scholarly journals (A183) Umbrella” in a Small, Developing Country - A Case Report on Pandemic Influenza Preparedness in Bosnia and Herzegovina

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S1) ◽  
pp. s51-s52
Author(s):  
S. Cornwell ◽  
N. Fejzic
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
One Health ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
National Level ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Domestic Bird ◽  
Public Health Authorities

Cooperation between veterinary and public health authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and their respective field services has historically been weak and inefficient. As is the case in many countries, animal health and public health fall under separate ministries with animal health the responsibility of the ministry of agriculture and public health the ministry of health. This model has promoted interagency competition for funding for disease surveillance and control. It has also resulted in poor information exchange, lack of efficient utilization of diagnostic resources, and poor harmonization of policies. Political decentralization, established in Bosnia after the Dayton peace agreement, resulted in the lack of a national-level responsibility for animal or public health. This was instead placed at mid-governmental levels. A state (national) veterinary office was created in 2000, but there still remains no national public health agency. The H5N1 Avian Influenza (AI) outbreak which began in Southeast Asia in 2003 and reached Europe in 2005 raised concerns about Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH) preparedness to combat pandemic disease. Accordingly, the state (national) veterinary service of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) conducted exercises which resulted in increased monitoring of wild and domestic bird populations and the drafting and adoption of a contingency plan (CP) for AI. The activities prescribed by the CP were implemented in February 2006 when the H5N1 virus was diagnosed in wild swans. However, no cooperation was established with public health authorities during this incident, further underscoring the need for a one health approach to disease control activities. Adoption of the One Health concept is challenging, and there is no simple plan that can be applied across all cultures. To prevent it from simply existing as an idealistic theory, some revision is needed and practical guidelines must be developed. The authors will include suggestions as to how this might be achieved.

scholarly journals The Glossaryfication Web Service: an automated glossary creation tool to support the One Health community

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nazareno Scaccia ◽  
Taras Günther ◽  
Estibaliz Lopez de Abechuco ◽  
Matthias Filter
Keyword(s):  
Web Service ◽  
One Health ◽  
Text Processing ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Correct Interpretation ◽  
User Input ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The One

In many interdisciplinary research domains, the creation of a shared understanding of relevant terms is considered the foundation for efficient cross-sector communication and interpretation of data and information. This is also true for the domain of One Health (OH) where many One Health Surveillance (OHS) documents rarely contain glossaries with a list of terms for which their specific meaning in the context of the given document is defined (Cornelia et al. 2018, Buschhardt et al. 2021). The absence of glossaries within these documents may lead to misinterpretation of surveillance results due to the wrong interpretation of terminology specifically when term definitions differ across OH sectors. Under the One Health EJP project ORION, the OHEJP Glossary was recently created. The OHEJP Glossary is a tool to improve communication and collaboration amongst OH sectors by providing an easy-to-use online resource that lists relevant OH terms and sector-specific definitions. To improve the accessibility of content from the OHEJP Glossary and support the creation of integrative glossaries in future OHS-related documents, the OHEJP Glossaryfication Web Service was created. This service can support the practical use of the OHEJP Glossary and other relevant online glossaries by OH professionals. The Glossaryfication Web Service (GWS) is an application that automatically identifies terms in any uploaded text-based document and creates a document-specific list of matching definitions in selected online glossaries. This auto-generated document-specific glossary can easily be adjusted by the user, for example, by selecting the desired definition in case multiple definitions were found for a specific term. The document-specific glossary could then be downloaded, manually adjusted and finally included into the original document where it supports the correct interpretation of terminology used. Especially in sector-specific reports, such as from animal health or public health authorities, this can be beneficial to ensure the correct interpretation by other OH sectors in the future. The GWS was developed with the open-source desktop software KNIME Analytics Platform and runs as a web service on a KNIME Web Server infrastructure. The core data processing functionality in the GWS is based on KNIME’s Text Processing extension. KNIME's JavaScript nodes provided the basis for an interactive user interface where users can easily upload their files and select between different reference glossaries, such as the OHEJP Glossary, the CDC Glossary, the WHO Glossary or the EFSA Glossary. After retrieval of the user input settings, the GWS tags words within the provided document and maps these tagged words with matching entries in the selected glossaries. As the main output, the user receives a downloadable list of matching terms with their corresponding definitions, sectorial assignments and references, which can then be added by the user to the original document. The GWS is freely accessible via this link as well as the underlying KNIME workflow.

