Detecting influenza and emerging avian influenza virus by influenza and pneumonia surveillance systems in a large city in China, 2005 to 2016

Efficacy of phentolamine combined with ambroxol aerosol inhalation in the treatment of pediatric severe pneumonia and its effect on serum IL-10 and CRP levels

BACKGROUND

The aim of the present study was to determine the therapeutic effect of phentolamine combined with Ambroxol aerosol inhalation on pediatric severe pneumonia and its effect on serum interleukin-10 (IL-10) and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels.

METHODS

Eighty-five children with severe pneumonia treated in our hospital from November 2019 to November 2020 were selected as the research participants, and were divided into the routine group (n=41) and treatment group (n=44) according to odd and even admission numbers, respectively. Children in the first group received routine treatment, namely symptomatic treatment such as cough relief (e.g., expectorant) and defervescence, while those in the second group received phentolamine combined with Ambroxol aerosol inhalation. Clinical indexes of both groups before and after treatment were analyzed to determine the therapeutic effect of different treatment methods and serum IL-10 and CRP level changes.

RESULTS

There was no significant difference in general clinical data between the 2 groups (P>0.05). The duration of cough, fever, abnormal lung sound and lung shadow, and hospitalization time in the treatment group was significantly shorter than those in the routine group (P<0.001). The total clinical effective rate in the treatment group was significantly higher than that in the routine group (P<0.05). Forced vital capacity and peak expiratory flow rate levels were higher in both groups after treatment (P<0.05), and these were higher in the treatment group compared with the routine group after treatment (P<0.05). Serum IL-10 and CRP levels at T1 (2 days after treatment), T2 (5 days after treatment), and T3 (7 days after treatment) in the treatment group were significantly lower than those in the routine group (P<0.001). The total incidence of adverse reactions in the treatment group was significantly lower than that in the routine group (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Phentolamine combined with Ambroxol aerosol inhalation can significantly improve the clinical symptoms of children with severe pneumonia, reduce the body's inflammatory response, and improve lung function safely.

Regional Distribution of Non-human H7N9 Avian Influenza Virus Detections in China and Construction of a Predictive Model

Introduction

H7N9 avian influenza has broken out in Chinese poultry 10 times since 2013 and impacted the industry severely. Although the epidemic is currently under control, there is still a latent threat.

Material and Methods

Epidemiological surveillance data for non-human H7N9 avian influenza from April 2013 to April 2020 were used to analyse the regional distribution and spatial correlations of positivity rates in different months and years and before and after comprehensive immunisation. In addition, positivity rate monitoring data were disaggregated into a low-frequency and a high-frequency trend sequence by wavelet packet decomposition (WPD). The particle swarm optimisation algorithm was adopted to optimise the least squares support-vector machine (LS-SVM) model parameters to predict the low-frequency trend sequence, and the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model was used to predict the high-frequency one. Ultimately, an LS-SVM-ARIMA combined model based on WPD was constructed.

Results

The virus positivity rate was the highest in late spring and early summer, and overall it fell significantly after comprehensive immunisation. Except for the year 2015 and the single month of December from 2013 to 2020, there was no significant spatiotemporal clustering in cumulative non-human H7N9 avian influenza virus detections. Compared with the ARIMA and LS-SVM models, the LS-SVM-ARIMA combined model based on WPD had the highest prediction accuracy. The mean absolute and root mean square errors were 2.4% and 2.0%, respectively.

Conclusion

Low error measures prove the validity of this new prediction method and the combined model could be used for inference of future H7N9 avian influenza virus cases. Live poultry markets should be closed in late spring and early summer, and comprehensive H7N9 immunisation continued.