I-LAB: Connecting clinical laboratories to infectious diseases surveillance systems

Enormous successes have been obtained against the control of major epidemic diseases, such as SARS, MERS, Ebola, Swine Flu in the past. Dynamic interplay of biological, socio-cultural and ecological factors, together with novel aspects of human-animal interphase, pose additional challenges with respect to the emergence of infectious diseases. The important challenges faced in the control and prevention of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases range from understanding the impact of factors that are necessary for the emergence, to development of strengthened surveillance systems that can mitigate human suffering and death. The aim of the current study is to assess the awareness of symptomatic differences between viral diseases like COVID-19, SARS, Swine flu and common cold among dental students that support the prevention of emergence or re-emergence. Cross-sectional type of study conducted among the undergraduate students comprising 100 Subjects. A questionnaire comprising 15 questions in total were framed, and responses were collected in Google forms in SPSS Software statistical analysis. The study has concluded that dental students have an awareness of the symptomatic differences between infectious viral disease. The study concluded that the awareness of symptomatic differences between viral diseases like COVID-19, SARS, Swine flu, Common cold is good among the dental students who would pave the way for early diagnosis and avoid spreading of such diseases. A further awareness can be created by regular webinars, seminars and brainstorming sessions among these healthcare professionals.

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Evaluation of reporting timeliness of public health surveillance systems for infectious diseases

BMC Public Health ◽

10.1186/1471-2458-4-29 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 112

Author(s):

Ruth Ann Jajosky ◽

Samuel L Groseclose

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Infectious Diseases ◽

Public Health Surveillance ◽

Health Surveillance ◽

Surveillance Systems

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Evaluation the Performance of Exponentially Weighted Moving Average in the Detection of Cholera Outbreaks: Using the Reported Cholera Outbreaks in Literature

Journal of Biostatistics and Epidemiology ◽

10.18502/jbe.v5i3.3617 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Yousef Alimohamadi ◽

Firooz Esmaeilzadeh ◽

Parisa Jalali ◽

Mohsen Mohammadi ◽

Mojtaba Sepandi

Keyword(s):

Infectious Diseases ◽

Moving Average ◽

The Other ◽

Outbreak Detection ◽

Surveillance Systems ◽

Exponentially Weighted Moving Average ◽

Weighted Moving Average ◽

Exponentially Weighted

Introduction: Timely Detection of outbreaks of infectious diseases can have a very important role in surveillance systems. the presence of appropriate methods can have a very important role for this purpose, the aim of the current study was to Evaluation The Performance of Exponentially Weighted Moving Average in the detection of cholera outbreaks using the reported cholera outbreaks in literature Methods: In the current study the EWMA method was evaluated. To assess the performance of the mentioned methods the six real outbreaks algorithm reported in the literature were used. These reported outbreaks were the daily counts of cholera cases in different countries. After insertion of each outbreak, 7 days inserted as nonoutbreaks days. All analyses performed by MedCalc18.11, Stata version15 and excel 2010. Results: the sensitivity of EWMA was 56.4% (95% CI: 54.3%- 58.5%). The highest sensitivity for outbreak detection was seen in EWMA1 79.18(73.56-84.09) and the lowest was seen in EWMA4 12.2(8.4-17.0). EWMA2 with λ= 0.2 had the best performance with sensitivity 69.8 (63.6-75.5) and specificity 91.4(76.9-98.2) and AUC= 0.80. nd AUC= 0.80. Conclusion: The EWMA method can be very useful in the detection of outbreaks, but the use of this method along the other models may increase the sensitivity of outbreaks detection.