scholarly journals Improving Notifiable Disease Case Reporting Through Electronic Information Exchange–Facilitated Decision Support: A Controlled Before-and-After Trial

2020 ◽  
Vol 135 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-410
Author(s):  
Brian E. Dixon ◽  
Zuoyi Zhang ◽  
Janet N. Arno ◽  
Debra Revere ◽  
P. Joseph Gibson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Outbreak Detection ◽  
Notifiable Disease ◽  
Disease Reporting ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
And Control ◽  
Reporting Rates

Objective Outbreak detection and disease control may be improved by simplified, semi-automated reporting of notifiable diseases to public health authorities. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of an electronic, prepopulated notifiable disease report form on case reporting rates by ambulatory care clinics to public health authorities. Methods We conducted a 2-year (2012-2014) controlled before-and-after trial of a health information exchange (HIE) intervention in Indiana designed to prepopulate notifiable disease reporting forms to providers. We analyzed data collected from electronic prepopulated reports and “usual care” (paper, fax) reports submitted to a local health department for 7 conditions by using a difference-in-differences model. Primary outcomes were changes in reporting rates, completeness, and timeliness between intervention and control clinics. Results Provider reporting rates for chlamydia and gonorrhea in intervention clinics increased significantly from 56.9% and 55.6%, respectively, during the baseline period (2012) to 66.4% and 58.3%, respectively, during the intervention period (2013-2014); they decreased from 28.8% and 27.5%, respectively, to 21.7% and 20.6%, respectively, in control clinics ( P < .001). Completeness improved from baseline to intervention for 4 of 15 fields in reports from intervention clinics ( P < .001), although mean completeness improved for 11 fields in both intervention and control clinics. Timeliness improved for both intervention and control clinics; however, reports from control clinics were timelier (mean, 7.9 days) than reports from intervention clinics (mean, 9.7 days). Conclusions Electronic, prepopulated case reporting forms integrated into providers’ workflow, enabled by an HIE network, can be effective in increasing notifiable disease reporting rates and completeness of information. However, it was difficult to assess the effect of using the forms for diseases with low prevalence (eg, salmonellosis, histoplasmosis).

scholarly journals The Glossaryfication Web Service: an automated glossary creation tool to support the One Health community

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nazareno Scaccia ◽  
Taras Günther ◽  
Estibaliz Lopez de Abechuco ◽  
Matthias Filter
Keyword(s):  
Web Service ◽  
One Health ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Correct Interpretation ◽  
User Input ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Health Community ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The One

