The first UK report of a rare Cryptosporidium hominis genetic variant isolated during a complex Scottish swimming pool outbreak

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Padmaja Polubotho ◽  
Lucy Denvir ◽  
Lisa Connelly ◽  
Eleanor Anderson ◽  
Claire L. Alexander
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variant ◽  
Swimming Pool ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Gastrointestinal Infections ◽  
Cryptosporidium Hominis ◽  
Health Leadership ◽  
The Common ◽  
Multiple Species ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Public Health Leadership

Cryptosporidium species are responsible for causing the majority of parasite-related gastrointestinal infections in the UK. This report describes an outbreak of 12 laboratory-confirmed cryptosporidiosis cases identified as part of a Scottish swimming pool investigation, with 9 primary and 3 secondary cases occurring over an 8-week period. Molecular speciation was successful for 11/12 cases, which revealed 10 Cryptosporidium hominis cases and 1 Cryptosporidium parvum case. Of the 10 C. hominis cases, further typing identified 7 as being an unusual sub-type, IbA6G3, which is the first description in the UK of this rare variant. The remaining three C. hominis cases were identified as the common IbA10G2 subtype. Following implementation of control measures on two occasions, no further cases were reported. This report highlights the importance of molecular typing to identify and characterize outbreaks, and emphasizes the need to adhere to swimming pool guidance. It also raises awareness of the potential for outbreaks to involve multiple species/sub-types, and emphasizes the importance of strong public health leadership to ensure effective multi-agency investigations and management of outbreaks.

scholarly journals Swimming Pool-Related Outbreak of a Rare gp60 Subtype of Cryptosporidium hominis, England, October 2016

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 3152
Author(s):  
Helen Bagnall ◽  
Rachel M. Chalmers ◽  
Michelle Henderson ◽  
Stewart Sorrell ◽  
Guy Robinson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Water Treatment ◽  
Swimming Pool ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Reference Laboratory ◽  
Swimming Pools ◽  
Cryptosporidium Hominis ◽  
Secondary Transmission ◽  
Transmission Pathways ◽  
Gp60 Subtypes

In October 2016, Public Health England was initially notified of four cases of cryptosporidiosis among users of two swimming pools. We investigated to identify further cases, the outbreak source, and ensure the implementation of appropriate control measures. Probable primary cases had diarrhoea and reported swimming in the pools 1–12 days prior to illness; confirmed cases were verified by the reference laboratory. Secondary cases had contact with primary cases 1–12 days prior to illness. We identified twenty-two cases: eleven were primary (eight confirmed) and eleven were secondary (five confirmed). Four cases were infected with C. parvum (different gp60 subtypes); all were primary and swam at two pools. Seven primary and secondary cases were infected with C. hominis gp60 subtype IdA16, and all were associated one pool. Failings in pool water treatment and management were identified that likely contributed to the load on the filters and their efficiency. Our investigation identified a complex outbreak, with secondary transmission, involving exposures to two swimming pools. C. hominis IdA16 is rare; it has been isolated from only three previous UK cases. We hypothesize that C. hominis cases arose from a common exposure, and the C. parvum cases were likely sporadic. This investigation highlights the value of integrating epidemiology and microbiology to investigate clusters of Cryptosporidium cases, defining the extent of the outbreak and the likely transmission pathways.

scholarly journals The Common Sunstar Crossaster papposus—A Neurotoxic Starfish

Marine Drugs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 695
Author(s):  
Karl J. Dean ◽  
Ryan P. Alexander ◽  
Robert G. Hatfield ◽  
Adam M. Lewis ◽  
Lewis N. Coates ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Location ◽  
Bivalve Molluscs ◽  
The North ◽  
Regulatory Limits ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
The Common ◽  
High Concentrations ◽  
Multiple Species ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Uk

Saxitoxins (STXs) are a family of potent neurotoxins produced naturally by certain species of phytoplankton and cyanobacteria which are extremely toxic to mammalian nervous systems. The accumulation of STXs in bivalve molluscs can significantly impact animal and human health. Recent work conducted in the North Sea highlighted the widespread presence of various saxitoxins in a range of benthic organisms, with the common sunstar (Crossaster papposus) demonstrating high concentrations of saxitoxins. In this study, an extensive sampling program was undertaken across multiple seas surrounding the UK, with 146 starfish and 5 brittlestars of multiple species analysed for STXs. All the common sunstars analysed (n > 70) contained quantifiable levels of STXs, with the total concentrations ranging from 99 to 11,245 µg STX eq/kg. The common sunstars were statistically different in terms of toxin loading to all the other starfish species tested. Two distinct toxic profiles were observed in sunstars, a decarbomylsaxitoxin (dcSTX)-dominant profile which encompassed samples from most of the UK coast and an STX and gonyautoxin2 (GTX2) profile from the North Yorkshire coast of England. Compartmentalisation studies demonstrated that the female gonads exhibited the highest toxin concentrations of all the individual organs tested, with concentrations >40,000 µg STX eq/kg in one sample. All the sunstars, male or female, exhibited the presence of STXs in the skin, digestive glands and gonads. This study highlights that the common sunstar ubiquitously contains STXs, independent of the geographical location around the UK and often at concentrations many times higher than the current regulatory limits for STXs in molluscs; therefore, the common sunstar should be considered toxic hereafter.

