Infectious Disease

The Infectious Disease Society of America’s Emerging Infections Network (EIN) is a sentinel network of over 1,200 practicing infectious disease physicians, supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In January 2012, the EIN listserv fielded a member inquiry about treatment recommendations for a complicated polymicrobial wound infection in a traveler returning to the United States from India. The posting led to a member-to-member communication that resulted in shipment of clinical microbiology isolates from one member’s hospital to another’s research laboratory. Molecular evaluation of the clinical isolates uncovered previously undetected carriage of the emerging NDM-1 enzyme in 2 of the Enterobacteriaceae species. Based on this interaction, we built a flexible online surveillance registry (CaseFinder) for infectious disease physicians to report cases of CRE.

Objective

To create a flexible online surveillance system for infectious disease experts to report cases of emerging infectious diseases.

Introduction

Measles is a vaccine preventable disease that has been successfully eliminated in some parts of the world. It causes high morbidity and mortality with the potential of large outbreaks. About a third of reported measles cases involve one or more complications including diarrhea, pneumonia, otitis media, blindness, post infections encephalitis and subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. It is however, one of the leading causes of childhood morbidity and mortality in Nigeria despite availability of safe and effective vaccines.

Objective

The objective of this study was to describe the performance of the measles surveillance in Lagos, characterize the epidemiologic pattern of measles infection and determine the measles vaccine efficacy.

The past decade has witnessed rapid development and implementation of numerous syndromic and other advanced surveillance systems to supplement traditional laboratory testing to identify the presence of novel influenza strains and track the impact on local populations. While much of the development and widespread implementation of these systems had been supported by public health preparedness funding, the loss of these monies has greatly constrained the ability of public health agencies to staff and maintain these systems. The periodic appearance of novel flu viruses, such as H3N2v, requires agencies to carefully choose which systems will provide the most cost-effective data to support their public health practice.

Objective

This project was organized to facilitate discussions on whether successful novel flu surveillance can be conducted by jurisdictions with limited resources. The discussions will focus on gathering opinions regarding the best combination of surveillance systems to quickly and efficiently identify the presence of influenza A (H3N2)v and other novel influenza viruses in circulation.

Over the past five years, efforts to control malaria have been intensified in Uganda (1). With the intensification of these efforts, accurate and timely data are needed to monitor impact of the interventions and guide malaria control program planning (2, 3). We present data on trends in malaria burden over four years from six outpatient health facilities located in regions of varying malaria endemicity in Uganda.

Objective:

To estimate trends in malaria morbidity at six sentinel sites in Uganda.

 

Infectious diseases, though initially tend to be limited geographically to a reservoir; a subsequent spatial variation in disease prevalence (including spread & intensity) arises from the underlying differences in physical-biological conditions that support pathogen, its vectors & reservoirs. Different factors like spatial proximity, physical & social connectivity, & local environmental conditions which add to its susceptibility influence the occurrence[2]. In Disease management, analysis of historical data over various aspects of geography, epidemiology, social structures & network dynamics need to be accounted for. Large amounts of data raise issues of data processing, storage, pattern identification, etc. In addition, identifying the source of disease occurrence & its pattern can be of immense value. ST-DM of disease data can be an effective tool for endemic preparedness[3], as it extracts implicit knowledge, spatial & temporal relationships, or other patterns inherent in such databases. Here, Core Region is defined as a set of spatial entities(eg.counties) aggregated over time, which occur frequently at places having high values in a defined region (considering areas of influence around them)[1].

Objective:

This work leverages spatio-temporal data mining (ST-DM), the MiSTIC (Mining Spatio-Temporally Invariant Cores)[1,6] method for infectious disease surveillance, by identifying a) Extent of spatial spread of disease core regions across populations-scale of disease prevalence b) Possible causes of the observed patterns-for better prediction, detection & management of infectious disease & its outbreaks.

In Ukraine in spite of considerable financial expenses on oral immunization of foxes and parenteral immunization of dogs and cats, it is not succeeded to reach considerable results in the fight with rabies. Unfortunately there was a negative tendency to increasing a part of dogs and cats in the structure of rabies disease which are the main source of rabies in people.

Objective

The purpose of the research was to find out the reasons of rabies antropurgisation in Ukraine.

National borders do not prevent the transmission of pathogens and associated vectors among border populations. The Naval Health Research Center (NHRC) has collaborated with the Mexican Secretariat of Health, the U. S. Department of State’s Biosecurity Engagement Program (BEP) and the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in concert with local health officials to conduct ILI surveillance (since 2004) and SARI surveillance (since 2009) in the border region.

Objective

To identify the pathogens responsible for influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) along the U.S.-Mexico border region in San Diego and Imperial Counties, CA and Pima County, AZ.

HIV is growing rapidly worldwide resulting in estimated 34 million population. Recently, its epidemic has spread in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and most parts of Asia. According to Antenatal sero surveillance study conducted in 2011 by Agriteam canada, it’s prevalence in Pakistan is <0.1.Focusing narrowly, its prevalence in Sindh, (one of the provinces of Pakistan) is similar in general population, but it is in the phase of concentrated epidemic (having more than 5% of prevalence in high risk groups)in vulnerable groups like IDUs and Male sex workers and transgender. Sexual intercourse has been identified as major route especially in HIV high risk groups including male sex workers, female sex workers (FSWs), transgender (hijras) and IV drug users. Among them, FSWs are at high risk because of unprotected sex and illicit drug use. Their prevalence is found to be 30.7% in low and middle income countries. South Asia contributed with 12.63 lakh FSW in India only. On the basis of their station of work, they are categorized into facility based (kothikhana, brothel or home) and mobile (street, mobile or beggars). They use different preventive measures including condom for their protection from HIV. It varies with availability and access . FSWs typology have different cliental and mode of action, therefore, it important to explore the preventive methods.

Objective

We aimed to determine the association of FSWs typology with condom use among HIV high risk groups in Sindh, Pakistan