Infectious Disease

The livestock sector is vital to the socio-economic development of Nigeria; it contributes about 9-10% of agricultural GDP. Livestock represents an important source of high quality animal protein pro- viding about 36.5 % of total protein intake of Nigerians (1). Lagos State, located in the south-western part of Nigeria, has the smallest landmass (3577 sq. km) and the highest human population density (2519.75 per sq. km) in the Country (2). The State has a poultry pop- ulation of 2.5 million birds and the largest outlet for poultry products with 207 Live bird markets, 375 poultry farms and a large number of poultry products consumers (3). Avian influenza (“bird flu”) is an in- fectious disease of birds caused by type A strains of the influenza virus. The infection is known to cross species barrier to infect hu- mans (4). Between March 2006 and September 2007 Avian influenza (AI) outbreaks occurred in 99 poultry farms in Lagos State (3). The only human case of AI in Nigeria was detected at a health facility in Lagos in January 2007.

Objective

To assess the collaborative efforts in Avian Influenza control that could be harnessed for the control of other Zoonotic diseases.

Mayotte Island, a French overseas department of around 374 km2 and 200 000 inhabitants is located in the North of Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean (Figure1). In response to the threat of the pandemic influenza A(H1N1)2009 virus emergence, a syndromic surveillance system has been implemented in order to monitor its spread and its impact on public health (1). This surveillance system which proved to be useful during the influenza pandemic, has been maintained in order to detect infection diseases outbreaks.

Objective

To present the usefulness of syndromic surveillance for the detection of infectious diseases outbreak in small islands, based on the experience of Mayotte.

Screening for Influenza Like Illness (ILI) is an important infection control activity within emergency departments (ED). When ILI screening is routinely completed in the ED it becomes clinically useful in isolating potentially infectious persons and protecting others from exposure to disease. When routinely collected, ILI screening in an electronic clinical application, with real time reporting, can be useful in Public Health surveillance activities and can support resource allocation decisions e.g. increasing decontamination cleaning. However, the reliability of documentation is unproven. Efforts to support the adoption of ILI screening documentation in a computer application, without mandatory field support, can lead to long term success and increased adherence.

The Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP) has been being implemented in the Republic of Uzbekistan since 2004 within the framework of the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Government of the United States of America Concerning Cooperation in the Area of the Promotion of Defense Relations and the Prevention of Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction of 06.05.2001. Threat agent detection and response activities that target a list of especially dangerous pathogens are being carried out under the BTRP within the health care system of Uzbekistan. This presentation reviews some of the achievements of the program to date.

Objective:

To review the implementation of the Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP) of the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency in the Republic of Uzbekistan since 2004.

 

The standard approaches to simulation include solving of differential equation systems. Such approach is good for obtaining general picture of epidemics (1, 2). When the detailed analysis of epidemics reasons is needed such model becomes insufficient. To overcome the limitations of standard approaches a new one has been offered. The multiagent approach has been offered to be used for representation of the society. Methods of event-driven programming give essential benefits of the processing time of the events (3).

Objective:

To develop multiagent model of hepatitis B (HBV) infection spreading.

 

Salmonella Enteritidis is dangerous for human due the reason of toxicoinfaction. These pathogen demonstrate high virulence for small children and people with chronic pathologies and can causes people die. The main source of infection to humans is birds (poultry and wild).

Wild birds represent the natural reservoir of same bacterial pathogens. It is known that Salmonella can occupy an intestinal tract of birds. This colonization in general is constant, sometimes proceeds with an alternating fever, and usually, without clinical signs. Infected birds can transmit pathogens to other isolates in close contact. This usually occurs on the nesting during seasonal migrations. In the southern region of Ukraine are several points of intersection of migration routes of wild birds on the way from Europe to Africa and Asia (National Park “Askania Nova”and others).

Objective

The aim of our study was to identify possible natural reservoirs of Salmonella Enteritidis among wild birds.

Information about disease severity could help with both detection and situational awareness during outbreaks of acute respiratory infections (ARI). In this work, we use data from the EMR to identify patients with pneumonia, a key landmark of ARI severity. We asked if computerized analysis of the free-text of clinical notes or imaging reports could complement structured EMR data to uncover pneumonia cases.

Objective

To improve the surveillance for pneumonia using the free-text of electronic medical records (EMR).

In a 2007 survey of public health officials in the United States, International Society for Disease Surveillance found that only 7% used pharmacy prescription sales data for surveillance (1). There have been many reports suggesting effective use of prescription sales data in syndromic surveillance (2, 3, 4, 5). Community pharmacies can provide a valuable supplementary tool for syndromic surveillance of infectious diseases.

Objective

To examine if the prescription sales data from a large retail pharmacy chain in the US were comparable to Google Flu trends and CDC’s US ILI Network data as flu activity indicator.

Influenza is viral illness that affects mainly the nose, throat, bronchi and occasionally, the lungs. Influenza viruses have been an under-appreciated contributor to morbidity and mortality in Nigeria. They are a substantial contributor to respiratory disease burden in Nigeria and other developing countries. Nigeria started influenza sentinel surveillance in 2008 to inform disease control and prevention efforts.

Objective

To analyze Influenza surveillance data from 2009 to 2010 the Northern, Southern, and Western zones in Nigeria and determined co-morbidity factors associated with influenza in Nigeria.

A sudden surge in hospital admissions in public hospital during influenza peak season has been a challenge to healthcare and manpower planning. In Hong Kong, the timing of influenza peak seasons are variable and early short-term indication of possible surge may facilitate preparedness which could be translated into strategies such as early discharge or reallocation of extra hospital beds. In this study we explore the potential use of multiple routinely collected syndromic data in the forecast of hospital admissions.

Objective

This paper describes the potential use of multiple influenza surveillance data to forecast hospital admissions for respiratory diseases.