Infectious Disease

While the link between excess winter mortality and winter respiratory diseases in the elderly is well described, the impact of the epidemic of influenza in the elderly is mainly assessed in France through specific surveillance in the general population. Syndromic surveillance data enables to monitor ED attendances and hospitalizations for various diagnostic codes groupings throughout the influenza epidemic, some of which often cited as influenza proxies, such as cardiorespiratory diagnostic groups.

In mainland France, the 2014-15 season was characterized by an intense influenza epidemic in the community (sub-type A(H3N2) dominant virus). Hospital overcrowding was early reported, partly linked to serious clinical presentations among the elderly, and leading to the triggering of a national emergency plan.

We hypothesized that ED numbers of clinical influenza cases underestimate the influenza burden among patients aged 65 years and over, especially when a A(H3N2) influenza subtype circulates.

Objective

To estimate the real burden of influenza epidemic on emergency departments (ED) attendances and hospitalizations among patients over 65 years in order to better understand determinants of overcrowding and mortality excess.

Approximately 2.7 million Americans live with chronic HCV, with roughly 30,000 new cases in 2013. Fortunately, recent clinical trials have shown great advances using interferon-free, oral direct-acting antivirals, with cure rates over 95% . But only a few people have been treated, and most are unaware of the infection. This presents an opportunity for public health to address unmet needs, but most jurisdictions have limited surveillance and prevention efforts. Leveraging HCV surveillance, this analysis presents a cost-effective method to improve situational awareness and guide prevention efforts in Houston.

Objective

To describe the use of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) viral load (VL) results and geospatial analysis to guide prevention efforts.

DENV, CHIKV and ZIKV are all transmitted by mosquitoes and have occurred in outbreaks in the Caribbean. Common symptoms (which can be severe and disabling) are similar among the 3 viruses and include fever, joint pain/swelling, headache, muscle pain and rash. In December 2015, the first endemic case of ZIKV infection was reported by VACHS. Since that time, an increasing number of ZIKV infections have been reported in Puerto Rico. Due to the growing ZIKV outbreak, we performed ongoing testing and surveillance.

Objective

We describe surveillance for Dengue virus (DENV), Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) and Zika virus (ZIKV) in VA Caribbean Healthcare System (VACHS) from the start of ZIKV transmission in Puerto Rico.

As the lead for coordinating domestic incident management across all Federal departments and agencies, Department of Homeland Security is responsible for identifying emergency response resources. The 2014 Ebola – Zaire outbreak in West Africa that became a Public Health Emergency of International Concern highlighted the need to understand the current and potential availability of diagnostic assays for a number of viral hemorrhagic fevers that may require similar response actions. A concatenated list of publically reported potential viral hemorrhagic fever diagnostic assays was therefore compiled. Etiologic agents in the families of Arena-, Bunya-, Filo-, and Flaviviridae were included in the analysis. This list identifies assays in various stages of development that could be submitted, at some point, to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) should such a need arise.

Objective

Provide a succinct review of potential developmental and commercial viral hemorrhagic fever diagnostic assays published in peer-reviewed literature and open-source platforms.

Anthrax is an acute especially dangerous infectious disease of animals and humans. Bacillus anthracis is a potential bioterrorism tool. In Ukraine, there are favorable natural conditions for the spread of anthrax. There are 13.5 thousand of constantly anthrax-troubled points. Anthrax epidemic situation in Ukraine could be characterized as unstable. Because of the continuing reform of Ukrainian human health entities, the State Sanitary Epidemiological Service (SSES) has lost its control functions and is remaining in an uncertain state, which increases possible risks.

Since Cryptosporidium can be transmitted by ingestion of infected food animals and poorly treated water and by direct contact it is possible for infection to occur through ingestion of under cooked frogs and through handling and processing of infected frogs. In Burkina Faso frogs caught are sold to market-women who treat the frogs by emptying their bowels and frying in oil before selling them, this is not always the case for the Nigerian frog markets where frogs are sometimes smoked or dried without necessarily been fried, before consumption . This may pose a health risk for transmission of cryptosporidiosis from infected frogs.

Objective

To evaluate the occurrence of Cryptosporidium species in edible frogs (Ranaspp) sold at the Hanwa frog market Zaria, Kaduna State,Nigeria

Dengue fever is a dynamic infectious disease, allowing the patient to rapidly move from one stage to another during its course. Proper management of patients depends on early recognition of warning signs, continuous monitoring and re-staging cases and prompt fluid replacement. The telemedicine and Electronic Patient Records (EPR) belong to a series of advances of new features such as decision-making support systems including efforts on health monitoring, in view of the EPR as a support tool to allow the association of welfare activities as a database for the management of epidemiological information and monitoring. In addition, telemonitoring systems can be used for the monitoring of patients with chronic diseases in their homes which leads to cost savings in hospitalization and ensures appropriate care and the proper development of these patients. The continuous remote monitoring of these patients decreases the amount of hospital visits for monitoring procedures, also facilitating successful treatment, as in the fever dengue cases.

Objective

Report successful experience in fighting dengue fever in the Hospital and Emergency Services in São Bernardo do Campo, joining the flowchart included, telephone monitoring and Electronic Patient Records.

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.