scholarly journals Towards the endgame and beyond: complexities and challenges for the elimination of infectious diseases

2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (1623) ◽  
pp. 20120137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra Klepac ◽  
C. Jessica E. Metcalf ◽  
Angela R. McLean ◽  
Katie Hampson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Last Mile ◽  
Successful Control ◽  
Unanticipated Consequences ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Local Transmission

Successful control measures have interrupted the local transmission of human infectious diseases such as measles, malaria and polio, and saved and improved billions of lives. Similarly, control efforts have massively reduced the incidence of many infectious diseases of animals, such as rabies and rinderpest, with positive benefits for human health and livelihoods across the globe. However, disease elimination has proven an elusive goal, with only one human and one animal pathogen globally eradicated. As elimination targets expand to regional and even global levels, hurdles may emerge within the endgame when infections are circulating at very low levels, turning the last mile of these public health marathons into the longest mile. In this theme issue, we bring together recurring challenges that emerge as we move towards elimination, highlighting the unanticipated consequences of particular ecologies and pathologies of infection, and approaches to their management.

Impact of hydrological factors on human health and the spread of disease

2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (9) ◽  
pp. 72-76
Author(s):  
Solmaz Isaq Rzayeva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Key Words ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Medical Geography ◽  
The State ◽  
Chemical Environment ◽  
Geographical Environment ◽  
Geochemical Factors

In the article in addition to the description of the state of hydrological and geochemical factors, related to the ecogeographic environment, the influence of the ecological-chemical environment on the spread of public health was revealed. The analysis of the influence of the medical-geographical environment on the occurrence and spread of diseases was given. Key words: hydrology, non-infection diseases, eco-geographical condition, endemic gaiter, infectious diseases, ecology geochemical, environmental, medical geography condition

Nanomaterials Useful in Health and Medicine to Improve Public Health

2021 ◽  
pp. 49-74
Author(s):  
Manish Kumar Dwivedi ◽  
Suvashish Kumar Pandey ◽  
Prashant Kumar Singh
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Carrying Capacity ◽  
Drug Delivery Systems ◽  
High Stability ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
High Specificity ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Novel Drug

In modern research, nanotechnology is a very attractive technology and helps to reduce infectious diseases. Nanoparticles have gained significantly more important than the bulk counterparts due to their unique properties. This chapter gives knowledge about the general introduction of nanoparticles with classification and also discussed the effect of nanoparticles impact on public health. Nanotechnology is most widely used to reduced different types of infectious diseases such as bacterial, viral, parasitic diseases, etc. Nanotechnology is applied to detect different types of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and other diseases. Nanotechnology is a useful technique to develop novel drug delivery systems due to their high specificity, high drug-carrying capacity, and high stability. Nanotechnology can be able to improve human health but on the other hand, we have seen a negative impact on human health and environmental health. The solubility and toxicity of nanoparticles is a major issue worldwide.

scholarly journals Taiwan’s Successful COVID-19 Mitigation and Containment Strategy: Achieving Quasi Population Immunity

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li-Chien Chien ◽  
Christian K. Beÿ ◽  
Kristi L. Koenig
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Health Management ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Population Immunity ◽  
Containment Strategy ◽  
Local Transmission ◽  
Pharmaceutical Interventions

ABSTRACT The authors describe Taiwan’s successful strategy in achieving control of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) without economic shutdown, despite the prediction that millions of infections would be imported from travelers returning from Chinese New Year celebrations in Mainland China in early 2020. As of September 2, 2020, Taiwan reports 489 cases, 7 deaths, and no locally acquired COVID-19 cases for the last 135 days (greater than 4 months) in its population of over 23.8 million people. Taiwan created quasi population immunity through the application of established public health principles. These non-pharmaceutical interventions, including public masking and social distancing, coupled with early and aggressive identification, isolation, and contact tracing to inhibit local transmission, represent a model for optimal public health management of COVID-19 and future emerging infectious diseases.

scholarly journals Re-emerging Infectious Disease (RED) Alert tool

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maneesha Chitanvis ◽  
Ashlynn Daughton ◽  
Forest M Altherr ◽  
Geoffery Fairchild ◽  
William Rosenberger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Disease Incidence ◽  
Emerging Infectious Disease ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Incidence Trends ◽  
Effective Public Health ◽  
Emergence Event

