The World Health Organization (WHO) puts a great emphasis on the study of diseases related to using or consuming poor-quality water and the absence of proper hygiene. Unfortunately, consumption of poor-quality water causes certain diseases in Ukraine.
The World Health Organization (WHO) puts a great emphasis on the study of diseases related to using or consuming poor-quality water and the absence of proper hygiene. Unfortunately, consumption of poor-quality water causes certain diseases in Ukraine.
Increasing immigration to Canada coupled with the increasing number of Canadians travelling domestically and abroad is expected to significantly impact the burden of illness due to enteropathogens, including Giardia, in Canada . When estimating this burden of illness, international travel cases are considered to be distinct from domestically acquired cases due to differences in control measures in other countries. However, there is no distinction made between domestic travel-related cases and endemic cases. As such, there has been no published literature where domestic travel-related cases (DTRCs) have been analyzed separately from endemic cases (ECs). This represents a considerable knowledge gap, as risk factors for contracting giardiasis via domestic travel may be different from those associated with endemic giardiasis or international travel. In our study, we subsequently demonstrated that grouping DTRCs and ECs together for analysis is likely not appropriate due to differences in exposures to risk factors for giardiasis among these groups.
Objective
The objective of our study was to determine how demographic and exposure factors related to giardiasis vary between travel (both international and domestic) and endemic cases, for residents of the Region of Waterloo, Ontario.
The recent Ebola outbreak has been described as unprecedented and its public health impact in terms of morbidity, mortality and coverage has been far greater than previously experienced. This outbreak has revealed many weaknesses and inadequacies for disease surveillance and response systems in Africa due to underqualified staff, cultural beliefs and sometimes, lack of trust for formal health care sector performance. Since 2014, Ghana had high risk of seeing EVD cases.
Objective
The objective of this study was to assess the EVD surveillance and response preparedness among frontline health workers in northern Ghana.
West Africa recently experienced the most persistent epidemic of EVD recorded in history. The reported morbidity and mortality of the highly virulent, emerging zoonotic filovirus infection is far larger than all previous epidemics combined. Its spread to Nigeria (Africa’s most populous country) and to densely populated Lagos (a city in Nigeria with approximate combined population of Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia) raised significant public health concern. The Federal Ministry of Health was notified of a suspected case of viral haemorrhagic fever on the 22nd July, 2014. A 40-year old male Liberian presented in a private health facility on account of fever, vomiting and diarrhea. On the 23rd July, the index case was confirmed to have EVD and on 25th July, he died.
Objective
To describe the socio-demographic characteristics of Ebola virus disease (EVD) patients and their contacts, magnitude of the outbreak and factors associated with outcome in patients.
Clostridium difficile (CD), a gram-negative, anaerobic, sporeforming bacterium causes symptoms ranging from mild to severe diarrhea and may result in death. Approximately 75% of CDI cases have symptom onset outside of health care settings. Annual US costs of treatment and infection containment have surpassed $4.8 billion. Risk factors for CDI include recent broad-spectrum antibiotic exposure, advanced age, severe underlying morbidities, immunocompromised status, long-term hospital stays, and residence in long-term-care facilities. Nationally, CO-CA cases have increased from 2.8/100,000 person in 1993 to 14.9/100,000 person in 2005.
Objective
Identify population-based Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) incidence stratified by Health Care Facility Onset (HCFO), Community Onset-Healthcare Facility Associated (CO-HCFA), and Community Onset-Community Associated (CO-CA) CDI in Denver County from 2011 - 2013 and describe demographic, health care facility exposure, and medication use risk factors.
Clinical quality measures (CQMs) are tools that help measure and track the quality of health care services. Measuring and reporting CQMs helps to ensure that our health care system is delivering effective, safe, efficient, patient-centered, equitable, and timely care. The CQM for influenza immunization measures the percentage of patients aged 6 months and older seen for a visit between October 1 and March 31 who received (or reports previous receipt of) an influenza immunization. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone 6 months of age and older receive an influenza immunization every season, which can reduce influenzarelated morbidity and mortality and hospitalizations.
Objective
To explain the utility of using an automated syndromic surveillance program with advanced natural language processing (NLP) to improve clinical quality measures reporting for influenza immunization.
Recreational drug use is a major problem in the United States and around the world. Specifically, drug abuse results in heavy use of emergency department (ED) services, and is a high financial burden to society and to the hospitals due to chronic ill health and multiple injection drug use complications. Intravenous drug users are at high risk of developing sepsis and endocarditis due to the use of a dirty or infected needle that is either shared with someone else or re-used. It can also occur when a drug user repeatedly injects into an inflamed and infected site or due to the poor overall health of an injection drug user. The average cost of hospitalization for aortic valve replacement in USA is about $165,000, and in order for the valve replacement to be successful, patients must abstain from using drugs.
Objective
To describe how the state syndromic surveillance system (NC DETECT) was used to initiate near real time surveillance for endocarditis, sepsis and skin infection among drug users.
Zanzibar is comprised primarily of two large islands with a population of 1.3 million. Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) campaigns, distribution of long-lasting insecticide treated bed nets (LLINs), and use of Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) have reduced Malaria prevalence from 39% in 2005 to less than 1% in 2011-2012. As malaria burden decreases, there is an increasing need to track and follow up individual cases to contain transmission that could lead to resurgence. One method being used to achieve these aims is reactive case detection (RACD). RACD is generally understood to be triggered whenever a case is identified by passive case detection. The response involves visiting the household of the newly reported case and screening family members. Depending on program protocol, it may also involve screening neighbors within a defined radius. RACD has been used or tested in Cambodia, China, India, Peru, Senegal, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Zambia. RACD can be resource intensive. Several studies raise questions concerning whether and how RACD can be prioritized and targeted effectively as case numbers continue to decline.
Objective
This presentation will share findings from more than three years of using mobile technology for reactive case detection (RACD) to help eliminate malaria in a well-defined geographic area. It will review the concepts of RACD, the application of mobile technology, lessons learned from more than three years of application, and considerations in applying this technology in other malaria elimination contexts.
Traditional influenza surveillance relies on reports of influenzalike illness (ILI) by healthcare providers, capturing individuals who seek medical care and missing those who may search, post, and tweet about their illnesses instead. Existing research has shown some promise of using data from Google, Twitter, and Wikipedia for influenza surveillance, but with conflicting findings, studies have only evaluated these web-based sources individually or dually without comparing all three of them1-5. A comparative analysis of all three web-based sources is needed to know which of the web-based sources performs best in order to be considered to complement traditional methods.
Objective
To comparatively analyze Google, Twitter, and Wikipedia by evaluating how well change points detected in each web-based source correspond to change points detected in CDC ILI data.