Qualitative Research: Institutional Preparedness During Threats of Infectious Disease Outbreaks

Background. As demonstrated during the global Ebola crisis of 2014–2016, healthcare institutions in high resource settings need support concerning preparedness during threats of infectious disease outbreaks. This study aimed to exploratively develop a standardized preparedness system to use during unfolding threats of severe infectious diseases. Methods. A qualitative three-step study among infectious disease prevention and control experts was performed. First, interviews (n=5) were conducted to identify which factors trigger preparedness activities during an unfolding threat. Second, these triggers informed the design of a phased preparedness system which was tested in a focus group discussion (n=11). Here preparedness activities per phase and per healthcare institution were identified. Third, the preparedness system was completed and verified in individual interviews (n=3). Interviews and the focus group were recorded, transcribed, and coded for emerging themes by two researchers independently. Data were analyzed using content analysis. Results. Four preparedness phases were identified: preparedness phase green is a situation without the presence of the infectious disease threat that requires centralized care, anywhere in the world. Phase yellow is an outbreak in the world with some likelihood of imported cases. Phase orange is a realistic chance of an unexpected case within the country, or unrest developing among population or staff; phase red is cases admitted to hospitals in the country, potentially causing a shortage of resources. Specific preparedness activities included infection prevention, diagnostics, patient care, staff, and communication. Consensus was reached on the need for the development of a preparedness system and national coordination during threats. Conclusions. In this study, we developed a standardized system to support institutional preparedness during an increasing threat. Use of this system by both curative healthcare institutions and the (municipal) public health service, could help to effectively communicate and align preparedness activities during future threats of severe infectious diseases.

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A New Model for Predicting Infectious Disease Outbreaks

Medical Research Archives ◽

10.18103/mra.v8i10.2255 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (10) ◽

Author(s):

Peter Demitry ◽

Darren McKnight ◽

Erin Dale ◽

Elizabeth Bartlett

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Infectious Disease ◽

Infectious Diseases ◽

Early Warning ◽

Preventive Intervention ◽

Disease Outbreaks ◽

World Health ◽

Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽

Health Authorities ◽

The World

This project integrated tools and hybrid methodologies historically used for early warning, intelligence, counter space, public health, informatics, and medical surveillance applications. A multidiscipline team assembled and explored non-medical prediction and analytical techniques that successfully predict critical events for low probability but high-regret national and global scenarios. The team then created novel approaches needed to fill nuanced and unique gaps for the infectious disease prediction challenge. The team adopted and applied those proven procedures to determine which would be efficacious in foretelling infectious disease outbreaks around the world. One outcome of that effort was a successful two-year development and validation project designated ‘RAID’ (Risk Awareness Framework for Infectious Diseases), which focused on malaria prediction. The project’s objective was to maximize the warning (prediction) window of impending malaria epidemic outbreaks with sufficient time to allow meaningful preventive intervention before widespread human infection. It is generally recognized the more protracted the prediction window extends before an event, the more time available for health authorities to muster and deploy resources, which lessen morbidity, mortality, and harmful economic effects. Also, the value of early warning for an imminent epidemic must have mitigation options, or the warning window would have no beneficial impact on health outcomes. Finally, early notice is preferable over surprise epidemics, as unexpected waves of patients seeking acute care can easily overwhelm most local medical systems, as history repeatedly teaches. This cliché keeps repeating, with recurring Ebola epidemics and the recent COVID-19 pandemic as prominent exemplars. Predictive lead times need to be adequate for an intervention to be relevant. RAID’s focus on malaria prediction met these criteria from a relevant clinical and humanitarian perspective. Subsequent papers will address successful external generalization of these methods in predicting other similar infectious diseases. The model presented in this manuscript supports the conclusion that an additional two weeks advance notice could be available to public health authorities utilizing these techniques. This foreknowledge would allow the deployment of limited health resources into areas where they would do the most good and just in time. The geographical specificity was examined down to 5 km x 5 km grid squares overlaid anywhere in the world. Most of the model’s input data were derived from remote sensing satellite sources that could combine with historical WHO (World Health Organization) or nation-reported existential pathogen loads to improve model accuracy; however, such data harmonization is not required. If ground sensors were integrated into the modeling, the confidence of the risk of infection would logically improve. The model provides a successful global risk assessment via commercially available remote space sensors, even without ground sensing. RAID provides a necessary and useful preliminary means to predictive situational awareness. This improved predictive awareness is sufficiently granular to identify last chance windows for public health interventions globally. This need will become even more pronounced as infectious diseases evolve biologically and migrate geographically at ever-increasing rates.

