A System-Level Intervention to Encourage Collaboration Between Juvenile Justice and Public Health Agencies to Promote HIV/STI Testing

Justice-involved youth are at high risk for HIV and STIs, and justice agencies are uniquely poised to offer HIV/STI testing. However, testing in these settings is not routine and represents a missed opportunity. This study describes a system-level implementation intervention designed to increase access to HIV/STI testing through juvenile justice (JJ) and public health agency collaboration across six counties in six states in the United States. Local change teams, active facilitation, and training were utilized to facilitate agency partnerships and development of HIV/STI practice change protocols. Five counties established health and JJ partnerships and four counties successfully implemented their protocols. Sites with HIV/STI education and testing protocols behaviorally screened 98.5% of youth and tested 41.2% of those youth; 0% were HIV+ and 43.2% had an STI. The intervention provides a feasible, scalable solution, through promoting partnerships between JJ and health agencies, to link youth to testing and treatment services.

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The Contribution of Residents Who Cooperate With Ring-Vaccination Measures Against Smallpox Epidemic

Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness ◽

10.1001/dmp.2012.45 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 6 (3) ◽

pp. 270-276 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Hiroki Sato ◽

Yutaka Sakurai

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Health Agency ◽

The United States ◽

Public Health Agencies ◽

The Public ◽

Level Of Activity ◽

Health Agencies ◽

Ring Vaccination ◽

Containment Measures ◽

Voluntary Cooperation

ABSTRACTObjectives: Establishing containment measures against the potential spread of the smallpox virus has become a major issue in the public health field since the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States. The primary objective of the study was to investigate the relationship between the level of activity of public health agencies and the voluntary cooperation of residents with ring-vaccination measures against a smallpox epidemic.Methods: A discrete-time, stochastic, individual-based model was used to simulate the spread of a smallpox epidemic that has become a more pressing topic due to 9/11 and to assess the effectiveness of and required resources for ring-vaccination measures in a closed community. In the simulation, we related sensitive tracing to the level of activity of the public health agency and strict isolation to the level of voluntary cooperation from residents.Results: Our results suggest that early and intensive case detection and contact tracing by public health agencies can reduce the scale of an epidemic and use fewer total resources. In contrast, voluntary reporting by the traced contacts of symptom onset after vaccination had little impact on the scale of epidemic in our model. However, it reduced the total required resources, indicating that citizens' voluntary cooperation would contribute to reducing the burden on public health agencies.Conclusions: We conclude that a combined effort on the part of public health agencies and residents in performing containment measures is essential to quickly ending a smallpox epidemic.(Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2012;6:270–276)

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International Perspectives on COVID-19 Communication Ecologies: Public Health Agencies’ Online Communication in Italy, Sweden, and the United States

American Behavioral Scientist ◽

10.1177/0002764221992832 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 000276422199283

Author(s):

Serena Tagliacozzo ◽

Frederike Albrecht ◽

N. Emel Ganapati

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

United States ◽

Social Groups ◽

Online Communication ◽

The United States ◽

Negative Consequences ◽

Public Health Agencies ◽

Communication Ecology ◽

Health Agencies ◽

National Public Health

Communicating during a crisis can be challenging for public agencies as their communication ecology becomes increasingly complex while the need for fast and reliable public communication remains high. Using the lens of communication ecology, this study examines the online communication of national public health agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, Sweden, and the United States. Based on content analysis of Twitter data ( n = 856) and agency press releases ( n = 95), this article investigates two main questions: (1) How, and to what extent, did national public health agencies coordinate their online communication with other agencies and organizations? (2) How was online communication from the agencies diversified in terms of targeting specific organizations and social groups? Our findings indicate that public health agencies relied heavily on internal scientific expertise and predominately coordinated their communication efforts with national government agencies. Furthermore, our analysis reveals that agencies in each country differed in how they diversify information; however, all agencies provided tailored information to at least some organizations and social groups. Across the three countries, information tailored for several vulnerable groups (e.g., pregnant women, people with disabilities, immigrants, and homeless populations) was largely absent, which may contribute to negative consequences for these groups.

