SERS Substrate Fabrication for Biochemical Sensing: towards Point-of-Care Diagnostics

Author(s):  
Xiaojia Liu ◽  
Jiuchuan Guo ◽  
Yang Li ◽  
Bo Wang ◽  
Shikun Yang ◽  
...  

Rapid technology development and economic growth have brought attention to public health issues, such as food safety and environmental pollution, which creates an ever-increasing demand for fast and portable sensing...

2012 ◽  
Vol 206 (12) ◽  
pp. 1949-1950 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. E. Rosenberg ◽  
G. Kamanga ◽  
S. Phiri ◽  
D. Nsona ◽  
A. Pettifor ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shamshul Ansari ◽  
John P Hays ◽  
Andrew Kemp ◽  
Raymond Okechukwu ◽  
Jayaseelan Murugaiyan ◽  
...  

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic presents a serious public health challenge in all countries. However, repercussions of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections on future global health are still being investigated, including the pandemic’s potential effect on the emergence and spread of global antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Critically ill COVID-19 patients may develop severe complications, which may predispose patients to infection with nosocomial bacterial and/or fungal pathogens, requiring the extensive use of antibiotics. However, antibiotics may also be inappropriately used in milder cases of COVID-19 infection. Further, concerns such as increased biocide use, antimicrobial stewardship/infection control, AMR awareness, the need for diagnostics (including rapid and point-of-care diagnostics) and the usefulness of vaccination could all be components shaping the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this publication, the authors present a brief overview of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated issues that could influence the pandemic’s effect on global AMR.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Rizzo ◽  
Maureen Lichtveld ◽  
Jonna A. K. Mazet ◽  
Eri Togami ◽  
Sally A. Miller

AbstractAlthough healthy plants are vital to human and animal health, plant health is often overlooked in the One Health literature. Plants provide over 80% of the food consumed by humans and are the primary source of nutrition for livestock. However, plant diseases and pests often threaten the availability and safety of plants for human and animal consumption. Global yield losses of important staple crops can range up to 30% and hundreds of billions of dollars in lost food production. To demonstrate the complex interrelationships between plants and public health, we present four case studies on plant health issues directly tied to food safety and/or security, and how a One Health approach influences the perception and mitigation of these issues. Plant pathogens affect food availability and consequently food security through reductions in yield and plant mortality as shown through the first case study of banana Xanthomonas wilt in East and Central Africa. Case studies 2, 3 and 4 highlight ways in which the safety of plant-based foods can also be compromised. Case study 2 describes the role of mycotoxin-producing plant-colonizing fungi in human and animal disease and examines lessons learned from outbreaks of aflatoxicosis in Kenya. Plants may also serve as vectors of human pathogens as seen in case study 3, with an example of Escherichia coli (E. coli) contamination of lettuce in North America. Finally, case study 4 focuses on the use of pesticides in Suriname, a complex issue intimately tied to food security though protection of crops from diseases and pests, while also a food safety issue through misuse. These cases from around the world in low to high income countries point to the need for interdisciplinary teams to solve complex plant health problems. Through these case studies, we examine challenges and opportunities moving forward for mitigating negative public health consequences and ensuring health equity. Advances in surveillance technology and functional and streamlined workflow, from data collection, analyses, risk assessment, reporting, and information sharing are needed to improve the response to emergence and spread of plant-related pathogens and pests. Our case studies point to the importance of collaboration in responses to plant health issues that may become public health emergencies and the value of the One Health approach in ensuring food safety and food security for the global population.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J Brogan ◽  
Duverney Chaverra-Rodriguez ◽  
Calvin P Lin ◽  
Andrea L Smidler ◽  
Ting Yang ◽  
...  

AbstractSince its first emergence from China in late 2019, the SARS-CoV-2 virus has spread globally despite unprecedented containment efforts, resulting in a catastrophic worldwide pandemic. Successful identification and isolation of infected individuals can drastically curtail virus spread and limit outbreaks. However, during the early stages of global transmission, point-of-care diagnostics were largely unavailable and continue to remain difficult to procure, greatly inhibiting public health efforts to mitigate spread. Furthermore, the most prevalent testing kits rely on reagent- and time-intensive protocols to detect viral RNA, preventing rapid and cost-effective diagnosis. Therefore the development of an extensive toolkit for point-of-care diagnostics that is expeditiously adaptable to new emerging pathogens is of critical public health importance. Recently, a number of novel CRISPR-based diagnostics have been developed to detect COVID-19. Herein, we outline the development of a CRISPR-based nucleic acid molecular diagnostic utilizing a Cas13d ribonuclease derived from Ruminococcus flavefaciens (CasRx) to detect SARS-CoV-2, an approach we term SENSR (Sensitive Enzymatic Nucleic-acid Sequence Reporter). We demonstrate SENSR robustly detects SARS-CoV-2 sequences in both synthetic and patient-derived samples by lateral flow and fluorescence, thus expanding the available point-of-care diagnostics to combat current and future pandemics.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Elly Trisnawati ◽  
Andri Dwi Hernawan ◽  
Sri Nugroho Jati

Sambas district is the district with the lowest HDI among the 14 districts in West Kalimantan. The highest education level of most people is only Elementary School, while public health issues are very complex, while most families are poor. Those facts show that Kabupaten Sambas is one of the districts that need attention in development in all sectors, including health, education, and economy. Sebawi, one of the region in Sambas district, still requires efforts to improve the human resource. The aim of KKN-PPM in Sebawi is to have a community empowerment in the areas of health, education, and socio-economic. The activities included strengthening 'desa siaga', increasing access to education, and intensive mentorship for the home industry in three selected villages, namely Sepuk Tanjung, Rantau Panjang and Sebawi. The results showed that the major program such as 'desa siaga' and entrepreneurship run very well. We successfully revitalized management and operational team of 'Desa Siaga'. and also convinced the villagers to provide ambulance facility in their village. We also established a new group of entrepreneurs consisted of housewife and dropout students. We hope that the new entrepreneur group can promote economic growth in the villages.  Hopefully, the program can be sustainable and will be monitored periodically. Keywords: community empowerment, alert village, poor families


Author(s):  
Yaser Yousefi ◽  
Nader Karballaeezadeh ◽  
Dariush Moazami ◽  
Amirhossein Sanaei Zahed ◽  
Danial Mohammadzadeh S. ◽  
...  

The exponential increase in aviation activity and air traffic in recent decades has raised several public health issues. One of the critical public health concerns is runway safety and the increasing demand for airports without accidents. In addition to threatening human lives, runway accidents are often associated with severe environmental and pollution consequences. In this study, a three-step approach is used for runway risk assessment considering probability, location, and consequences of accidents through advanced statistical methods. This study proposes novel models for the implementation of these three steps in Iran. Data on runway excursion accidents were collected from several countries with similar air accident rates. The proposed models empower engineers to advance an accurate assessment of the accident probability and safety assessment of airports. For in-service airports, it is possible to assess existing runways to remove obstacles close to runways if necessary. Also, the proposed models can be used for preliminary evaluations of developing existing airports and the construction of new runways.


2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (23) ◽  
pp. 53 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARY ELLEN SCHNEIDER

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