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Infectious disease outbreaks in the African region: overview of events reported to the World Health Organization in 2018

Epidemiology and Infection ◽

10.1017/s0950268819001912 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 147 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

F. Mboussou ◽

P. Ndumbi ◽

R. Ngom ◽

Z. Kassamali ◽

O. Ogundiran ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Infectious Disease ◽

Disease Onset ◽

Disease Outbreaks ◽

Case Fatality ◽

World Health ◽

African Region ◽

Regional Office ◽

Member States ◽

Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽

The World

Abstract The WHO African region is characterised by the largest infectious disease burden in the world. We conducted a retrospective descriptive analysis using records of all infectious disease outbreaks formally reported to the WHO in 2018 by Member States of the African region. We analysed the spatio-temporal distribution, the notification delay as well as the morbidity and mortality associated with these outbreaks. In 2018, 96 new disease outbreaks were reported across 36 of the 47 Member States. The most commonly reported disease outbreak was cholera which accounted for 20.8% (n = 20) of all events, followed by measles (n = 11, 11.5%) and Yellow fever (n = 7, 7.3%). About a quarter of the outbreaks (n = 23) were reported following signals detected through media monitoring conducted at the WHO regional office for Africa. The median delay between the disease onset and WHO notification was 16 days (range: 0–184). A total of 107 167 people were directly affected including 1221 deaths (mean case fatality ratio (CFR): 1.14% (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07%–1.20%)). The highest CFR was observed for diseases targeted for eradication or elimination: 3.45% (95% CI 0.89%–10.45%). The African region remains prone to outbreaks of infectious diseases. It is therefore critical that Member States improve their capacities to rapidly detect, report and respond to public health events.

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An evaluation of emergency guidelines issued by the World Health Organization in response to four infectious disease outbreaks

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0198125 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

pp. e0198125 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Susan L. Norris ◽

Veronica Ivey Sawin ◽

Mauricio Ferri ◽

Laura Raques Sastre ◽

Teegwendé V. Porgo

Keyword(s):

Infectious Disease ◽

World Health Organization ◽

Disease Outbreaks ◽

World Health ◽

Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽

The World ◽

Health Organization

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Global mapping of infectious disease

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2012.0250 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 368 (1614) ◽

pp. 20120250 ◽

Cited By ~ 110

Author(s):

Simon I. Hay ◽

Katherine E. Battle ◽

David M. Pigott ◽

David L. Smith ◽

Catherine L. Moyes ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Infectious Disease ◽

Infectious Diseases ◽

Disease Outbreaks ◽

Data Sources ◽

Global Burden ◽

Rapid Improvement ◽

Disease Evolution ◽

Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽

Disease Occurrence ◽

Global Mapping

The primary aim of this review was to evaluate the state of knowledge of the geographical distribution of all infectious diseases of clinical significance to humans. A systematic review was conducted to enumerate cartographic progress, with respect to the data available for mapping and the methods currently applied. The results helped define the minimum information requirements for mapping infectious disease occurrence, and a quantitative framework for assessing the mapping opportunities for all infectious diseases. This revealed that of 355 infectious diseases identified, 174 (49%) have a strong rationale for mapping and of these only 7 (4%) had been comprehensively mapped. A variety of ambitions, such as the quantification of the global burden of infectious disease, international biosurveillance, assessing the likelihood of infectious disease outbreaks and exploring the propensity for infectious disease evolution and emergence, are limited by these omissions. An overview of the factors hindering progress in disease cartography is provided. It is argued that rapid improvement in the landscape of infectious diseases mapping can be made by embracing non-conventional data sources, automation of geo-positioning and mapping procedures enabled by machine learning and information technology, respectively, in addition to harnessing labour of the volunteer ‘cognitive surplus’ through crowdsourcing.

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Developing an Online Infectious Disease Outbreak Database: Codifying the World Health Organization’s Disease Outbreak News reports

10.21203/rs.3.rs-33473/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Rebecca Katz ◽

Colin J Carlson ◽

Munir C Pavez ◽

Jessica Lin ◽

Max A Palys ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Infectious Disease ◽

Disease Outbreaks ◽

Primary Source ◽

Disease Outbreak ◽

World Health ◽

Health Priorities ◽

Current Form ◽

Reporting Practices ◽

Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽

The World

Abstract Background: The World Health Organization’s Disease Outbreak News (DONs) reports are the world’s primary source of official information on global disease outbreaks. Access to this information is crucial for informing research analyses, global health priorities, and decision making. However, in its current form, the utility of the DONs reports for research and analysis is limited as a result of their reporting format. To this end, we designed a standardized methodology for codifying the data contained in DONs reports and created an online, searchable database. Methods: We coded DONs reports published between the years 1996 and 2019, systematically collecting data from each individual report using a standardized methodology and tabulating data into a single spreadsheet. We created a Year-Pathogen-Country taxonomy to group related disease events and circumvent issues related to reporting inconsistencies in DONs reports.Results: In total, we reviewed 2,806 DONs reports corresponding to 1,105 unique infectious disease outbreaks from 1996-2019. Overall, H5N1 represented the most frequently reported disease, while China was the country with the most reports. We observed the DONs reports to contain numerous issues relating to the standardization, accuracy, and transparency of reporting procedures.Conclusions: Our database represents a new, accessible resource for research that improves the accessibility of the data contained in DONs reports. The World Health Organization should consider standardizing reporting practices, protocols, and procedures as a means of improving the reporting and transparency of infectious disease outbreaks.Trial Registration: N/A

