Infectious Disease

Utilization of local surveillance data has been shown to help risk stratify patients presenting to the emergency department presenting with GAS pharyngitis or meningitis. (1, 2) Adolescents frequently present to the emergency department (ED) with symptoms that may be associated with a sexually transmitted infection (STI). (3) When ED providers perceive high local rates of STI and low rates of follow-up, empiric treatment is considered. This strategy may result in unnecessary treatment. Knowledge of the local spatial distribution of adolescents with STIs diagnosed in local pediatric emergency departments EDs may enhance risk stratification and allow targeted testing and/or treatment among future ED patients in whom STI is considered.

Objective

(1) To describe the spatial distribution of adolescents with EDdiagnosed STIs in a large urban area with a high prevalence of STI

(2) To compare census block groups and identify “hot spots” of STI.

 

Influenza is a highly contagious, acute respiratory disease that causes periodic seasonal epidemics and global pandemics[1]. Yunnan Province is characterized by poverty, multi-ethnic, and cross-border movement, which maybe be susceptible of influenza (Fig-1). Finding from spatial patter of ILI will promote to control and prevent the respiratory diseases epidemic

Objective

The purpose of the study was to determine spatial clustering of the spread of influenza like illness (ILI) epidemic in Yunnan province, China with the aim of producing useful information for prevention and control measures.

 

Bovine cysticercosis is a zoonotic foodborne disease caused by Taenia saginata involving cattle as the intermediate host and humans as the final host. Humans are infected by eating raw or undercooked meat of infected cattle. Cattle are infected after grazing on pasture infected by human feces. Disease detection in cattle is performed during post-mortem meat inspection at the slaughterhouse through the identification of cysts in muscle tissue. Cysts develop from a viable stage to a degenerated stage in one to nine months, both stages being visible and distinguishable in cattle muscle. Due to the slow development of cysts and the complexity of cattle movements (up to ten different herds from birth to slaughter in France), there is a strong bias to consider the last farm location before slaughter as the location of infection.

Objective

Spatial analysis of infectious diseases enables identification of areas at high risk for infection, a useful tool for implementation of risk-based surveillance. For chronic diseases, the period between infection and detection can be long and when animal movements are important, identifying the place of infection is difficult. The objective of this study is to propose an innovative approach for spatial analysis that takes into account uncertainty regarding the location where animals were infected. An animal-herd-level weighted analysis was used and applied to bovine cysticercosis in France.

 

Dengue Hemorrhagic fever is the most important mosquito-borne viral disease in Indonesia and the most rapidly spreading over the past 40 years. It is a major cause of morbidity and mortality especially among children. Beside of that, larval habitats are increasing rapidly in Padang city as urban areas. It refers to poor populations lacking basic health services. Effective bottom-up community participation increasingly is recognized as an important component of environmentallysustainable control programs. But community based health service action become weak recently in Padang Indonesia. It needs some new energy to strengthen2. Adoption of social capital concept into the program could be a way out. An action research through communitybased approaches is developed to reduce disease transmission and environmental management for control of dengue hemorrhagic fever.

Objective

This presentation aims to developed comprehensive dengue hemorrhagic fever vector control by new approach social mobilization of city residents in Padang, West Sumatera, Indonesia and to monitor its sustainability of the program for 4 years.

Limited information is available on mortality experience of HIV infected patients prior to the start of antiretroviral therapy (ART), as monitoring of HIV care services has mainly focused on ART initiation and subsequent patient survival. By 2013, Tanzania 1,209 health facilities with HIV services, and 800,000 patients accessing ART

Objective

The aim of this write up was to assess the level of mortality and its determinants among HIV infected adults prior to ART initiation.

Traditional surveillance systems only capture a fraction of the estimated 48 million yearly cases of foodborne illness in the United States due to few affected individuals seeking medical care and lack of reporting to appropriate authorities. Non-traditional disease surveillance approaches could be used to supplement foodborne illness surveillance systems.

Objective

We assessed whether foodservice reviews on Yelp.com (a business review site) can be used to support foodborne illness surveillance efforts.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends implementing early targeted school closures as one of the front-line interventions to slow progression of a severe influenza pandemic before appropriate vaccine becomes available. However, prolonged school closures may impose unintended economic and social costs and consequences to students’ families. These costs and consequences have not been carefully evaluated. To better understand this unintended impact, we conducted five investigations of unplanned school closures lasting >=4 school days implemented for various reasons from August 2012 through May 2013. Each closure was investigated separately as a public health evaluation. School closures implemented for reasons other than pandemic influenza may serve as a proxy to pandemic-related closures. Our findings can inform updates to CDC’s pandemic preparedness guidance.

Historically, patients with TB have often been diagnosed late or after death. This delay in diagnosis often occurs because TB is misdiagnosed as an alternative respiratory illness (RI), such as pneumonia . TB infected patients that are not correctly diagnosed when initial symptoms occur may spread infection to others in both healthcare settings and the community.

Objective

To estimate the potential number of Tuberculosis (TB) cases that occur in inpatient and emergency department settings that are missed, diagnosed as something else, go untreated and return to the community, prior to receiving a correct diagnosis of TB. We analyze inpatient and emergency department records from the state of California from 2005-2011.

Influenza poses a global health threat. The disease affects all ages, often with variable clinical features.

Abidjan, where this study took place, has a long rainy season April-July with a shorter less intense rainy season October-November. Temperatures vary very little during the year. In temperate areas, children and adults aged >=65 years are risk groups. In these countries the seasonality of influenza is clearly defined, with seasonal epidemics in cold weather periods. But in the tropics, the risk groups of influenza are not as well defined. Also, the dynamics of influenza transmission and climatological parameters that influence it are specific to the tropical region and not as thoroughly studied.

Objective

This study aims to determine the epidemiological and clinical profiles of influenza infections related to different strains and the effect of climatological parameters on the temporal distribution of the disease for the prediction.

Since the adoption of antibiotics in the early 20th century, a plethora of clinical pathogens have acquired resistance to one or more modern-day antibiotics. This has resulted in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) being recognized as a severe threat to human and animal health worldwide. Recent work has demonstrated that AMR bacteria are widely prevalent in the environment, perhaps exacerbated by the widespread use of antibiotics for clinical or agricultural purposes.

Objective

To assess the temporal dynamics of airborne bacterial communities in four locations around the National Capital Region and the dispersion of antimicrobial resistant (AMR) genes present within them.