Infectious Disease

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.

Most public health surveillance systems in the United States do not capture individual-level measures of socioeconomic position. Without this information, socioeconomic disparities in health outcomes can be hidden. However, US Census data can be used to describe neighborhood-level socioeconomic conditions like poverty and crowding. Place matters. Neighborhood affects health independently of personal characteristics. Thus, important trends may be elucidated by linking geocoded public health surveillance data to area-based measures of socioeconomic position, such as the percentage of residents with incomes below the federal poverty level.

Objective

The panel will describe applying the methods of Harvard’s Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project to a diverse collection of infectious disease surveillance data from 14 US states and New York City. This session will demonstrate the feasibility and utility of using US Census data to reveal sub-populations vulnerable to infectious diseases.

In human and animal health, conventional approaches to preventing and controlling GI have not reduced the overall disease burden. In order to understand and mitigate shared GI aetiologies between humans and animals it is necessary to develop One Health Surveillance approaches that integrate data-sources contributed to by human and veterinary healthcare. Such approach is described here.

Objective

To describe how a real-time surveillance system for early detection of gastrointestinal disease (GI) outbreaks in small animal and human health is being developed by collecting electronic health records (EHRs) from veterinary practitioners and a telephone-based 24-hour medical triage service in the UK.

The success of public health campaigns in decreasing or eliminating the burden of vaccine-preventable diseases can be undermined by media content influencing vaccine hesitancy in the population. A tool for tracking and describing the ever-growing platforms for such media content can help decide how and where to invest in campaigns to increase public confidence in vaccines. The Vaccine Sentimeter, developed from the Healthmap project, aims to assist public health practitioners in maintaining or improving vaccine coverage through a real-time, online visualization tool of global media content on vaccines.

Objective The current analysis describes the scope and trends in United States content from the Vaccine Sentimeter’s results, while seeking to examine any possible links between media content, vaccine coverage, and reported vaccine adverse events in the country.

The vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs) of measles and diphtheria in India were responsible for 47% of global measles mortality and 20% of global diphtheria mortality in 2010. We evaluated the VPD surveillance system of Delhi, focusing on measles and diphtheria.

Objective

The specific objective was to evaluate the VPD surveillance system of Delhi, focusing on measles and diphtheria.

Histoplasmosis is an infectious disease caused by a fungus called Histoplasma capsulatum. Fungal spores are found in the soil, mostly associated with bird and bat droppings, and if inhaled can cause lung infection. Histoplasmosis is a reportable disease in Michigan and a case definition was implemented in 2007. Cases are reported into the Michigan Disease Surveillance System (MDSS), a web-based electronic database, and investigated by local health departments (LHD). An evaluation of the histoplasmosis surveillance system was conducted.

In Africa, approximately 13 million cases of measles and 650,000 deaths occur annually, with sub-Saharan Africa having the highest morbidity and mortality (1). Measles infection is endemic in Nigeria and has been documented to occur all year round despite high measles routine and supplemental immunisation coverage (2,3). The frequent outbreaks of Measles in Kaduna State prompted the need for the reevaluation of the Measles case-based surveillance system.

Objective

To evaluate the case-based Measles surveillance system in Kaduna State of Nigeria and identify gaps in its operations.

Evaluation of a public health surveillance system is one of the major outputs of the field attachment of the Nigeria Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme.To conduct this activity, the HIV/AIDS surveillance system in Enugu State, Nigeria was evaluated. The evaluation was conducted from February to March 2014.The objectives of the evaluation were to describe the attributes and process of operation of HIV/AIDS surveillance system in Enugu State, determine if the set objectives for establishing HIV/ AIDS surveillance are being met or not, determine the efficiency and effectiveness of the HIV/AIDS surveillance system and to make appropriate recommendations for improving the surveillance system.

Objective

• To determine the public health importance and relevance of the surveillance system.
• To describe the process of operation and purpose of the system and assess its key attributes.
• To determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the surveillance system.
• To make appropriate recommendations to stakeholders for its improvement.

Hepatitis C is a nationally notifiable viral infection that occurs as a result of parenteral contact with infected body fluids. An estimated 3.5 million persons are currently infected with HCV.1 Infection status is divided into acute (short-term, onset within 6 month of exposure) and chronic (long-term). For most people (75-85%), acute HCV infection leads to chronic infection.2 Those with chronic infection remain relatively asymptomatic until the infection becomes severe enough to be recognized or the infected individual is screened for infection with hepatitis C. Major causes of morbidity and mortality associated with HCV are liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Treatment is available, but it is expensive and not recommended for some vulnerable populations, such as those with ongoing injection drug use (IDU), who account for the majority of new HCV infections in the United States.3-5 Washington State records cases of both acute and chronic HCV infection, but the system is fragmented.

Objective

To evaluate the surveillance system for hepatitis C virus in Washington State using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for evaluating public health surveillance systems. Based on the findings of the evaluation, recommendations will be made for changes in practice.