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Outdoor Recreationists’ Perceptions of Risk, Agency Trust, and Visitor Capacities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Journal of Park and Recreation Administration ◽

10.18666/jpra-2021-10730 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

William Rice ◽

Timothy Mateer ◽

Peter Newman ◽

Ben Lawhon ◽

Nathan Reigner ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Perceived Risk ◽

Outdoor Recreation ◽

Public Lands ◽

The United States ◽

Individual Risk ◽

Public Health Agencies ◽

Management Actions ◽

Health Agencies ◽

Community Risk

For nearly a century in the United States, visitor capacities have served as a means of preserving resources and the visitor experience on public lands. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in increased interest in implementing visitor capacities that could potentially limit use on public lands, suggesting a need to understand public support for their use in a timely manner. Risk and trust have been used in previous research concerning support for natural resource and outdoor recreation decision-making. Research in this realm includes investigation at the intersection of outdoor recreation and public health, specific to chronic wasting disease. Following this previous research, this study utilizes the constructs of risk and trust to examine support for visitor capacities that could potentially limit use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, this theory-driven research relies on the cultural theory of risk and social trust theory. Using structural equation modeling and a sample of avid outdoor enthusiasts, we examine how well 1) perceived individual risk, 2) perceived community risk, 3) trust in public health agencies, and 4) trust in public land agencies predict support for visitor capacities that could potentially limit use. An email-distributed online survey was available for 48 hours beginning on April 30, 2020—during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Measurement of perceived risk and trust followed previous research relating to outdoor recreation and public health. Results indicate that outdoor enthusiasts are concerned about their individual and community health and reported higher levels of trust in data coming directly from public health agencies as opposed to state or federal land management agencies. Additionally, perceived individual risk and perceived community risk were significant predictors of support for visitor capacities. These findings can be used to improve the effectiveness of messaging intended to connect perceived risk to the management of parks and protected areas, thus providing credibility to management actions implemented during the pandemic. Additional implications from this research include the need for additional research examining support for management actions that could potentially limit use on public lands, the multidimensionality of trust in outdoor recreation, and individual risk in frontcountry outdoor recreation settings.

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Case Studies and Caveats

The Perils of Partnership ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190907082.003.0006 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 83-101

Author(s):

Jonathan H. Marks

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

United States ◽

Case Studies ◽

The United States ◽

Framing Effects ◽

Noncommunicable Diseases ◽

Systemic Effects ◽

Public Health Agencies ◽

Health Agencies ◽

Food And Beverage

This chapter outlines several partnership case studies involving the food and beverage sector, especially soda companies. These case studies are drawn from the United States, Britain, and India. The analysis highlights certain problematic features—for example, use of corporate logos, trademarks, and color schemes that are likely to promote consumption of products that are exacerbating obesity and diet-related noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). But, more fundamentally, the analysis ties the case studies to the broader systemic effects discussed in the preceding chapters. These include framing effects, agenda distortion, and impacts on the integrity of and trust in public health agencies.

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Implementing Public Health Regulations in Developing Countries: Lessons from the OECD Countries

The Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics ◽

10.1111/j.1748-720x.2010.00509.x ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 38 (3) ◽

pp. 508-519 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Emily A. Mok ◽

Lawrence O. Gostin ◽

Monica Das Gupta ◽

Max Levin

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Developing World ◽

Health Agency ◽

Non Profit ◽

Public Health Agencies ◽

Effective Implementation ◽

Health Agencies ◽

Private And Public ◽

Sanitary Conditions ◽

Health Regulations

Public health agencies undertake a broad range of health promotion and injury and disease prevention activities in collaboration with an array of actors, such as the community, businesses, and non-profit organizations. These activities are “multisectoral” in nature and centered on public health agencies that oversee and engage with the other actors. Public health agencies can influence the hazardous activities in the private sector in a variety of ways, “ranging from prohibition and regulation to volunteerism, and from cooperation to cooption.” Hence, a public health agency that possesses the necessary administrative resources and authority is vital to the effective implementation of health policies and regulations.In the developing world, however, many state health agencies lack these basic capacities in dealing with critical health threats, including their ability to avert epidemics of communicable diseases arising from poor sanitary conditions. A serious constraint is the shortage of public health funding for health agencies in the developing world for typical agency functions (e.g., surveillance, monitoring, assessment, and intervention). This is often aggravated by the transaction-intensive demands entailed in enforcing regulations among an array of private and public sector actors including individuals, businesses, and local bodies responsible for providing civic services.

