scholarly journals Innovation and Challenges in Funding Rapid Research Responses to Emerging Infectious Diseases: Lessons Learned from the Outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome

2004 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 167-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhagirath Singh
Keyword(s):  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Local Public Health ◽  
National Network

Although the local public health response to the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in Canada was critical to the diagnosis, management and treatment of patients, such a rapid research response required a national effort to engage the research and stakeholder communities. The Canadian research effort, coordinated through the Institute of Infection and Immunity of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, has provided insight into the mechanisms required to ensure the rapid development of strategical initiatives in response to emerging infectious diseases. It has also provided a rational basis to set up a national network to be engaged if needed in the future.

scholarly journals Rapid Development, Training, and Implementation of a Remote Health Profession’s Student Volunteer Corps During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 003335492110425
Author(s):  
Caley A. Satterfield ◽  
Michael L. Goodman ◽  
Philip Keiser ◽  
Cara Pennel ◽  
Aleisha Elliott ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Clinical Rotations ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Student Volunteer ◽  
Galveston County

Public health in the United States has long been challenged by budget cuts and a declining workforce. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities left by years of neglecting this crucial frontline defense against emerging infectious diseases. In the early days of the pandemic, the University of Texas Medical Branch and the Galveston County Health District (GCHD) partnered to bolster Galveston County’s public health response. We mobilized interprofessional teams of students and provided training to implement projects identified by GCHD as necessary for responding to the pandemic. We provided a safe outlet for students to contribute to their community by creating remote volunteer opportunities when students faced displacement from clinical rotations and in-person didactics converted to virtual formats. As students gradually returned to clinical rotations and didactic demands increased, it became necessary to expand volunteer efforts beyond what had initially been mostly hand-selected student teams. We have passed the initial emergency response phase of COVID-19 in Galveston County and are transitioning into more long-term opportunities as COVID-19 moves from pandemic to endemic. In this case study, we describe our successes and lessons learned.

Bats as the reservoir for outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases

2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (45) ◽  
Author(s):  
C J Williams
Keyword(s):  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
Natural Reservoir

A study from China has provided evidence that bats may be the natural reservoir for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV)

scholarly journals Pandemic Prevention: Lessons from COVID-19

Encyclopedia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 433-444
Author(s):  
Mario Coccia
Keyword(s):  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Health System ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Policy Responses

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which appeared in late 2019, generating a pandemic crisis with high numbers of COVID-19-related infected individuals and deaths in manifold countries worldwide. Lessons learned from COVID-19 can be used to prevent pandemic threats by designing strategies to support different policy responses, not limited to the health system, directed to reduce the risks of the emergence of novel viral agents, the diffusion of infectious diseases and negative impact in society.

scholarly journals Multiomics: unraveling the panoramic landscapes of SARS-CoV-2 infection

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 2313-2324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Wang ◽  
Gang Xu ◽  
Xiaoju Liu ◽  
Yang Liu ◽  
Shuye Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Immune Responses ◽  
Single Cell ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
Pathogenic Mechanisms ◽  
Host Immune Responses ◽  
Mechanistic Understanding

AbstractIn response to emerging infectious diseases, such as the recent pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), it is critical to quickly identify and understand responsible pathogens, risk factors, host immune responses, and pathogenic mechanisms at both the molecular and cellular levels. The recent development of multiomic technologies, including genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and single-cell transcriptomics, has enabled a fast and panoramic grasp of the pathogen and the disease. Here, we systematically reviewed the major advances in the virology, immunology, and pathogenic mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 infection that have been achieved via multiomic technologies. Based on well-established cohorts, omics-based methods can greatly enhance the mechanistic understanding of diseases, contributing to the development of new diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines for emerging infectious diseases, such as COVID-19.

scholarly journals New coronavirus outbreak. Lessons learned from the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic

2015 ◽  
Vol 143 (13) ◽  
pp. 2882-2893 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. ÁLVAREZ ◽  
J. DONADO-CAMPOS ◽  
F. MORILLA
Keyword(s):  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
System Dynamics ◽  
Iterative Process ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Networked Systems ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Algebraic Equations ◽  
Auxiliary Variables

SUMMARYSystem dynamics approach offers great potential for addressing how intervention policies can affect the spread of emerging infectious diseases in complex and highly networked systems. Here, we develop a model that explains the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) epidemic that occurred in Hong Kong in 2003. The dynamic model developed with system dynamics methodology included 23 variables (five states, four flows, eight auxiliary variables, six parameters), five differential equations and 12 algebraic equations. The parameters were optimized following an iterative process of simulation to fit the real data from the epidemics. Univariate and multivariate sensitivity analyses were performed to determine the reliability of the model. In addition, we discuss how further testing using this model can inform community interventions to reduce the risk in current and future outbreaks, such as the recently Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) epidemic.

scholarly journals Emerging infectious diseases: A proactive approach

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (16) ◽  
pp. 4055-4059 ◽  
Author(s):  
David E. Bloom ◽  
Steven Black ◽  
Rino Rappuoli
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Population Aging ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Leadership Role ◽  
World Health ◽  
Regulatory Processes ◽  
Health Organization

