gisaid.org/) in early March 2020. The […]
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Phylogenetic insights on Leishmania detected in cats as revealed by nucleotide sequence analysis of multiple genetic markers

Cats have been found infected by the same Leishmania species that also infect dogs and humans in both the New and Old Worlds, and their role as additional reservoir hosts of L. infantum has been previously suggested. Currently, the genetic diversity of Leishmania spp. detected in cats is poorly understood. In this cross-sectional study, the […]
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