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Infectious Disease

Deterioration of socio-economic conditions in Ukraine created a threat of the spread of communicable diseases, including vaccine preventable diseases. Children in Ukraine routinely receive two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine according to the national immunization schedule. Measles is targeted for elimination in Ukraine. But now Ukraine crisis carries significant public health risk and requires changing tactics of surveillance and epidemiological control against measles.

Objective

To estimate the current measles situation in the Kharkiv oblast (eastern region of Ukraine) and to develop ways of improving the surveillance and control of measles in elimination phase during the crisis in Ukraine.

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on

Since its inception in 2008, PHO has grown through new funding to establish the agency, as well as a series of program transfers from the Government of Ontario, including ID surveillance. PHO’s current role in ID surveillance in Ontario is to support the public health and health care systems with surveillance information, tools, and resources for the prevention and control of IDs. PHO also provides scientific and technical expertise for IDs, including different aspects of surveillance (e.g., data entry requirements, statistical algorithms, provincial surveillance reports).

The overarching aim of the framework is to establish PHO’s key priorities, strategies, and actions to guide ID surveillance over the next five years and will help advance ID surveillance across Ontario. This is PHO’s first step towards a strategic and coordinated approach to ID surveillance.

Objective

This presentation will outline the development process for Public Health Ontario’s (PHO’s) first Infectious Disease Surveillance Framework (the framework), highlight key elements of the framework, and identify examples of infectious disease (ID) surveillance activities and projects that align with the framework.

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on

WHO designated yellow fever as an endemic disease in Ethiopia in the early 1950s. Yellow fever, a zoonotic hemorrhagic fever disease (sylvatic and urban types), are endemic in Ethiopia due to its geographical location and climatic conditions favoring Aedes sp. mosquito. The mosquito vector were found to exist throughout the country up to 2,000 m in altitude. We conducted an outbreak investigation in Jink, a town surrounded by forest inhabited by many primates (monkeys).

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Kyasannur Forest Disease (KFD) is a tick borne viral disease first reported in Shimoga district of Karnataka, India. On January 6th 2015, the disease has spread to neighbouring state, Kerala and a forest guard from Sulthan Bathery, Wayanad who had disposed the monkey carcass was succumbed to the disease following confirmation of the disease from Manipal institute of virology. Spot surveillance of the area by Health department revealed 15 more fever cases among women working as fire line workers. Out of these twelve cases were confirmed to be KFD.

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The emergence of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus (MERS-CoV) in 2012 had placed a great concern on the public health institutions globally and in particular in the Arab region. The gaps in knowledge related to the novel virus put the healthcare systems in Qatar and the entire region in critical position amid growing concerns that this virus might take a deadly pattern. As the second reported case in Qatar had a documented relationship with animals, veterinary and environmental health sectors were invited to join the national outbreak control taskforce.

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The multiple forms of Human African Trypanosomiasis (human T.b. gambiense and zoonotic T.b. rhodesiense, as well as the several strains which cause disease in animals) that occur in Uganda make coordinating the scientific and developmental, human and animal, social and economic systems influencing their control particularly complex. Uganda is one of the only countries in Africa that has experienced largescale, debilitating outbreaks of HAT, and co-ordinated major control programmes.

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In 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia estimated that approximately 1 million people in the United States were living with HIV/AIDS, and that approximately 25% of these were undiagnosed and unaware of their HIV infection. For many such patients the ED may be the only part of the health care system that is utilized. In 2006, the CDC revised their recommendations for HIV testing in a variety of care settings including the ED. In spite of this change, most EDs throughout the United States still do not offer routine HIV testing. Implementing successful ED based testing models may lead to greater acceptance of ED based testing, earlier detection, and further reduction in the transmission of HIV in the United States.

Objective

To design and implement an ED based rapid HIV screening program targeting high risk patients presenting with signs, symptoms, or concerns for sexually transmitted diseases; to determine the prevalence rate of HIV infection in the tested population; to determine the proportion of HIV-positive patients with successful linkage to outpatient care after ED discharge.

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on

Accurate and timely reporting of animal rabies test results and potential human exposures is necessary to guide case management and define rabies epidemiology. Accordingly, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (NDHHS) collaborated with Kansas State University Rabies Laboratory (KSU-RL) in 2011 to establish electronic laboratory reporting (ELR) of animal rabies test results to Nebraska's Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS). If a potential human rabies exposure is verified, NDHHS authorizes state-paid rabies testing through a contractual agreement with KSU-RL.

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In 2014, a dengue outbreak affected northern Mexico and travel-associated dengue cases increased in southern Arizona. While Arizona has not detected a local dengue case, local transmission occurred in Nogales, Sonora, sister city of Nogales, Arizona across the border. The detection of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, a dengue and chikungunya vector, and the frequent human movement across the border with Sonora heightens Arizona’s risk for introducing emerging mosquito-borne diseases. Limited data exists on the extent or seasonality of Aedes mosquitoes in Arizona border counties.

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The past decade has seen the rise of many new diseases, and the re-emergence of others which were thought to have been brought under control. This is the combined result of the expansion of global trade and travel, the increases in populations of both humans and animals, and environmental changes. As a result, there should be an effective collaboration among different institutions in each country, and close international cooperation with different stakeholders. The MBDS (Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance) cooperation is a self-organized sub-regional network commenced in 2001.

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