Infectious diseases are now emerging or reemerging almost every year. This trend will continue because a number of factors, including the increased global population, aging, travel, urbanization, and climate change, favor the emergence, evolution, and spread of new pathogens. The approach used so far for emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) does not work from the technical point of view, and it is not sustainable. However, the advent of platform technologies offers vaccine manufacturers an opportunity to develop new vaccines faster and to reduce the investment to build manufacturing facilities, in addition to allowing for the possible streamlining of regulatory processes. The new technologies also make possible the rapid development of human monoclonal antibodies that could become a potent immediate response to an emergency. So far, several proposals to approach EIDs have been made independently by scientists, the private sector, national governments, and international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO). While each of them has merit, there is a need for a global governance that is capable of taking a strong leadership role and making it attractive to all partners to come to the same table and to coordinate the global approach.

scholarly journals A signaling pathway-driven bioinformatics pipeline for predicting therapeutics against emerging infectious diseases

F1000Research ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 330
Author(s):  
Tiana M. Scott ◽  
Sam Jensen ◽  
Brett E. Pickett
Keyword(s):  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Influenza A ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
Infectious Agent ◽  
Sequencing Data ◽  
Bioinformatics Pipeline ◽  
Syncytial Virus ◽  
Approved Drugs

Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), the etiological agent of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), is a novel Betacoronavirus that was first reported in Wuhan, China in December of 2019. The virus has since caused a worldwide pandemic that highlights the need to quickly identify potential prophylactic or therapeutic treatments that can reduce the signs, symptoms, and/or spread of disease when dealing with a novel infectious agent. To combat this problem, we constructed a computational pipeline that uniquely combines existing tools to predict drugs and biologics that could be repurposed to combat an emerging pathogen. Methods: Our workflow analyzes RNA-sequencing data to determine differentially expressed genes, enriched Gene Ontology (GO) terms, and dysregulated pathways in infected cells, which can then be used to identify US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs that target human proteins within these pathways. We used this pipeline to perform a meta-analysis of RNA-seq data from cells infected with three Betacoronavirus species including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV; SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV; MERS), and SARS-CoV-2, as well as respiratory syncytial virus and influenza A virus to identify therapeutics that could be used to treat COVID-19.  Results: This analysis identified twelve existing drugs, most of which already have FDA-approval, that are predicted to counter the effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection. These results were cross-referenced with interventional clinical trials and other studies in the literature to identify drugs on our list that had previously been identified or used as treatments for COIVD-19 including canakinumab, anakinra, tocilizumab, sarilumab, and baricitinib. Conclusions: While the results reported here are specific to Betacoronaviruses, such as SARS-CoV-2, our bioinformatics pipeline can be used to quickly identify candidate therapeutics for future emerging infectious diseases.

scholarly journals Active surveillance of acute paediatric hospitalisations demonstrates the impact of vaccination programmes and informs vaccine policy in Canada and Australia

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (25) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karina A Top ◽  
Kristine Macartney ◽  
Julie A Bettinger ◽  
Ben Tan ◽  
Christopher C Blyth ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Active Surveillance ◽  
Influenza A ◽  
Monitoring Program ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
Emerging Infections ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Influenza A H1n1 ◽  
The Impact

Sentinel surveillance of acute hospitalisations in response to infectious disease emergencies such as the 2009 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 pandemic is well described, but recognition of its potential to supplement routine public health surveillance and provide scalability for emergency responses has been limited. We summarise the achievements of two national paediatric hospital surveillance networks relevant to vaccine programmes and emerging infectious diseases in Canada (Canadian Immunization Monitoring Program Active; IMPACT from 1991) and Australia (Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance; PAEDS from 2007) and discuss opportunities and challenges in applying their model to other contexts. Both networks were established to enhance capacity to measure vaccine preventable disease burden, vaccine programme impact, and safety, with their scope occasionally being increased with emerging infectious diseases’ surveillance. Their active surveillance has increased data accuracy and utility for syndromic conditions (e.g. encephalitis), pathogen-specific diseases (e.g. pertussis, rotavirus, influenza), and adverse events following immunisation (e.g. febrile seizure), enabled correlation of biological specimens with clinical context and supported responses to emerging infections (e.g. pandemic influenza, parechovirus, COVID-19). The demonstrated long-term value of continuous, rather than incident-related, operation of these networks in strengthening routine surveillance, bridging research gaps, and providing scalable public health response, supports their applicability to other countries.

scholarly journals Serologic Tools and Strategies to Support Intervention Trials to Combat Zika Virus Infection and Disease

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew H. Collins
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Virus Infection ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Zika Virus ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Sexual Transmission ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
World Health ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Zika Virus Infection

Zika virus is an emerging mosquito-borne flavivirus that recently caused a large epidemic in Latin America characterized by novel disease phenotypes, including Guillain-Barré syndrome, sexual transmission, and congenital anomalies, such as microcephaly. This epidemic, which was declared an international public health emergency by the World Health Organization, has highlighted shortcomings in our current understanding of, and preparation for, emerging infectious diseases in general, as well as challenges that are specific to Zika virus infection. Vaccine development for Zika virus has been a high priority of the public health response, and several candidates have shown promise in pre-clinical and early phase clinical trials. The optimal selection and implementation of imperfect serologic assays are among the crucial issues that must be addressed in order to advance Zika vaccine development. Here, I review key considerations for how best to incorporate into Zika vaccine trials the existing serologic tools, as well as those on the horizon. Beyond that, this discussion is relevant to other intervention strategies to combat Zika and likely other emerging infectious diseases.

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