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Intent to Vaccinate Children against COVID-19: Low levels of trust in public health agencies trust across rural communities

10.31235/osf.io/9f3r6 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Enbal Shacham ◽

Germysha Little ◽

Steve Scroggins ◽

Avery Fredman ◽

Ricardo Wray ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Rural Communities ◽

Online Survey ◽

Health Agency ◽

Special Focus ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Local Public Health ◽

Public Health Agencies ◽

Health Agencies ◽

State And Local

Background: A COVID-19 vaccination for children is positioned to be a critical resource in the pandemic-prevention effort. However, studies have shown hesitation towards COVID-19 vaccination uptake and a lack of trust in government agencies; putting children at risk for not receiving preventative medical care. The purpose of this study was to determine the association between trust in public health agencies and parental intention to vaccinate their children against COVID-19. Methods: Residents of a Midwestern state who reported being parent/guardian of one or more child, aged <18 living at home, were recruited to participate in a cross-sectional online survey conducted during September-October 2020 (n=238). Participants were asked their level of trust in both state and local public health departments and if they planned on vaccinating their children against COVID-19. Resident geography, rural, suburban, and urban, was categorized using definitions from the Health Resource Services Administration (HRSA) and matched to participant county of residence. Descriptive and binomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to predict probability of vaccine intent for children.Results:. Among participants, 132 (55.5%) reported intention to vaccinate their children against COVID-19. Factors that were found to significantly decrease probability of vaccinating child were being a rural resident and lower level of trust in both state and local public health agencies. Discussion: Results from this study highlight the importance of addressing public health agency mistrust among individuals, regardless of geography, to assure more equitable vaccine delivery. Further, special focus may be needed for those living in more isolated, less populated areas, where a higher level of trust may be needed before parents vaccinate their children.

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A public health outbreak management framework applied to surges in opioid overdoses

Journal of Opioid Management ◽

10.5055/jom.2017.0396 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

pp. 273 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Kieran Moore, MD, CCFP (EM), FCFP, MPH, DTM&H, FRCPC ◽

Maximilien Boulet, BSc ◽

Julia Lew, BSc ◽

Nicholas Papadomanolakis-Pakis, BSocSc, MPA

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

The United States ◽

Opioid Overdose ◽

Prescription Opioids ◽

Outbreak Management ◽

Management Framework ◽

Public Health Agencies ◽

The Past ◽

Health Agencies ◽

Related Mortality

Objective: Over the past decade, Canada and the United States have been facing an epidemic of harms from prescription opioids. More recently, opioid-naïve individuals have been exposed to illicit opioids through adulterated combination products. This has resulted in sudden surges of opioid-related mortality. A proactive public health solution is needed to prevent further death. We propose examining these surges in opioid overdoses as outbreaks and investigating them in a similar way to an outbreak of an infectious disease. An epidemiologic investigation model for opioid overdose outbreaks, that could be modified by other public health agencies,is discussed.

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Phylogenomic Pipeline Validation for Foodborne Pathogen Disease Surveillance

Journal of Clinical Microbiology ◽

10.1128/jcm.01816-18 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 57 (5) ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Ruth E. Timme ◽

Errol Strain ◽

Joseph D. Baugher ◽

Steven Davis ◽

Narjol Gonzalez-Escalona ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Disease Surveillance ◽

Foodborne Pathogen ◽

The United States ◽

Strain Identification ◽

Outbreak Response ◽

Entire Genome ◽

Public Health Agencies ◽

Regulatory Decision ◽

Health Agencies

ABSTRACT Foodborne pathogen surveillance in the United States is transitioning from strain identification using restriction digest technology (pulsed-field gel electrophoresis [PFGE]) to shotgun sequencing of the entire genome (whole-genome sequencing [WGS]). WGS requires a new suite of analysis tools, some of which have long histories in academia but are new to the field of public health and regulatory decision making. Although the general workflow is fairly standard for collecting and analyzing WGS data for disease surveillance, there are a number of differences in how the data are collected and analyzed across public health agencies, both nationally and internationally. This impedes collaborative public health efforts, so national and international efforts are underway to enable direct comparison of these different analysis methods. Ultimately, the harmonization efforts will allow the (mutually trusted and understood) production and analysis of WGS data by labs and agencies worldwide, thus improving outbreak response capabilities globally. This review provides a historical perspective on the use of WGS for pathogen tracking and summarizes the efforts underway to ensure the major steps in phylogenomic pipelines used for pathogen disease surveillance can be readily validated. The tools for doing this will ensure that the results produced are sound, reproducible, and comparable across different analytic approaches.

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