Objective: Although relying on verbal definitions of "re-emergence", descriptions that classify a “re-emergence” event as any significant recurrence of a disease that had previously been under public health control, and subjective interpretations of these events is currently the conventional practice, this has the potential to hinder effective public health responses. Defining re-emergence in this manner offers limited ability for ad hoc analysis of prevention and control measures and facilitates non-reproducible assessments of public health events of potentially high consequence. Re-emerging infectious disease alert (RED Alert) is a decision-support tool designed to address this issue by enhancing situational awareness by providing spatiotemporal context through disease incidence pattern analysis following an event that may represent a local (country-level) re-emergence. The tool’s analytics also provide users with the associated causes (socioeconomic indicators) related to the event, and guide hypothesis-generation regarding the global scenario.Introduction: Definitions of “re-emerging infectious diseases” typically encompass any disease occurrence that was a historic public health threat, declined dramatically, and has since presented itself again as a significant health problem. Examples include antimicrobial resistance leading to resurgence of tuberculosis, or measles re-appearing in previously protected communities. While the language of this verbal definition of “re-emergence” is sensitive enough to capture most epidemiologically relevant resurgences, its qualitative nature obfuscates the ability to quantitatively classify disease re-emergence events as such.Methods: Our tool automatically computes historic disease incidence and performs trend analyses to help elucidate events which a user may considered a true re-emergence in a subset of pertinent infectious diseases (measles, cholera, yellow fever, and dengue). The tool outputs data visualizations that illustrate incidence trends in diverse and informative ways. Additionally, we categorize location and incidence-specific indicators for re-emergence to provide users with associated indicators as well as justifications and documentation to guide users’ next steps. Additionally, the tool also houses interactive maps to facilitate global hypothesis-generation.Results: These outputs provide historic trend pattern analyses as well as contextualization of the user’s situation with similar locations. The tool also broadens users' understanding of the given situation by providing related indicators of the likely re-emergence, as well as the ability to investigate re-emergence factors of global relevance through spatial analysis and data visualization.Conclusions: The inability to categorically name a re-emergence event as such is due to lack of standardization and/or availability of reproducible, data-based evidence, and hinders timely and effective public health response and planning. While the tool will not explicitly call out a user scenario as categorically re-emergent or not, by providing users with context in both time and space, RED Alert aims to empower users with data and analytics in order to substantially enhance their contextual awareness; thus, better enabling them to formulate plans of action regarding re-emerging infectious disease threats at both the country and global level.

Listeria monocytogenes: Low Levels Equal Low Risk

2003 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 570-577 ◽  
Author(s):  
YUHUAN CHEN ◽  
WILLIAM H. ROSS ◽  
VIRGINIA N. SCOTT ◽  
DAVID E. GOMBAS
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Dose Response ◽  
Zero Tolerance ◽  
Food Samples ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Response Model ◽  
Microbial Risk Assessment ◽  
Microbial Risk ◽  
Tolerance Strategy ◽  
Low Levels

Because of the public health significance of L. monocytogenes, U.S. regulatory agencies established a policy whereby ready-to-eat foods contaminated with the organism at a detectable level are deemed adulterated. This “zero tolerance” policy, however, makes no distinction between foods contaminated at high and low levels. We have reported elsewhere that a survey of over 31,000 ready-to-eat retail food samples, representing eight product categories, showed an overall prevalence rate of 1.82% for these foods. In this study, we used the food survey data in combination with concurrent data regarding illness in the population consuming the foods, together with other variable factors, to derive a dose-response model. The confidence interval for prevalence was 1.68 to 1.97%. L. monocytogenes levels, which ranged from −2 to 6 log CFU/g, were adequately described by the distribution beta (0.29, 2.68, −1.69, 6.1). An exponential dose-response model was obtained, with an R value (essentially the probability of a single cell causing illness) of 1.76 × 10−10 for the population at the highest risk. A microbial risk assessment based on the model shows that an alternative to the zero tolerance strategy has a greater risk reduction potential and suggests that a management strategy focusing on the concentration of L. monocytogenes rather than its presence alone may have a greater impact on the improvement of public health by facilitating the development of control measures to limit the maximum levels of L. monocytogenes in foods.

scholarly journals Biocidal Resistance in Clinically Relevant Microbial Species: A Major Public Health Risk

Pathogens ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 598
Author(s):  
Elaine Meade ◽  
Mark Anthony Slattery ◽  
Mary Garvey
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Antimicrobial Resistance ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Multidrug Resistant ◽  
Fungal Species ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Microbial Species ◽  
The Impact

Antimicrobial resistance is one of the greatest dangers to public health of the 21st century, threatening the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases globally. Disinfection, the elimination of microbial species via the application of biocidal chemicals, is essential to control infectious diseases and safeguard animal and human health. In an era of antimicrobial resistance and emerging disease, the effective application of biocidal control measures is vital to protect public health. The COVID-19 pandemic is an example of the increasing demand for effective biocidal solutions to reduce and eliminate disease transmission. However, there is increasing recognition into the relationship between biocide use and the proliferation of Antimicrobial Resistance species, particularly multidrug-resistant pathogens. The One Health approach and WHO action plan to combat AMR require active surveillance and monitoring of AMR species; however, biocidal resistance is often overlooked. ESKAPE (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter species) pathogens and numerous fungal species have demonstrated drug and biocidal resistance where increased patient mortality is a risk. Currently, there is a lack of information on the impact of biocide application on environmental habitats and ecosystems. Undoubtedly, the excessive application of disinfectants and AMR will merge to result in secondary disasters relating to soil infertility, loss of biodiversity and destruction of ecosystems.