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Validation of Laboratory-Developed Molecular Assays for Infectious Diseases

Clinical Microbiology Reviews ◽

10.1128/cmr.00074-09 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 23 (3) ◽

pp. 550-576 ◽

Cited By ~ 249

Author(s):

Eileen M. Burd

Keyword(s):

Infectious Diseases ◽

Clinical Laboratory ◽

Reference Interval ◽

Attractive Alternative ◽

Analytical Sensitivity ◽

Additional Specimen ◽

Molecular Assays ◽

Clinical Laboratories ◽

Regulatory Standards ◽

Sensitivity Specificity

SUMMARY Molecular technology has changed the way that clinical laboratories diagnose and manage many infectious diseases. Excellent sensitivity, specificity, and speed have made molecular assays an attractive alternative to culture or enzyme immunoassay methods. Many molecular assays are commercially available and FDA approved. Others, especially those that test for less common analytes, are often laboratory developed. Laboratories also often modify FDA-approved assays to include different extraction systems or additional specimen types. The Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) federal regulatory standards require clinical laboratories to establish and document their own performance specifications for laboratory-developed tests to ensure accurate and precise results prior to implementation of the test. The performance characteristics that must be established include accuracy, precision, reportable range, reference interval, analytical sensitivity, and analytical specificity. Clinical laboratories are challenged to understand the requirements and determine the types of experiments and analyses necessary to meet the requirements. A variety of protocols and guidelines are available in various texts and documents. Many of the guidelines are general and more appropriate for assays in chemistry sections of the laboratory but are applied in principle to molecular assays. This review presents information that laboratories may consider in their efforts to meet regulatory requirements.

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The winding road to health: A systematic scoping review on the effect of geographical accessibility to health care on infectious diseases in low- and middle-income countries

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0244921 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

pp. e0244921

Author(s):

Fleur Hierink ◽

Emelda A. Okiro ◽

Antoine Flahault ◽

Nicolas Ray

Keyword(s):

Infectious Disease ◽

Health Care ◽

Infectious Diseases ◽

Disease Burden ◽

Disease Risk ◽

Surveillance Systems ◽

Middle Income ◽

Middle Income Countries ◽

Geographical Accessibility ◽

Physical Accessibility

Background Geographical accessibility to healthcare is an important component of infectious disease dynamics. Timely access to health facilities can prevent disease progression and enables disease notification through surveillance systems. The importance of accounting for physical accessibility in response to infectious diseases is increasingly recognized. Yet, there is no comprehensive review of the literature available on infectious diseases in relation to geographical accessibility to care. Therefore, we aimed at evaluating the current state of knowledge on the effect of geographical accessibility to health care on infectious diseases in low- and middle-income countries. Methods and findings A search strategy was developed and conducted on Web of Science and PubMed on 4 March 2019. New publications were checked until May 28, 2020. All publication dates were eligible. Data was charted into a tabular format and descriptive data analyses were carried out to identify geographical regions, infectious diseases, and measures of physical accessibility among other factors. Search queries in PubMed and Web of Science yielded 560 unique publications. After title and abstract screening 99 articles were read in full detail, from which 64 articles were selected, including 10 manually. Results of the included publications could be broadly categorized into three groups: (1) decreased spatial accessibility to health care was associated with a higher infectious disease burden, (2) decreased accessibility was associated to lower disease reporting, minimizing true understanding of disease distribution, and (3) the occurrence of an infectious disease outbreak negatively impacted health care accessibility in affected regions. In the majority of studies, poor geographical accessibility to health care was associated with higher disease incidence, more severe health outcomes, higher mortality, and lower disease reporting. No difference was seen between countries or infectious diseases. Conclusions Currently, policy-makers and scientists rely on data collected through passive surveillance systems, introducing uncertainty on disease estimates for remote communities. Our results highlight the need for increasing integration of geographical accessibility measures in disease risk modelling, allowing more realistic disease estimates and enhancing our understanding of true disease burden. Additionally, disease risk estimates could be used in turn to optimize the allocation of health services in the prevention and detection of infectious diseases.