In many interdisciplinary research domains, the creation of a shared understanding of relevant terms is considered the foundation for efficient cross-sector communication and interpretation of data and information. This is also true for the domain of One Health (OH)&nbsp;where many One Health Surveillance (OHS) documents rarely contain glossaries with a list of terms for which their specific meaning in the context of the given document is defined Cornelia et al. 2018, Buschhardt et al. 2021. The absence of glossaries within these documents may lead to misinterpretation of surveillance results due to the wrong interpretation of terminology specifically when term definitions differ across OH sectors. Under the One Health EJP project ORION, the OHEJP Glossary was recently created. The OHEJP Glossary is a tool to improve communication and collaboration among OH sectors by providing an easy-to-use online resource that lists relevant OH terms and sector-specific definitions. To improve the accessibility of content from the OHEJP Glossary and support the creation of integrative glossaries in future OHS-related documents, the OHEJP Glossaryfication Web Service was created. This service can support the practical use of the OHEJP Glossary and other relevant online glossaries by OH professionals. The Glossaryfication Web Service (GWS) is an application that automatically identifies terms in any uploaded text-based document and creates a document-specific list of matching definitions in selected online glossaries. This auto-generated document-specific glossary can easily be adjusted by the user, e.g. by selecting the desired definition in case multiple definitions were found for a specific term. The document-specific glossary could then be downloaded, manually adjusted, and finally included into the original document where it supports the correct interpretation of terminology used within the document. Especially in sector-specific reports such as from animal health or public health authorities, this can be beneficial to ensure the correct interpretation by other OH sectors in the future. The GWS developed with the open-source desktop software KNIME Analytics Platform and runs as a web service on a KNIME Web Server infrastructure. The core data processing functionality in the GWS is based on KNIME&rsquo;s Textprocessing extension. KNIME&#39;s JavaScript nodes provided the basis for an interactive user interface where users&nbsp;can easily upload their files and select between different reference glossaries such as the OHEJP Glossary, the CDC Glossary, the WHO Glossary,&nbsp;or the EFSA Glossary. After retrieval of the user input settings, the GWS tags words within the provided document and maps these tagged words with matching entries in the selected glossaries. As the main output, the user receives a downloadable list of matching terms with their corresponding definitions, sectorial assignments, and references, which can then be added by the user to the original document.&nbsp;The GWS is freely accessible via this link as well as the underlying KNIME workflow.

scholarly journals West Nile virus surveillance in Europe: moving towards an integrated animal-human-vector approach

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (18) ◽  
Author(s):  
Céline M Gossner ◽  
Laurence Marrama ◽  
Marianne Carson ◽  
Franz Allerberger ◽  
Paolo Calistri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
West Nile Virus ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Effective Vaccine ◽  
Vector Surveillance ◽  
West Nile ◽  
Zoonotic Infections ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities

This article uses the experience of five European countries to review the integrated approaches (human, animal and vector) for surveillance and monitoring of West Nile virus (WNV) at national and European levels. The epidemiological situation of West Nile fever in Europe is heterogeneous. No model of surveillance and monitoring fits all, hence this article merely encourages countries to implement the integrated approach that meets their needs. Integration of surveillance and monitoring activities conducted by the public health authorities, the animal health authorities and the authorities in charge of vector surveillance and control should improve efficiency and save resources by implementing targeted measures. The creation of a formal interagency working group is identified as a crucial step towards integration. Blood safety is a key incentive for public health authorities to allocate sufficient resources for WNV surveillance, while the facts that an effective vaccine is available for horses and that most infected animals remain asymptomatic make the disease a lesser priority for animal health authorities. The examples described here can support other European countries wishing to strengthen their WNV surveillance or preparedness, and also serve as a model for surveillance and monitoring of other (vector-borne) zoonotic infections.

scholarly journals The Response of Governments and Public Health Agencies to COVID-19 Pandemics on Social Media: A Multi-Country Analysis of Twitter Discourse

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lan Li ◽  
Aisha Aldosery ◽  
Fedor Vitiugin ◽  
Naomi Nathan ◽  
David Novillo-Ortiz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Public Health Agencies ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Uk

During the COVID-19 pandemic, information is being rapidly shared by public health experts and researchers through social media platforms. Whilst government policies were disseminated and discussed, fake news and misinformation simultaneously created a corresponding wave of “infodemics.” This study analyzed the discourse on Twitter in several languages, investigating the reactions to government and public health agency social media accounts that share policy decisions and official messages. The study collected messages from 21 official Twitter accounts of governments and public health authorities in the UK, US, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Spain, and Nigeria, from 15 March to 29 May 2020. Over 2 million tweets in various languages were analyzed using a mixed-methods approach to understand the messages both quantitatively and qualitatively. Using automatic, text-based clustering, five topics were identified for each account and then categorized into 10 emerging themes. Identified themes include political, socio-economic, and population-protection issues, encompassing global, national, and individual levels. A comparison was performed amongst the seven countries analyzed and the United Kingdom (Scotland, Northern Ireland, and England) to find similarities and differences between countries and government agencies. Despite the difference in language, country of origin, epidemiological contexts within the countries, significant similarities emerged. Our results suggest that other than general announcement and reportage messages, the most-discussed topic is evidence-based leadership and policymaking, followed by how to manage socio-economic consequences.

