scholarly journals Cost-Effective Control of Infectious Disease Outbreaks Accounting for Societal Reaction

PLoS ONE ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. e0136059 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon M. Fast ◽  
Marta C. González ◽  
Natasha Markuzon
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Effective Control ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Societal Reaction

scholarly journals What is the best control strategy for multiple infectious disease outbreaks?

2006 ◽  
Vol 274 (1611) ◽  
pp. 833-837 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Handel ◽  
Ira M Longini ◽  
Rustom Antia
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Control Strategy ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Effective Control ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Intervention Measures ◽  
Travel Restrictions ◽  
Public Health Goal

Effective control of infectious disease outbreaks is an important public health goal. In a number of recent studies, it has been shown how different intervention measures like travel restrictions, school closures, treatment and prophylaxis might allow us to control outbreaks of diseases, such as SARS, pandemic influenza and others. In these studies, control of a single outbreak is considered. It is, however, not clear how one should handle a situation where multiple outbreaks are likely to occur. Here, we identify the best control strategy for such a situation. We further discuss ways in which such a strategy can be implemented to achieve additional public health objectives.

scholarly journals Addressing Disease-Related Stigma During Infectious Disease Outbreaks

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 989-994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah S. Fischer ◽  
Gordon Mansergh ◽  
Jonathan Lynch ◽  
Scott Santibanez
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Zika Virus ◽  
Ebola Virus ◽  
Virus Disease ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Ebola Virus Disease ◽  
Effective Control ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Influenza A H1n1 ◽  
Related Stigma

ABSTRACTOutbreaks of emerging infectious disease are a constant threat. In the last 10 years, there have been outbreaks of 2009 influenza A (H1N1), Ebola virus disease, and Zika virus. Stigma associated with infectious disease can be a barrier to adopting healthy behaviors, leading to more severe health problems, ongoing disease transmission, and difficulty controlling infectious disease outbreaks. Much has been learned about infectious disease and stigma in the context of nearly 4 decades of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome pandemic. In this paper, we define stigma, discuss its relevance to infectious disease outbreaks, including how individuals and communities can be affected. Adapting lessons learned from the rich literature on HIV-related stigma, we propose a strategy for reducing stigma during infectious disease outbreaks such as Ebola virus disease and Zika virus. The implementation of brief, practical strategies such as the ones proposed here might help reduce stigma and facilitate more effective control of emerging infectious diseases.

Rodent-borne infectious disease outbreaks after flooding disasters: Epidemiology, management, and prevention

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 459 ◽  
Author(s):  
James H. Diaz, MD, DrPH
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Heavy Rainfall ◽  
Clinical Manifestations ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Hemorrhagic Fever ◽  
The United States ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Effective Control ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks

Objective: To alert clinicians to the climatic conditions that can precipitate outbreaks of the rodent-borne infectious diseases most often associated with flooding disasters, leptospirosis (LS), and the Hantavirus-caused diseases, hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS); to describe the epidemiology and presenting clinical manifestations and outcomes of these rodent-borne infectious diseases; and to recommend both prophylactic therapies and effective control and prevention strategies for rodent-borne infectious diseases.Design: Internet search engines, including Google®, Google Scholar®, Pub Med, Medline, and Ovid, were queried with the key words as search terms to examine the latest scientific articles on rodent-borne infectious disease outbreaks in the United States and worldwide to describe the epidemiology and presenting clinical manifestations and outcomes of LS and Hantavirus outbreaks.Setting: Not applicable.Participants: Not applicable.Interventions: Not applicable.Main outcome measure: Rodent-borne infectious disease outbreaks following heavy rainfall and flooding disasters.Results: Heavy rainfall encourages excessive wild grass seed production that supports increased outdoor rodent population densities; and flooding forces rodents from their burrows near water sources into the built environment and closer to humans. Conclusions: Healthcare providers should maintain high levels of suspicion for LS in patients developing febrile illnesses after contaminated freshwater exposures following heavy rainfall, flooding, and evenfreshwater recreational events; and for Hantavirus-caused infectious diseases in patients with hemorrhagic fevers that progress rapidly to respiratory or renal failure following rodent exposures.

scholarly journals Quantifying the hidden costs of imperfect detection for early detection surveillance

2019 ◽  
Vol 374 (1776) ◽  
pp. 20180261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander J. Mastin ◽  
Frank van den Bosch ◽  
Femke van den Berg ◽  
Stephen R. Parnell
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Early Detection ◽  
Test Performance ◽  
Performance Test ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Phytophthora Ramorum ◽  
Detection Methods ◽  
Effective Control ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks

The global spread of pathogens poses an increasing threat to health, ecosystems and agriculture worldwide. As early detection of new incursions is key to effective control, new diagnostic tests that can detect pathogen presence shortly after initial infection hold great potential for detection of infection in individual hosts. However, these tests may be too expensive to be implemented at the sampling intensities required for early detection of a new epidemic at the population level. To evaluate the trade-off between earlier and/or more reliable detection and higher deployment costs, we need to consider the impacts of test performance, test cost and pathogen epidemiology. Regarding test performance, the period before new infections can be first detected and the probability of detecting them are of particular importance. We propose a generic framework that can be easily used to evaluate a variety of different detection methods and identify important characteristics of the pathogen and the detection method to consider when planning early detection surveillance. We demonstrate the application of our method using the plant pathogen Phytophthora ramorum in the UK, and find that visual inspec-tion for this pathogen is a more cost-effective strategy for early detection surveillance than an early detection diagnostic test. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Modelling infectious disease outbreaks in humans, animals and plants: epidemic forecasting and control’. This theme issue is linked with the earlier issue ‘Modelling infectious disease outbreaks in humans, animals and plants: approaches and important themes’.

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

2019 ◽  
Vol 147 ◽  
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.

scholarly journals Statistical methods for the prospective detection of infectious disease outbreaks: a review

2011 ◽  
Vol 175 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steffen Unkel ◽  
C. Paddy Farrington ◽  
Paul H. Garthwaite ◽  
Chris Robertson ◽  
Nick Andrews
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Statistical Methods ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks

scholarly journals Dot map cartograms for detection of infectious disease outbreaks: an application to Q fever, the Netherlands and pertussis, Germany

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (26) ◽  
Author(s):  
Loes Soetens ◽  
Susan Hahné ◽  
Jacco Wallinga
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Q Fever ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Point Pattern ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Public Health Professionals ◽  
Potential Source ◽  
High Incidence ◽  
And Control

Geographical mapping of infectious diseases is an important tool for detecting and characterising outbreaks. Two common mapping methods, dot maps and incidence maps, have important shortcomings. The former does not represent population density and can compromise case privacy, and the latter relies on pre-defined administrative boundaries. We propose a method that overcomes these limitations: dot map cartograms. These create a point pattern of cases while reshaping spatial units, such that spatial area becomes proportional to population size. We compared these dot map cartograms with standard dot maps and incidence maps on four criteria, using two example datasets. Dot map cartograms were able to illustrate both incidence and absolute numbers of cases (criterion 1): they revealed potential source locations (Q fever, the Netherlands) and clusters with high incidence (pertussis, Germany). Unlike incidence maps, they were insensitive to choices regarding spatial scale (criterion 2). Dot map cartograms ensured the privacy of cases (criterion 3) by spatial distortion; however, this occurred at the expense of recognition of locations (criterion 4). We demonstrate that dot map cartograms are a valuable method for detection and visualisation of infectious disease outbreaks, which facilitates informed and appropriate actions by public health professionals, to investigate and control outbreaks.

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