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Evaluation and optimization of surveillance systems for rare and emerging infectious diseases

Veterinary Research ◽

10.1051/vetres:2008033 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 39 (6) ◽

pp. 57 ◽

Cited By ~ 70

Author(s):

Daniela C. Hadorn ◽

Katharina D.C. Stärk

Keyword(s):

Infectious Diseases ◽

Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽

Surveillance Systems

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Ethics, Integrity, and Retributions of Digital Detection Surveillance Systems for Infectious Diseases: Systematic Literature Review (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.32328 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ivy Y Zhao ◽

Ye Xuan Ma ◽

Man Wai Cecilia Yu ◽

Jia Liu ◽

Wei Nan Dong ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Artificial Intelligence ◽

Infectious Disease ◽

Civil Rights ◽

Infectious Diseases ◽

Early Warning ◽

Ethical Issues ◽

Early Warning Systems ◽

Surveillance Systems ◽

Warning Systems ◽

Digital Surveillance

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the importance of the deployment of digital detection surveillance systems to support early warning and monitoring of infectious diseases. These opportunities create a “double-edge sword,” as the ethical governance of such approaches often lags behind technological achievements. OBJECTIVE The aim was to investigate ethical issues identified from utilizing artificial intelligence–augmented surveillance or early warning systems to monitor and detect common or novel infectious disease outbreaks. METHODS In a number of databases, we searched relevant articles that addressed ethical issues of using artificial intelligence, digital surveillance systems, early warning systems, and/or big data analytics technology for detecting, monitoring, or tracing infectious diseases according to PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines, and further identified and analyzed them with a theoretical framework. RESULTS This systematic review identified 29 articles presented in 6 major themes clustered under individual, organizational, and societal levels, including awareness of implementing digital surveillance, digital integrity, trust, privacy and confidentiality, civil rights, and governance. While these measures were understandable during a pandemic, the public had concerns about receiving inadequate information; unclear governance frameworks; and lack of privacy protection, data integrity, and autonomy when utilizing infectious disease digital surveillance. The barriers to engagement could widen existing health care disparities or digital divides by underrepresenting vulnerable and at-risk populations, and patients’ highly sensitive data, such as their movements and contacts, could be exposed to outside sources, impinging significantly upon basic human and civil rights. CONCLUSIONS Our findings inform ethical considerations for service delivery models for medical practitioners and policymakers involved in the use of digital surveillance for infectious disease spread, and provide a basis for a global governance structure. CLINICALTRIAL PROSPERO CRD42021259180; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=259180

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Emerging viral infectious disease threat: Why Tanzania is not in a safe zone

Tanzania Journal of Health Research ◽

10.4314/thrb.v18i3.8 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 18 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Chacha D. Mangu ◽

Christina K. Manyama ◽

Henry Msila ◽

Lwitiho Sudi ◽

Godlove Chaula ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Infectious Disease ◽

Infectious Diseases ◽

Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽

Disease Outbreaks ◽

Early Response ◽

Emerging Diseases ◽

Surveillance Systems ◽

Viral Infectious Disease ◽

The Government

Emerging diseases are global threat towards human existence. Every country is exposed to potentially emergence of infectious diseases. Several factor such as changes in ecology, climate and human demographics play different roles in a complex mechanism contributing to the occurrence of infectious diseases. Important aspects towards control in case of outbreaks are surveillance, preparedness and early response. Tanzania should therefore take opportunity of the calm situation currently present, to prepare. Except for HIV/AIDS, Tanzania has not experienced a major public health threat. However, the question is, is the country safe from emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases? In this article we try to explore the danger of emerging infectious disease (EID) epidemics in Tanzania and the risks attached if an outbreak is to occur. The aim is to formulate recommendations to the government, responsible authorities and general population of what can be done to improve the level of EID preparedness in the country. In conclusion, it is important to strengthen the capacity of community and healthcare staffs on how to respond to potential infectious disease outbreaks. Community-based surveillance systems should be incorporated into the national systems for early detection of public health events. It is also critical to enhance one health approach to increase cross-sectoral information sharing, surveillance and interventional strategies as regards to preparedness and response to disease outbreaks.

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