scholarly journals Users’ Beliefs Toward Physical Distancing in Facebook Pages of Public Health Authorities During COVID-19 Pandemic in Early 2020

2021 ◽  
pp. 109019812110144
Author(s):  
Soon Guan Tan ◽  
Aravind Sesagiri Raamkumar ◽  
Hwee Lin Wee
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Belief Model ◽  
United States Public Health ◽  
Health Belief ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Belief Model ◽  
The Health Belief Model

This study aims to describe Facebook users’ beliefs toward physical distancing measures implemented during the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic using the key constructs of the health belief model. A combination of rule-based filtering and manual classification methods was used to classify user comments on COVID-19 Facebook posts of three public health authorities: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States, Public Health England, and Ministry of Health, Singapore. A total of 104,304 comments were analyzed for posts published between 1 January, 2020, and 31 March, 2020, along with COVID-19 cases and deaths count data from the three countries. Findings indicate that the perceived benefits of physical distancing measures ( n = 3,463; 3.3%) was three times higher than perceived barriers ( n = 1,062; 1.0%). Perceived susceptibility to COVID-19 ( n = 2,934; 2.8%) was higher compared with perceived severity ( n = 2,081; 2.0%). Although susceptibility aspects of physical distancing were discussed more often at the start of the year, mentions on the benefits of intervention emerged stronger toward the end of the analysis period, highlighting the shift in beliefs. The health belief model is useful for understanding Facebook users’ beliefs at a basic level, and it provides a scope for further improvement.

scholarly journals Fueling the Covid-19 pandemic: summer school holidays and incidence rates in German districts

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Plümper ◽  
Eric Neumayer
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Summer School ◽  
Incidence Rates ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Robert Koch Institute ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Holiday Period ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities

AbstractBackgroundThe Robert-Koch-Institute reports that during the summer holiday period a foreign country is stated as the most likely place of infection for an average of 27 and a maximum of 49% of new SARS-CoV-2 infections in Germany.MethodsCross-sectional study on observational data. In Germany, summer school holidays are coordinated between states and spread out over 13 weeks. Employing a dynamic model with district fixed effects, we analyze the association between these holidays and weekly incidence rates across 401 German districts.ResultsWe find effects of the holiday period of around 45% of the average district incidence rates in Germany during their respective final week of holidays and the 2 weeks after holidays end. Western states tend to experience stronger effects than Eastern states. We also find statistically significant interaction effects of school holidays with per capita taxable income and the share of foreign residents in a district’s population.ConclusionsOur results suggest that changed behavior during the holiday season accelerated the pandemic and made it considerably more difficult for public health authorities to contain the spread of the virus by means of contact tracing. Germany’s public health authorities did not prepare adequately for this acceleration.

scholarly journals Indoor Environmental Quality in Dwellings and Lifestyle Behaviors during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Russian Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 5975
Author(s):  
Vladimir Reshetnikov ◽  
Oleg Mitrokhin ◽  
Elena Belova ◽  
Victor Mikhailovsky ◽  
Maria Mikerova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Medical Students ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
Lifestyle Behaviors ◽  
Contagious Diseases ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
Isolation Index ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is a public health emergency of international concern, and as a response, public health authorities started enforcing preventive measures like self-isolation and social distancing. The enforcement of isolation has consequences that may affect the lifestyle-related behavior of the general population. Quarantine encompasses a range of strategies that can be used to detain, isolate, or conditionally release individuals or populations infected or exposed to contagious diseases and should be tailored to circumstances. Interestingly, medical students may represent an example of how the COVID-19 pandemic can form new habits and change lifestyle behaviors. We conducted a web-based survey to assess changes in lifestyle-related behavior of self-isolated medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then we analyzed the sanitary-hygienic regulations of the Russian Federation to determine the requirements for healthy buildings. Results showed that during the pandemic, the enforcement of isolation affects medical students’ lifestyle-related behavior and accompanies an increase in non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and healthy buildings are cutting-edge factors in preventing COVID-19 and NCDs. The Russian sanitary-hygienic regulations support improving this factor with suitable requirements for ventilation, sewage, waste management, and disinfection. Herein, assessing isolation is possible through the hygienic self-isolation index.

