Infectious Disease

There is growing recognition that an inability to access timely health indicators can hamper both the design and the effective implementation of infectious diseases control interventions. In malaria control, the global use of standard interventions has driven down the burden of disease in many regions. Further gains in high transmission areas and elimination in lower transmission settings, however, will require an enhanced understanding of malaria epidemiology, population characteristics, and efficacy of clinical and public health programs at the local level. Currently, there is a dearth of information available to fine-tune malaria control interventions at the local level. A key obstacle is the fragmentation of data into silos, as existing data cannot be brought together to estimate accurate and timely health metrics.

Objective

Driven by the need to bring malaria surveillance data from different sources together to support evidence-based decision making, we are conducting the “Scalable Data Integration for Disease Surveillance” (SDIDS) project. This project aims to foster the integration of existing surveillance data to support evidence-based decision-making in malaria control and demonstrate a model applicable to other diseases. Central to this initiative is collaboration between academia, governmental and NGO sectors.

The global effort of malaria control is in line with the one world one health concept, but then a globally defined ‘‘one-size-fits-all’’ malaria control strategy would be inefficient in endemic areas. Plasmodium falciparum is the type of malaria parasite that most often causes severe and life-threatening malaria. People get malaria by being bitten by an infective female Anopheles mosquito. Regional malaria elimination campaigns in 1940s followed by the Global Malaria Eradication Program in 1955 did not succeed in eliminating malaria from subSaharan Africa, which accounts for 80% of today’s burden of malaria. The basic reproductive number, Ro, has played a central role in epidemiological theory for malaria and other infectious diseases because it provides an index of transmission intensity and establishes threshold criteria.

Objective

To examine the likely impact of malaria parasite intervention points for a steady state regional control program in endemic areas

In Mozambique about 10% of deaths in children are due to ARI. Although influenza (Flu) virus may be implicated in these infections, little is known about the circulation of this virus in the country. Thus, Mozambique implemented the influenza surveillance based on sentinel sites, facing a great challenge due to several factors. One of them is the proper influenza case definition along with others challenges since its international standardization is difficult. In order to get insights to the epidemiology of flu we reviewed the first year of surveillance implementation monitoring data to improve procedures.

Objective

Analyse challenges of the first year of surveillance implementation in Mozambique, according to samples income, hospital staff performance and available tools.

Compare two influenza surveillance approaches

Syndromic surveillance system has been developed and implemented all over the world, and many studies showed that syndromic data sources had improved timeliness towards traditional surveillance method in the early warning of some infectious disease epidemics. However, owing to the uncertainties of disease epidemic features, clinical manifestations and population behaviors, the early warning timeliness of syndromic data sources might change across time and population, and few studies had explored their consistency in different epidemic periods of infectious diseases.

Objective

To study and compare the timeliness of syndromic surveillance system for the early warning of infectious diseases among different epidemic seasons.

An epidemic of ebolavirus in West Africa, which was first identified in March 2014, is now the largest Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak on record. On 8 August 2014, the WHO declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). As of 4 September 2014, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria have reported 3,707 cases (2,106 confirmed, 1,003 probable, and 598 suspected) of EVD with 1,848 deaths (50% case fatality) to the World Health Organization (WHO). Five U.S. citizens have contracted the viral disease – one LiberianAmerican and four medical-aid workers working in Ebola-afflicted countries.

Objective

To categorize and assess the international and domestic health impacts of the 2014 West African Ebola Virus Disease outbreak.

Unaccompanied alien children (UAC) are undocumented migrant children who come to the United States unaccompanied by a parent or guardian. The number apprehended UACs originating from the Central America counties of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras have increased since FY 2012. Since the beginning of fiscal year 2014, more than 57,000 UACs have been apprehended; double the number that was apprehended in FY 2013. The majority of UACs were apprehended and processed in the Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Sector of South Texas. The CBP facilities were not designed to house or care for children for extended periods. Resources and personnel were significantly strained in the management and care of UACs.

Objective

To categorize and assess the health impacts of the 2014 surge of unaccompanied alien children to the Lower Rio Grande Valley Border.