scholarly journals PO 8460 PANDORA-ID NET (PAN-AFRICAN NETWORK FOR RAPID RESEARCH, RESPONSE, RELIEF AND PREPAREDNESS FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASES EPIDEMICS)

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (Suppl 3) ◽  
pp. A40.2-A40
Author(s):  
Francine Ntoumi ◽  
Francine Zumla ◽  
Giuseppe Ippolito ◽  
Francesco Vairo
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Rapid Diagnostics ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Effective Response ◽  
Zoonotic Infections ◽  
Pan African

BackgroundNew and re-emerging infectious disease outbreaks continue to cause much human suffering and loss of life worldwide. Since Africa has experienced repeated outbreaks of zoonotic infections, an important need exists to improve local and regional capacities to identify and respond to zoonotic outbreaks. PANDORA ID-NET is an EDCTP-supported ‘ONE Human and Animal HEALTH’ multidisciplinary consortium of 24 partner institutions (15 African and 9 European) in 9 African and 4 European countries.MethodsOur overall aim is to strengthen regional and pan-African capacities and systems for enabling a rapid and effective response to infectious diseases with epidemic potential, arising from within Africa or imported from overseas. We aim to build laboratory and public health capabilites for rapid detection and surveillance of pathogens from human and animal sources. This will include obtaining accelerated evidence for optimal clinical management of patients, infection control measures, and public health response during outbreaks. Capacities will be built: a) for performing multisite clinical trials (evaluating rapid diagnostics, biomarkers, a range of treatments, vaccines and operational research studies) and, b) for timely collection, analysis and communication of information.ConclusionOur activities will be aligned to EDCTP regional Networks of Excellence, Africa CDC and other relevant global and regional initiatives, thus maximizing complementarity and achieving a multiplier effect, facilitating rapid policy implementation of outputs.

scholarly journals How to Achieve Indigenous Self-sufficiency in Vaccine Development? A Roadmap

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
Syed Muhammad Imran Majeed ◽  
Aisha Mohyuddin
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Large Population ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Public Health Programmes ◽  
Health Programmes

For every nation state with a large population (Pakistan being the 5 largest), it is imperative to have indigenouscapability to meet one's own requirement of vaccines for one's own set of prevailing diseases. Imports arecostly and not always readily available as became evident globally during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.Microbial antigenicity may also vary significantly from region to region on account of mutations. Henceefficiency of vaccine too can vary accordingly.Vaccines have dramatically reduced the burden of numerous infectious diseases, promoted individual andsocial growth, prosperity and wellbeing across the globe. In the coming decade, vaccines are likely to savetwenty-five million lives1 , and will continue to be the cornerstone of public health programmes. It is estimatedthat six out of every ten infectious diseases in humans are transmitted by animals and 70% of emerging and reemergingdiseases are either spread from animals to humans or infected animals to the healthy ones throughinsects.2 The role of vaccines in human health is therefore not only limited to humans but is vital to controldisease transmission from animals to humans as well.

scholarly journals The COVID-19 outbreak in Sichuan, China: epidemiology and impact of interventions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quanhui Liu ◽  
Ana I Bento ◽  
Kexin Yang ◽  
Hang Zhang ◽  
Xiaohan Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
Public Health Emergency ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Patient Records ◽  
Epidemic Threshold ◽  
Reproduction Numbers ◽  
Imported Cases ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Local Transmission

In January 2020, a COVID19 outbreak was detected in Sichuan Province of China. The aim of this work is to characterize the epidemiology of the Sichuan outbreak and estimate the impact of the performed interventions. We analyzed patient records for all laboratory confirmed cases reported in the province for the period of January 21 to March 16, 2020. To estimate the basic and daily reproduction numbers, we used a Bayesian framework. In addition, we estimate the number of cases averted by the implemented control strategies. The outbreak resulted in 539 confirmed cases, lasted less than two months, and no further local transmission was detected after February 27. The median age of local cases was 8 years older than that of imported cases. Severity of symptoms increased with age. We estimated R0 at 2.4 (95% CI: 1.6-3.7). The epidemic was self sustained for about 3 weeks before going below the epidemic threshold 3 days after the declaration of a public health emergency by Sichuan authorities. Our findings indicate that, were the control measures be adopted four weeks later, the epidemic could have lasted 49 days longer (95%CI: 31-68 days), causing 9,216 (95%CI: 1,317-25,545) more cases and possibly overwhelming Sichuan healthcare system.

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