Infectious Disease

Transmission and amplification of influenza within schools has been purported as a driving mechanism for subsequent outbreaks in surrounding communities. However, the number of studies assessing the utility of monitoring school absenteeism as an indicator of influenza in the community is limited. ORCHARDS was initiated to evaluate the relationships between all-cause (a-Tot), illness-related (a-I), and influenza-like illness (ILI)-related absenteeism (a-ILI) within a school district and medically attended influenza A or B visits within the same community.

Objective:

The Oregon Child Absenteeism due to Respiratory Disease Study (ORCHARDS) was implemented to assess the relationships between cause-specific absenteeism within a school district and medically attended influenza visits within the same community.

In the early morning of Friday January 20, 2017, Toronto Public Health (TPH) was notified of several reports of acute vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach pain/cramps among students living in residence at a post-secondary institution in Toronto, Canada. A public health investigation was initiated and it was quickly determined that a large number of students and visitors to the campus were affected. Following considerable media coverage, TPH began receiving an overwhelmingly high volume of reports from ill individuals who lived, visited, or worked at the college campus and had experienced gastrointestinal illness.

Objective:

To describe the use of an online survey tool to rapidly collect data from a large community outbreak of enteric illness in Toronto, Canada.

Infectious diseases are still the cause of a large number of deaths in Ukraine. Analysis of infectious mortality allows the study of the dynamics of diseases that pose the greatest danger. In particular, those that are vaccine-preventable and suggest more effective methods for organizing an epidemic surveillance system.

Objective:

The aim of this work was to determine the impact of vaccination on the dynamics of mortality and the contribution of vaccine preventable infections to the structure of total infectious mortality of the population of Ukraine over the past 50 years to develop a more effective system of surveillance for this group of infections.

Influenza is one of the significant causes of morbidity and mortality globally. Previous studies have demonstrated the benefit of laboratory surveillance and its capability to accurately detect influenza outbreaks earlier than syndromic surveillance.1-3 Current laboratory surveillance has an approximately 4-week lag due to laboratory test turn-around time, data collection and data analysis. As part of strengthening influenza virus surveillance in response to the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic, the real-time laboratory-based influenza surveillance system, the Bangkok Dusit Medical Services Surveillance System (BDMS-SS), was developed in 2010 by the Bangkok Health Research Center (BHRC). The primary objective of the BDMS-SS is to alert relevant stakeholders on the incidence trends of the influenza virus. Type-specific results along with patient demographic and geographic information were available to physicians and uploaded for public health awareness within 24 hours after patient nasopharyngeal swab was collected. This system advances early warning and supports better decision making during infectious disease events.2 The BDMS-SS operates all year round collecting results of all routinely tested respiratory clinical samples from participating hospitals from the largest group of private hospitals in Thailand.

Objective:

We describe the Bangkok Dusit Medical Services Surveillance System (BDMS-SS) and use of surveillance efforts for influenza as an example of surveillance capability in near real-time among a network of 20 hospitals in the Bangkok Dusit Medical Services group (BDMS).

Respiratory pathogens continue to present an ever increasing threat to public health. Influenza, Respiratory syncytial virus, human metapneumovirus and other respiratory viruses are major etiological agents for influenza like illnesses (ILI). Establishment of viral causes of ILI is critical for prevention and mitigation strategies to disease threats. Makerere University Walter Reed Project (MUWRP) together with the Ugandan Ministry of Health and partners undertook surveillance to determine viral causes of influenza-like illness in Uganda.

Objective:

To determine viral causes of influenza-like illness in Uganda.

Improvement of the Q fever epizootic and epidemiological surveillance system remains an urgent veterinary service and healthcare problem in Ukraine. The grounds for this should be laid by the results of monitoring studies of persons with a professional infection risk (livestock farms, animal processing enterprises, veterinary specialists, etc.) and living in enzootic territories , as well as research of Q fever pathogen possible sources reservoirs.

Objective:

To investigate Q fever pathogen distribution among ixodic ticks, myomorphic rodents, febrile patients, residents of enzootic areas with Q fever and persons in contact with Q fever, specifically infected persons in the Southern and Western regions of Ukraine.

Natural foci of especially dangerous pathogens (EDP) (tularemia, leptospirosis, anthrax, tick-borne infections) are known in Lviv oblast for more than 50 years. An integral part of the epidemiological surveillance of these infections is the monitoring of environmental objects that can detect the circulation of pathogens in natural biotopes. Identification and studying of the activity of natural foci of EDP in the territory of Lviv oblast in previous years was conducted using classical laboratory and epidemiological methods.

Objective:

Study the advantages of using the PCR method for monitoring of natural foci within the EDP surveillance system.

Mortality rate of leptospirosis in Ukraine remains high year after year. The study of the peculiarities of lethal cases over a long period enables researchers to specify possible mechanisms of infection which cause the development of the severest cases of leptospirosis and to prevent disease emergence by applying adequate preventive measures.

Objective:

Study of the structure of lethal cases in patients diagnosed with leptospirosis in the Lviv Region.

Flaviviridae are one of the most widespread arboviruses in Ukraine. Mosquitoes are vectors of WNF in a majority of cases due to bites during swimming, fishing, work in suburban areas and outdoor recreation without use of individual protection from mosquitoes. A study of the species composition of bloodsucking mosquitoes is conducted in Ukraine. Existence of natural foci of WNF viruses has been well-proven all over the territory of Ukraine by testing IgG antibodies in different groups of population, including children. Also, infection of mosquitoes (RNA found in Culex pipiens (including Culex pipiens f. molestus, Culiseta annulata)) was registered. Infection of I. ricinus and D. reticulates was also determined, and it acts as a factor for circulation of virus in the wild too.

Objective:

To define the problems of epidemiological surveillance of West Nile fever (WNF) in Ukraine.

Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) is a severe paralytic neuropathy associated with virus infections such as Zika virus and Chikungunya virus. There were also case reports of dengue fever preceding GBS. With the aim to understand the mechanisms of GBS and dengue outbreaks, this ecological study investigates the relationships between GBS, dengue, meteorological factors in Hong Kong and global climatic factors from January 2000 to June 2016.

Objective:

To study the trends of GBS and dengue in Hong Kong, the ecological associations between GBS, dengue, and local meteorological factors. To examine the non-stationary oscillating association among these factors.