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Urban Health

Description

Quantifying the spatial-temporal diffusion of diseases such as seasonal influenza is difficult at the urban scale for a variety of reasons including the low specificity of the extant data, the heterogenous nature of healthcare seeking behavior and the speed with which diseases spread throughout the city. Nevertheless, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s syndromic surveillance system attempts to detect spatial clusters resulting from outbreaks of influenza. The success of such systems is dependent on there being a discernible spatial-temporal pattern of disease at the neighborhood (sub-urban) scale.

We explore ways to extend global methods such as serfling regression that estimate excess burdens during outbreak periods to characterize these patterns. Traditionally, these methods are aggregated at the national or regional scale and are used only to estimate the total burden of a disease outbreak period. Our extension characterizes the spatial-temporal pattern at the neighborhood scale by day. We then compare our characterizations to prospective spatial cluster detection efforts of our syndromic surveillance system and to demographic covariates.

 

Objective

To develop a novel method to characterize the spatial-temporal pattern of seasonal influenza and then use this characterization to: (1) inform the spatial cluster detection efforts of syndromic surveillance, (2) explore the relationship of spatial-temporal patterns and covariates and (3) inform conclusions made about the burden of seasonal and pandemic influenza. 

Submitted by hparton on
Description

Emergency Departments (ED) supply critical infrastructure to provide medical care in the event of a disaster or disease outbreak, including seasonal and pandemic influenza [1]. Already over-crowded and stretched to near-capacity, influenza activity augments patient volumes and increases ED crowding [2,3]; high ED patient volumes expected during a true influenza pandemic represents a significant threat to the nation's healthcare infrastructure [4]. EDs ability to manage both seasonal and pandemic influenza surges is dependent on coupling early detection with graded rapid response. Although many EDs have devised influenza response measures, the potential utility of coupling early warning systems with various response strategies for managing influenza outbreaks in the ED setting has not been rigorously studied. While practical use of traditional surveillance systems has been limited due to the several week lag associated with reporting, new internet-based surveillance tools, such as GFT, report surveillance data in near-real time, thus allowing rapid integration into healthcare response planning [5].

Objective

Google Flu Trends (GFT) is a novel internet-based influenza surveillance system that uses search engine query data to estimate influenza activity. This study assesses the temporal correlation of city GFT data to both confirmed cases of influenza, as well as standard crowding indices from one inner-city emergency department (ED).

Submitted by elamb on
Description

Smart governance refers to the emergence of joint action by the health and non-health sectors, public and private actors and citizens. Although, there are growing literature on governance and its potential impact on health, major challenges on collective action across sectors have been witnessed in developing countries like India. In the same line, the current forms of Global Health Governance façades operational issues and does not sufficiently meet the needs at local levels. In light of these perceived shortcomings, the local governance becomes subject of interest and should be debated especially with reference to global urbanization. Rapid and unplanned urbanization followed by the combination of high population density, poverty and lack of infrastructure have more side effects and fostering conditions for communicable diseases to flourish. Evidence suggests that new megacities could be incubators for new epidemic and zoonotic diseases, which can spread more rapidly and become worldwide threats. In India, Ministry of Urban Development initiated the concept of converting few major cities into “Smart City” in 2015-16. However, one of the major critiques of available smart city guideline is that it has no such focus on prevention of emerging and/or re-emerging zoonotic diseases. The emergence and/or re-emergence of zoonotic diseases should be considered as potential threats for these upcoming Smart Cities and hence, should be addressed by one health approach (health and non-health sectors, public and private actors) through an appropriate local governance strategy. With rapid urbanization and healthcare transformation in India, the operationalization of one health approach might become a major challenge, because of, the absence of the systematic effect at the national level and urban cities are riven between central, state and municipal authorities in terms of health policy, planning, health needs etc. There is also lack of information sharing or collaborations between the health and non-health sectors, public and private actors at the city level. Understanding these challenges can offer important lessons for strengthening both local urban governance and One Health.

Objective:

The present study aims to operationalize one health approach through local urban governance system in a rapidly urbanized Indian city, Ahmedabad, India. In Ahmedabad (proposed Smart city), Gujarat, India: 1. To understand the pattern of zoonotic diseases in reference to urban governance system 2. To develop a conceptual One Health Governance framework with reference to zoonotic diseases 3. To assess the key indicators for convergence for inter-sectorial professional collaborations in One Health

Submitted by elamb on
Description

The usual mechanism of disease or infection transmission from vertebrate animals to humans and vice-versa is classified as zoonosis. Globally out of all microbial pathogenic disease, 61% are zoonotic with 13% species are regarded as emerging or reemerging. Studies suggest the prevalence of innumerable known and important Z/D/S such as leptospirosis, rabies, avian influenza but the extent of burden of zoonotic diseases amongst high-risk cohorts such as animal handlers within urban geography not adequately documented.

Objective:

The present study aims to document the burden of self-reported selected zoonotic diseases (Z/D/S) among animal handlers in urban areas of Ahmedabad

Submitted by elamb on