Well that was fun 🤩 #RTI2025 Such a great conference with fab speakers, and was so delighted that my @CharismaStudy poster won a prize 🎉 Massive thanks to all involved especially my super supervisor @DrToniHo

#RTI2024 Day 3 🎉 Thank you to young generations of researchers and clinicians for their commitment and involvement in the initiative. 📝51 Submitted abstracts 🌟2 Rising Stars 🗣️8 Oral communications 👨‍🏫2 Poster awards winners Thank you to all !

#RTI2024 Day 2 🎉 🌟Congratulations to the Rising Stars of the Forum on Respiratory Tract Infections for their valuable presentations! #respiratorymedicine #respiratorytractinfections

I will be presenting this work at the #RTIForum conference in Glasgow next week. Do come and listen 😀 @Lena_Group4Resp

Conclusion - resp viruses continued circulating in 🇲🇼 during #covid19 pandemic - enveloped viruses (#flu, #RSV) rare/absent - differences in demographics and virus positivity rural 🌳vs urban🏡 - vital to include diverse communities in #surveillance - ongoing study needed 🧵8/

Study strengths 😀 - diverse study sites 🌳🏨 - comprehensive metadata ℹ️ - captured multiple covid waves 🌊 - broad virus testing 🧪🧬 - household testing 🏡 Limitations ☹️ - no pre-pandemic comparison data - no children 👧👦 - more study sites always better 🇲🇼 🧵7/

- 60% participants asymptomatic - virus positivity associated with being symptomatic - runny nose 👃and wheeze 🫁 significantly associated with virus detection -SARS-CoV-2 more commonly causes fever, myalgia & joint pain 🧵6/

- 3 co-infections - 8 concurrent infections (cohabiting participants) - 4 consecutive infections (cohabiting participants) 1 case of ?persistent ?recurrent #covid infection - 3 consecutive samples positive - reducing symptoms over time - vaccinated after 1st study visit 🧵5/

Results - 7.6% sample positivity - Virus Top 3 🥇SARS-CoV-2 (4%) 🥈Rhinovirus (2%) 🥉Adenovirus (0.6%) - No #fluA detected - Flu B/RSV rare - Mixed effects analysis: - rural positivity higher - positivity declined over time 🧵4/

Participants: - 1626 URT samples 🧪 - 945 participants 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 - 542 households 🏡 - 49% rural 🌳 51 % urban 🏨 - 58% female ♀️ - median age: 36 years - co-morbidities in 19% - #covid19 vaccination rate: 8% @ start of study, 36% by the end 💉 🧵3/

- prospective longitudinal cohort study 🗒️ - adults in urban Lilongwe & rural Karonga 🇲🇼 - Feb 2021 - Apr 2022 - upper respiratory tract (URT) swabs every 3 months 🧪 - multiplex PCR for 12 respiratory viruses 🧬 🧵2/

🥳Published today in @OFIDJournal is part 2 of my #PhD 🎉 Exciting added bonus of it being the 'Editors Choice' Prevalence of respiratory viruses 🫁 in Malawi 🇲🇼 during the pandemic https://t.co/nLDf7s7Gd5 @CVRinfo @MEIRU_MALAWI @LancasterUni @MLW_Programme @DrToniHo 🧵1/

Are you a trainee interested in doing a PhD in virology? 🩺🦠🧬👩🏻‍💻🔬 We have a clinical research fellowship at @CVRinfo starting August 2024. Details: https://t.co/STpU0DxGoy (reference 132968) Closing date: 8 Jan 2024 Enquiries to: Ruth.Jarrett@glasgow.ac.uk Please share 🙏🏽

📢 New publication! Characterising the evolving #SARSCoV2 seroprevalence in urban & rural Malawi Feb 2021-Apr 2022: a population cohort study A collaboration btwn @MEIRU_MALAWI @CVRinfo @KUHeS_mw @MalawiHealth @LancasterUni, @wellcometrust funded 🧵1/ https://t.co/E4cfhLi9jD

Finally 🥳

Now 261 confirmed cases of #Dengue in Italy of which 49 are locally acquired. New data on where introductions were from included now on the official dashboard: https://t.co/Y6LEDRnWVi

Clinical fellow post in infectious diseases available at the QEUH @NHSGGC starting ASAP. Super friendly and supportive team and a great city to work in! https://t.co/sRFIrt98OE #infectiousdiseases #infection #generalmedicine #idjobs

Do you live in Scotland and either: - Live with #HIV and/or #Hepatitis C? - Conduct research on HIV and/or Hep C? Join our artistic workshop with @EdinburghUni! 📅 10 Oct, 12-5pm We can support travel & childcare costs More info and register: https://t.co/6TD1ZGZeqU

Presenting data from @CharismaStudy, our syndromic surveillance of hospitalised SARI @NHSGGC to characterise the evolving epidemiology of #flu & #SARSCoV2 at #ESWI2023. 🏥🦠😷 Come to poster 589 to find out more!