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Preventing Zoonotic Emerging Disease Outbreaks: The Need to Complement One Health with Ethical Considerations

Journal of Applied Animal Ethics Research ◽

10.1163/25889567-bja10011 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-11

Author(s):

Angela K. Martin ◽

Salome Dürr

Keyword(s):

Infectious Disease ◽

Infectious Diseases ◽

One Health ◽

Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽

Disease Outbreaks ◽

Interdisciplinary Approach ◽

Wild Animals ◽

Ethical Considerations ◽

Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽

Human Animal

Abstract Human encroachment on the habitats of wild animals and the dense living conditions of farmed animals increase spill-over risk of emerging infectious diseases from animals to humans (such as COVID-19). In this article, we defend two claims: First, we argue that in order to limit the risk of emerging infectious disease outbreaks in the future, a One Health approach is needed, which focuses on human, animal, and environmental health. Second, we claim that One Health should not solely be grounded in collaborations between veterinary, medical, and environmental scientists, but should also involve more dialogue with animal and environmental ethicists. Such an interdisciplinary approach would result in epidemiology-driven measures that are ethically legitimate.

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Infectious Diseases, Stock Market Volatility, and Public Opinion on Home Buying in the United States: Implications from COVID-19 and Beyond

Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal ◽

10.14738/assrj.77.8731 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (7) ◽

pp. 859-871

Author(s):

Christopher Olds

Keyword(s):

Infectious Disease ◽

Infectious Diseases ◽

Significant Risk ◽

Disease Outbreaks ◽

Equity Markets ◽

The United States ◽

Market Volatility ◽

Stock Market Volatility ◽

Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽

Buying In

The study evaluates whether there are limits to an excess in consumptive behaviors during periods where infectious disease outbreaks produce unpredictable changes in equity markets. While there is evidence of panic buying in these periods such that people increasingly acquire goods that they do not actually need, this does not mean that people will acquire items if their purchase has significant risk tied to them. Using time series information across 35 years, the empirical analyses show that people are less likely to think buying a home is a good idea due to change in the level of equity market volatility brought about by infectious diseases. Even though panic buying occurs during epidemics and pandemics, this is not an indication that decision-making about purchases is wholly irrational. In uncertain times when infectious disease outbreaks make equity markets unpredictable, people rationally seek to minimize the level of personal losses they experience as much as possible.

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Rasulullah Saw. dan Pencegahan Wabah Covid-19: Studi Tematik Hadis-hadis Penyakit Menular

Jurnal Penelitian Ilmu Ushuluddin ◽

10.15575/jpiu.12461 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1 (3) ◽

pp. 147-167

Author(s):

Dede Mardiana

Keyword(s):

Infectious Disease ◽

Qualitative Research ◽

Infectious Diseases ◽

Disease Outbreaks ◽

Literature Study ◽

The World ◽

Thematic Approach ◽

Modern Era ◽

Research Show

This research was motivated by the outbreak of Covid-19 that occurred in various parts of the world, including Indonesia. This study aims to discuss the practice of the Prophet Muhammad according to the hadith regarding disease outbreaks regarding the prevention of the Covid-19 pandemic. This research is a qualitative research through literature study using the syarah hadith method with a thematic approach. The results and discussion of this research show that the practice of the Prophet Muhammad according to the hadith themes of disease outbreaks after sharah, including social infections, quarantine for the infected, and taking treatment as a preventive and cure, where this is a practice applied in the prevention of the Covid-19 pandemic in the modern era. This study concludes that the Prophet's practice with regard to the prevention of infectious diseases according to syarah has been implemented as the most effective step to break the chain of the spread of the Covid-19 infectious disease that is happening in various parts of the world including Indonesia.

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Comparative Study on Early Warning Methods of Infectious Diseases

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/202125103084 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 251 ◽

pp. 03084

Author(s):

Song-nian Hu ◽

Xiao Cheng ◽

Dan Chen

Keyword(s):

Infectious Disease ◽

Infectious Diseases ◽

Early Warning ◽

Early Warning System ◽

Disease Outbreaks ◽

Warning System ◽

Early Warning Systems ◽

Warning Systems ◽

Social Unrest ◽

Infectious Disease Outbreaks

Major epidemics of infectious diseases will not only endanger people’s lives and property, but also cause panic and social unrest. Therefore, it is particularly important to establish an infectious disease early warning system and take effective measures in time to prevent infectious disease outbreaks. The article summarizes the relevant definitions of infectious disease early warning system, domestic and foreign development status, infectious disease early warning models and methods, and aims to provide references for the establishment of infectious disease early warning systems.

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