Preparedness and response in Portuguese emergency plans - Interaction with public health

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
G Leiras ◽  
A Martins
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Authority ◽  
Civil Protection ◽  
Emergency Plans ◽  
Emergency Situations ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
Protection Authority

Abstract Background Articulation between Civil Protection and Public Health authorities is of paramount importance to control, reduce and prevent threats to the health of the population in situations of crisis or catastrophes. National Civil Protection Authority produces Emergency Plans which describe the role of every stakeholder in emergency situations. Role and importance of Public Health and Public Health Authorities is not always present or well described and known amongst stakeholders. Methods Data was collected from all Districtal Emergency Plans (n = 18). Each document was analysed considering time frame, refences to Public Health and Health Authorities, definition of roles, communication channels, coordination and inclusion of intersectoral communication flow. Quantitative analysis included absolute and relative frequencies and qualitative analysis to all parts related to the terms “Public Health” and “Health Authority”. Each document was reviewed by 2 independent researchers. Results From 18 Districtal Emergency Plans (DEP) analysed, 94,4% (n = 17) had references to Public Health, but none referred the role of Public Health Officers. Only 16,7% referred to Health Authorities, although 94,4% mentioned the law 135/2013, defining the role and attributes of Health Authority. In 72,2%, coordination of Public Health Measures was attributed to the National Medical Emergency Institute. Epidemiological surveillance and Public Health Emergencies were referred in 55,6%, and attributed to the Regional Administration of Health. Conclusions Public Health Authorities and Public Health Medical Officers role in articulation with National Civil Protection Authority in emergency situations lacks severely, with this role being replaced by other entities. This is of great concern regarding management and control of diseases, particularly communicable diseases. Key messages Public Health Authorities lack the necessary involvement in Emergency Plans and emergency situations. Public health measures are coordinated by other entities rather than Public Health Authorities.

A proposal to leverage high-quality veterinary diagnostic laboratory large data streams for animal health, public health, and One Health

2021 ◽  
pp. 104063872110030
Author(s):  
Craig N. Carter ◽  
Jacqueline L. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Data Streams ◽  
One Health ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Large Data ◽  
Health Impact ◽  
The United States ◽  
Zoonotic Diseases ◽  
Diagnostic Laboratory

Test data generated by ~60 accredited member laboratories of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD) is of exceptional quality. These data are captured by 1 of 13 laboratory information management systems (LIMSs) developed specifically for veterinary diagnostic laboratories (VDLs). Beginning ~2000, the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) developed an electronic messaging system for LIMS to automatically send standardized data streams for 14 select agents to a national repository. This messaging enables the U.S. Department of Agriculture to track and respond to high-consequence animal disease outbreaks such as highly pathogenic avian influenza. Because of the lack of standardized data collection in the LIMSs used at VDLs, there is, to date, no means of summarizing VDL large data streams for multi-state and national animal health studies or for providing near-real-time tracking for hundreds of other important animal diseases in the United States that are detected routinely by VDLs. Further, VDLs are the only state and federal resources that can provide early detection and identification of endemic and emerging zoonotic diseases. Zoonotic diseases are estimated to be responsible for 2.5 billion cases of human illness and 2.7 million deaths worldwide every year. The economic and health impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is self-evident. We review here the history and progress of data management in VDLs and discuss ways of seizing unexplored opportunities to advance data leveraging to better serve animal health, public health, and One Health.

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