Publications
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Lack of functional TCR-epitope interaction is associated with herpes zoster through reduced downstream T cell activation University of Antwerp
The role of T cell receptor (TCR) diversity in infectious disease susceptibility is not well understood. We use a systems immunology approach on three cohorts of herpes zoster (HZ) patients and controls to investigate whether TCR diversity against varicella-zoster virus (VZV) influences the risk of HZ. We show that CD4+ T cell TCR diversity against VZV glycoprotein E (gE) and immediate early 63 protein (IE63) after 1-week culture is more ...
Multimorbidity healthcare expenditure in Belgium University of Antwerp
Background The complex management of health needs in multimorbid patients, alongside limited cost data, presents challenges in developing cost-effective patient-care pathways. We estimated the costs of managing 171 dyads and 969 triads in Belgium, taking into account the influence of morbidity interactions on costs. Methods We followed a retrospective longitudinal study design, using the linked Belgian Health Interview Survey 2018 and the ...
COVID-19-related health utility values and changes in COVID-19 patients and the general population University of Antwerp
Purpose To summarise the diverse literature reporting the impact of COVID-19 on health utility in COVID-19 patients as well as in general populations being affected by COVID-19 control policies. Methods A literature search up to April 2023 was conducted to identify papers reporting health utility in COVID-19 patients or in COVID-19-affected general populations. We present a narrative synthesis of the health utility values/losses of the retained ...
Cost-effectiveness analysis of typhoid conjugate vaccines in an outbreak setting University of Antwerp
BackgroundSeveral prolonged typhoid fever epidemics have been reported since 2010 throughout eastern and southern Africa, including Malawi, caused by multidrug-resistant Salmonella Typhi. The World Health Organization recommends the use of typhoid conjugate vaccines (TCVs) in outbreak settings; however, current data are limited on how and when TCVs might be introduced in response to outbreaks.MethodologyWe developed a stochastic model of typhoid ...
Impact of tiered measures on social contact and mixing patterns of in Italy during the second wave of COVID-19 University of Antwerp Hasselt University
BackgroundMost countries around the world enforced non-pharmaceutical interventions against COVID-19. Italy was one of the first countries to be affected by the pandemic, imposing a hard lockdown, in the first epidemic wave. During the second wave, the country implemented progressively restrictive tiers at the regional level according to weekly epidemiological risk assessments. This paper quantifies the impact of these restrictions on contacts ...
Economic burden and health-related quality-of-life among infants with respiratory syncytial virus infection University of Antwerp Hasselt University
Background: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes a considerable disease burden in young children globally, but reliable estimates of RSV-related costs and health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) are scarce. This study aimed to evaluate the RSV-associated costs and HRQoL effects in infants and their caregivers in four European countries.Methods: Healthy term-born infants were recruited at birth and actively followed up in four European ...
Placing a value on increased flexible vaccine manufacturing capacity for future pandemics University of Antwerp
Longitudinal social contact data analysis University of Antwerp Hasselt University KU Leuven
Background During the COVID-19 pandemic, the CoMix study, a longitudinal behavioral survey, was designed to monitor social contacts and public awareness in multiple countries, including Belgium. As a longitudinal survey, it is vulnerable to participants'"survey fatigue", which may impact inferences. Methods A negative binomial generalized additive model for location, scale, and shape (NBI GAMLSS) was adopted to estimate the number of contacts ...
The age profile of respiratory syncytial virus burden in preschool children of low- and middle-income countries University of Antwerp
Author summary Why was this study done? Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most common cause of acute pulmonary infections in children. The RSV disease burden is high, especially in the nearly 600 million children under 5 living in 121 low-income (LIC) and middle-income countries (MICs) on which this study focuses.Evidence on the age distribution of RSV infections in these countries is based on sparse data using age breakdowns that are not ...