Rwanda government's leadership in embracing One health approach to mitigate and control infectious diseases can be a huge lesson to other developing countries to do the same with astounding results.
Surveillance Systems
Description
The Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH), in collaboration with Yale Emerging Infections Program (EIP), receives funding to particpate in the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) and Foodborne Disease Centers for Outbreak Response Enhancement (FoodCORE). FoodNet is an active population-based surveillance network that monitors trends for ten enteric diseases and conducts special studies to better understand the causes of foodborne illness. FoodCORE develops best practices related to the detection, investigation, and control or disease outbreaks, particularly those due to to Salmonella, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, and Listeria (SSL). Foodborne disease surveillance and response is a collaborative effort requiring real-time data sharing between key stakeholders including: DPH Epidemiology, DPH Laboratory, DPH Food Protection Program, Yale EIP, and local health department (LHD) staff.
Objective
To develop an integrated system for routine enteric disease surveillance, cluster detection and monitioring, information sharing among key stakeholders, and documentation.
During 2011, dengue fever emerged as a serious public health problem in Punjab, Pakistan. This crisis highlighted gaping holes in the health system. It was realized that the present system is unlikely to have the capacity in responding to an emergency of this magnitude. Since 1994, the cases of dengue fever are being frequently reported in different regions of Pakistan. However, this deadly attack of dengue virus exposed the government’s weaknesses in handling emergencies.
Dengue hemorraghic fever (DHF) is affecting more than 50 million people globally and still remains a persistent public health challenge in Saudi Arabia [1]. Althougth there has been available financial resource, limitations and deficiencies in integrated DHF control management strategy implementation and surveillance capacity have hindered the effective implementation of recommended WHO and Global One Health (OH) strategic guidelines and measures in DHF control and elimination in remotes urban and rural settings in Saudi Arabia[1, 2].
Cysticercosis is a frequent health problem in developing countries. The disease is due to infection by Taenia solium larvae and is predominant in areas where pigs and humans cohabite. Inappropriate breeding conditions and poor hygiene especially inadequate disposal or management of faeces are factors responsible of disease's transmission. In human, there are various clinical manifestations but the neurological involvement is particular severe as it frequently causes epilepsy which has an important socio economic impact among communities.
CEDESAP-REDesastres was developed as a result of the holistic approach needed to cope increases of sanitary disaster risks by emerging and reemerging diseases animal and plant diseases with high negative impact on human health, as well as other challenges as consequences of the human activity and climate change upon the pathogen-environment interactions.
Zoonotic diseases constitute about 70% of the emerging or reemerging diseases in the world; they affect many animals, cause many economic loses, and have a negative effect on public health. As a tropical country, Cuba is not exempt from the occurrence of this type of illness. There are many risk factors present such as climate change, natural disasters, bird migrations, vector species, the entry of Cuban travelers into endemic areas, the increase of commercial and touristic exchange, and the increase of agricultural activities including animals raised in urban areas.
Description
Existing EVD surveillance strategies in Sierra Leone use a centralized live alert system to refer suspect cases from the community to Ebola treatment centers. As EVD case burden declined in Port Loko District, so did the number of reported alerts. As EVD presents similarly to malaria, the number of alerts reported are expected to remain consistent with malaria prevalence in malaria-endemic areas, irrespective of a reduction in true EVD cases. Declines in reported suspect cases from the community alluded to the possibility that individuals were returning to healthcare centers to seek treatment for malaria, and that PHUs were not adequately reporting suspect EVD cases. District surveillance officers (DSOs) were used to investigate the usage of PHUs by community members, as well as the mechanisms that health center staff used in recording patient visits. Surveillance methods specific to PHUs were introduced to increase the number of reported EVD alerts, as well as establish the foundation for future integrated disease surveillance response strategies.
Objective
A community-based EVD surveillance system with improved symptom recording and follow-up of malaria positive patients at PHUs was implemented during low EVD transmission. The rationale and methodology in implementing a PHU-focused approach to strengthen surveillance system sensitivity is described.
Description
The advent of Meaningful Use (MU) has allowed for the expansion of data collected at the hospital level and received by public health for syndromic surveillance. The triage note, a free text expansion on the chief complaint, is one of the many variables that are becoming commonplace in syndromic surveillance data feeds. Triage notes are readily available in many ED information systems, including, but not limited to, Allscripts, Cerner, EPIC, HMS, MedHost, Meditech, and T-System. North Carolina’s syndromic surveillance system, NC DETECT, currently collects triage notes from 33 out of 122 hospitals in the State (27%), and this number is likely to increase.
Objective
This roundtable will provide a forum for the ISDS community to discuss the use of emergency department (ED) triage notes in syndromic surveillance. It will be an opportunity to discuss both the benefits of having this variable included in syndromic surveillance data feeds, as well as the drawbacks and challenges associated with working with such a detailed data field.
Description
Port Loko District has had over 1400 confirmed EVD cases during this outbreak. However, transmission declined rapidly in early 2015; by mid-April, a few weeks had passed with no known cases. Simultaneously, reporting of sick persons had plummeted across the district and the number of deaths reported in some areas was fewer than expected. These circumstances signaled the need for the EVD surveillance system to broaden its focus from using district surveillance officers (DSOs) to respond to reports of ill and deceased persons (hereafter, “sick and death alerts”) to a more proactive and comprehensive system that relied strongly on community engagement and surveillance through existing structures such as Peripheral Health Units (PHUs), schools and local authorities. While the involvement of local authorities and the community had been central to reporting suspected EVD cases earlier in the outbreak, the decrease in alerts suggested that engagement was diminishing. The reopening of schools and reemergence of the primary healthcare system provided opportunities to decentralize surveillance and strengthen the involvement of these structures. The primary objective was improving EVD surveillance, but the effort was also used to bolster routine surveillance, in preparation for implementating Integrated Disease Surveillance and Reporting.
Objective
Describe the evolution of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) surveillance from a largely reactive system structured primarily around responding to reports of illness and death, to one that was more methodical, proactive and comprehensive