scholarly journals Lessons in Public Health Leadership

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Latif
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Public Health Systems ◽  
Health Leadership ◽  
Public Health Challenges ◽  
Competency Based ◽  
Systems Leadership ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right ◽  
Public Health Leadership

Abstract Background The UK Faculty of Public Health (FPH) is a world leader in developing a dynamic competency-based curriculum and delivering high quality training and professional development of a multidisciplinary public health specialist workforce in the UK. This includes capacity building and shaping tomorrow's public health leaders. Objectives Strong Leadership is increasingly the need of the day to deal with the complex public health challenges in a rapidly evolving and shifting global landscape. Can a public health curriculum and training (like that of the FPH) provide the framework for the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours required for producing world class public health systems leaders? Body of the session Key principles of developing systems leadership include providing an enabling environment, developing the right skill mix, acquiring relevant knowledge, framing placements with experienced supervision and appropriate coaching and mentoring are some of the elements built into the training opportunities for public health registrars, their supervisors and new consultants. This presentation will give an overview of some lessons in public health leadership, the skills and knowledge base required to perform effectively as a public health systems leader and explore some of the challenges faced by the world of public health. The panel will encourage interactive discussion to share the learning from other countries and systems required to develop the next generation of public health leaders. Conclusions Public health, of all specialties, lends itself best to lead across and beyond organisational boundaries, lead without authority and create change whilst not being in charge. It is imperative that systems are put in place to train, develop and build public health leaders for tomorrow.

Punk as Folk: Continuities and Tensions in the UK and Beyond

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pete Dale
Keyword(s):  
Folk Music ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Collective Creativity ◽  
Living Tradition ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Uk

Numerous claims have been made by a wide range of commentators that punk is somehow “a folk music” of some kind. Doubtless there are several continuities. Indeed, both tend to encourage amateur music-making, both often have affiliations with the Left, and both emerge at least partly from a collective/anti-competitive approach to music-making. However, there are also significant tensions between punk and folk as ideas/ideals and as applied in practice. Most obviously, punk makes claims to a “year zero” creativity (despite inevitably offering re-presentation of at least some existing elements in every instance), whereas folk music is supposed to carry forward a tradition (which, thankfully, is more recognized in recent decades as a subject-to-change “living tradition” than was the case in folk’s more purist periods). Politically, meanwhile, postwar folk has tended more toward a socialist and/or Marxist orientation, both in the US and UK, whereas punk has at least rhetorically claimed to be in favor of “anarchy” (in the UK, in particular). Collective creativity and competitive tendencies also differ between the two (perceived) genre areas. Although the folk scene’s “floor singer” tradition offers a dispersal of expressive opportunity comparable in some ways to the “anyone can do it” idea that gets associated with punk, the creative expectation of the individual within the group differs between the two. Punk has some similarities to folk, then, but there are tensions, too, and these are well worth examining if one is serious about testing out the common claim, in both folk and punk, that “anyone can do it.”

scholarly journals Gastrointestinal infections caused by consumption of raw drinking milk in England & Wales, 1992–2017

2019 ◽  
Vol 147 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Adams ◽  
L. Byrne ◽  
J. Edge ◽  
A. Hoban ◽  
C. Jenkins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Campylobacter Jejuni ◽  
Raw Milk ◽  
National Surveillance ◽  
Gastrointestinal Infections ◽  
Food Standards ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Drinking Milk ◽  
Intestinal Infectious Disease

Abstract Systematic, national surveillance of outbreaks of intestinal infectious disease has been undertaken by Public Health England (PHE) since 1992. Between 1992 and 2002, there were 19 outbreaks linked to raw drinking milk (RDM) or products made using raw milk, involving 229 people; 36 of these were hospitalised. There followed an eleven-year period (2003–2013) where no outbreaks linked to RDM were reported. However, since 2014 seven outbreaks of Escherichia coli O157:H7 (n = 3) or Campylobacter jejuni (n = 4) caused by contaminated RDM were investigated and reported. Between 2014 and 2017, there were 114 cases, five reported hospitalisations and one death. The data presented within this review indicated that the risk of RDM has increased since 2014. Despite the labelling requirements and recommendations that children should not consume RDM, almost a third of outbreak cases were children. In addition, there has been an increase in consumer popularity and in registered RDM producers in the UK. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) continue to provide advice on RDM to consumers and have recently made additional recommendations to enhance existing controls around registration and hygiene of RDM producers.

Global public health leadership for the twenty-first century: Towards improved health of all populations

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (sup1) ◽  
pp. S5-S15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda P. Fried ◽  
Peter Piot ◽  
Julio J. Frenk ◽  
Antoine Flahault ◽  
Richard Parker
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
First Century ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Health Leadership ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Public Health Leadership

Evaluating Community-Based Public Health Leadership Training

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 344-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion Ceraso ◽  
Kirsten Gruebling ◽  
Peter Layde ◽  
Patrick Remington ◽  
Barbara Hill ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Leadership Training ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Health Leadership ◽  
Public Health Leadership
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