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Public/Population Health

Description

Stillbirth remained a neglected issue absent from mention in Millennium Development Goals. An estimated 2.6 million babies are stillborn every year with highest rate in Pakistan, 43.1 stillbirths/1000 births. There is lack of good quality prospective population based data in Pakistan regarding burden, timing and causes of stillbirths.

Objective

To determine burden, timing and causes of stillbirths in a prospective cohort of pregnant from a low income community setting in peri urban Karachi

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on
Description

In the Kingdom of Swaziland, a baseline assessment found that multiple functional units within the Ministry of Health (MoH) perform PHS activities. There is limited data sharing and coordination between units; roles and responsibilities are unclear. The Epidemiology and Disease Control Unit (EDCU) is mandated to coordinate efforts and strengthen PHS through implementing Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) to fulfill requirements of International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR[2005]), and the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA).

Objective

To enable coordination of Swaziland Ministry of Health units for public health surveillance (PHS).

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on
Description

ARIs have epidemic and pandemic potential. Prediction of presence of ARIs from individual signs and symptoms in existing studies have been based on clinically-sourced data. Clinical data generally represents the most severe cases, and those from locations with access to healthcare institutions. Thus, the viral information that comes from clinical sampling is insufficient to either capture disease incidence in general populations or its predictability from symptoms. Participatory data — information that individuals today can produce on their own — enabled by the ubiquity of digital tools, can help fill this gap by providing self-reported data from the community. Internet-based participatory efforts such as Flu Near You have augmented existing ARI surveillance through early and widespread detection of outbreaks and public health trends.

Objective

To evaluate prediction of laboratory diagnosis of acute respiratory infection (ARI) from participatory data using machine learning models

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on
Description

Poliomyelitis a disease targeted for eradication since 1988 still pose public health challenge. The Eastern Mediterranean and African Regions out of the six World Health Organization (WHO) Regions are yet to be certified polio free. The certification of the WHO Africa region is largely dependent on Nigeria, while the WHO Eastern Mediterranean is dependent on Pakistan and Afghanistan. Surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) is one of the critical elements of the polio eradication initiative. It provides the needed information to alert health managers and clinician to timely initiate actions to interrupt transmission of the polio disease and evidence for the absence of the wild polio virus. One of the core assignments of the certification committee in all regions is to review documentation to verify the absence of wild poliovirus. Good and complete documentation is the proxy indication of the quality of the system while poor documentation translates to possibilities of missing wild poliovirus in the past. We evaluated the performance of the AFP surveillance system in Bauchi, which is among the 11 high risks states for wild polio virus in Nigeria to identify and address gaps in the surveillance system.

Objective

To identify and address gaps in acute flaccid surveillance for polio eradication in Buchi state

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on
Description

Despite the significance of disease reporting to any health system, Grenada like most countries struggle with underreporting of notifiable diseases by physicians. In order to improve the national disease surveillance system in Grenada, it is critical understand the reasons for any underreporting. The study was conducted to determine physicians’ knowledge of notifiable reporting and to identify the barriers to reporting.

Objective

The study was carried out to determine physicians’ knowledge of notifiable reporting and to identify the barriers to reporting in Grenada

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on
Description

Most countries do not report national notifiable disease data in a machine-readable format. Data are often in the form of a file that contains text, tables and graphs summarizing weekly or monthly disease counts. This presents a problem when information is needed for more data intensive approaches to epidemiology, biosurveillance and public health as exemplified by the Biosurveillance Ecosystem (BSVE). While most nations do likely store their data in a machine-readable format, the governments are often hesitant to share data openly for a variety of reasons that include technical, political, economic, and motivational issues. For example, an attempt by LANL to obtain a weekly version of openly available monthly data, reported by the Australian government, resulted in an onerous bureaucratic reply. The obstacles to obtaining data included: paperwork to request data from each of the Australian states and territories, a long delay to obtain data (up to 3 months) and extensive limitations on the data’s use that prohibit collaboration and sharing. This type of experience when attempting to contact public health departments or ministries of health for data is not uncommon. A survey conducted by LANL of notifiable disease data reporting in 52 countries identified only 10 as being machine-readable and 42 being reported in pdf files on a regular basis. Within the 42 nations that report in pdf files, 32 report in a structured, tabular format and 10 in a non-structured way. As a result, LANL has developed a tool-Epi Archive (formerly known as EPIC)-to automatically and continuously collect global notifiable disease data and make it readily accesible.

Objective

LANL has built a software program that automatically collects global notifiable disease data—particularly data stored in files—and makes it available and shareable within the Biosurveillance Ecosystem (BSVE) as a new data source. This will improve the prediction and early warning of disease events and other applications.

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on
Description

The NBS is an integrated disease surveillance system deployed in 22 public health jurisdictions to support receipt, investigation, analysis and reporting, and data exchange for state reportable conditions. The NBS is governed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state, local, and territorial users that make up the NBS Community. In the early 2000’s, electronic laboratory results reporting (ELR) was implemented in an effort to improve timeliness and completeness of disease reporting. As standards-based electronic health records (EHRs) are adopted and more surveillance data become available, modern surveillance systems must consume information in an automated way and provide more functionality to automate key surveillance processes. 

Objective

The NEDSS Base System (NBS), an integrated disease surveillance system, implemented extensible functionality to support electronic data exchange for multiple use cases and public health workflow management of incoming messages and documents. 

Submitted by Magou on
Description

The NEDSS Base System (NBS) is a web-based, standards- driven, integrated disease surveillance system launched in 2001 and is currently in use in twenty-two public health jurisdictions. Over the past fifteen years, the NBS has grown into a highly functional, modern application that supports: case management, electronic data exchange, metadata-driven data collection, workflow decision support, and a host of other functionalities, all of which are defined and designed through a community-based approach. 

Objective

The NEDSS Base System (NBS) is designed and developed using input from CDC programs, public health standards organizations, as well as its expansive user community. This community-based approach to development of an integrated surveillance system is described.

 

Submitted by Magou on
Description

Transparency of information on infectious disease epidemics is crucial for not only public health workers but also the residents in the communities. Traditionally, disease control departments created official websites for displaying disease maps or epi-curves with the confirmed case counts. The websites were usually very formal and static, without interaction, animation, or even the aid of spatial statistics. Therefore, we tried to take advantage of open data and use a lightweight programming language, JavaScript, to create an interactive website, named “Taiwan Infectious Disease Map (http://ide.geohealth.tw/)“. With the website, we expect to provide real-time incidence information and related epidemiological features using interactive maps and charts. 

Objective

To visualize the incidence of notifiable infectious diseases spatially and interactively, we aimed to provide a friendly interface to access local epidemic information based on open data for health professionals and the public. 

Submitted by Magou on
Description

Syndromic surveillance is an alternative type of public health surveillance which utilizes pre-diagnostic data sources to detect outbreaks earlier than conventional (laboratory) surveillance and monitor the progression of illnesses in populations. These systems are often noted for their ability to detect a wider range of cases in under- reported illnesses, utilize existing data sources, and alert public health authorities of emerging crises. In addition, they are highly versatile and can be applied to a wide range of illnesses (communicable and non-communicable) and environmental conditions. As a result, their implementation in public health practice is expanding rapidly. This scoping review aimed to identify all existing literature detailing the necessary components in the defining, creating, implementing, and evaluating stages of human infectious disease syndromic surveillance systems. 

Submitted by Magou on