scholarly journals Global control of COVID-19: good vaccines may not suffice

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Javier Eslava-Schmalbach ◽  
Eric B. Rosero ◽  
Nathaly Garzón-Orjuela
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Herd Immunity ◽  
Vaccine Effectiveness ◽  
Market Forces ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Accessibility Barriers ◽  
Inverse Care Law ◽  
And Control ◽  
Indirect Protection

The COVID-19 pandemic has unveiled health and socioeconomic inequities around the globe. Effective epidemic control requires the achievement of herd immunity, where susceptible individuals are conferred indirect protection by being surrounded by immunized individuals. The proportion of people that need to be vaccinated to obtain herd immunity is determined through the herd immunity threshold. However, the number of susceptible individuals and the opportunities for contact between infectious and susceptible individuals influence the progress of an epidemic. Thus, in addition to vaccination, control of a pandemic may be difficult or impossible to achieve without other public health measures, including wearing face masks and social distancing. This article discusses the factors that may contribute to herd immunity and control of COVID-19 through the availability of effective vaccines and describes how vaccine effectiveness in the community may be lower than that expected. It also discusses how pandemic control in some countries and populations may face vaccine accessibility barriers if market forces strongly regulate the new technologies available, according to the inverse care law.

Communicable and Other Infectious Diseases

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Frischhut
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
European Union ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Ethical Perspective ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Environment Agency ◽  
And Control

This chapter discusses the most important features of EU law on infectious diseases. Communicable diseases not only cross borders, they also often require measures that cross different areas of policy because of different vectors for disease transmission. The relevant EU law cannot be attributed to one sectoral policy only, and thus various EU agencies participate in protecting public health. The key agency is the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Other important agencies include the European Environment Agency; European Food Safety Authority; and the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency. However, while integration at the EU level has facilitated protection of the public's health, it also has created potential conflicts among the different objectives of the European Union. The internal market promotes the free movement of products, but public health measures can require restrictions of trade. Other conflicts can arise if protective public health measures conflict with individual human rights. The chapter then considers risk assessment and the different tools of risk management used in dealing with the challenges of infectious diseases. It also turns to the external and ethical perspective and the role the European Union takes in global health.

scholarly journals Could nasal irrigation and oral rinse reduce the risk for COVID-19 infection?

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 205873842094175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuele Casale ◽  
Vittorio Rinaldi ◽  
Lorenzo Sabatino ◽  
Antonio Moffa ◽  
Massimo Ciccozzi
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Viral Load ◽  
Antimicrobial Agents ◽  
Nasal Irrigation ◽  
Oral Rinse ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Nasal Cavities ◽  
Oral Fluids ◽  
And Control

Public health measures are essential to protect against COronaVIrus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The nose and the mouth represent entry portals for the COVID 19. Saline Nasal Irrigations (SNIs) can reduce the viral load in the nasal cavities. Oral rinse with antimicrobial agents is efficacious in reducing the viral load in oral fluids. We advocate the inclusion of SNIs and ethanol oral rinses as additional measures to the current public health measures, to prevent and control the transmission of any respiratory infectious disease, including COVID-19.

scholarly journals Adaptive Time-Dependent Priors and Bayesian Inference to Evaluate SARS-CoV-2 Public Health Measures Validated on 31 Countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugues Turbé ◽  
Mina Bjelogrlic ◽  
Arnaud Robert ◽  
Christophe Gaudet-Blavignac ◽  
Jean-Philippe Goldman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Bayesian Inference ◽  
Reproduction Number ◽  
Fast Response ◽  
Time Dependent ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Time Required ◽  
State Interventions ◽  
Restrictive Measures ◽  
And Control

With the rapid spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus since the end of 2019, public health confinement measures to contain the propagation of the pandemic have been implemented. Our method to estimate the reproduction number using Bayesian inference with time-dependent priors enhances previous approaches by considering a dynamic prior continuously updated as restrictive measures and comportments within the society evolve. In addition, to allow direct comparison between reproduction number and introduction of public health measures in a specific country, the infection dates are inferred from daily confirmed cases and confirmed death. The evolution of this reproduction number in combination with the stringency index is analyzed on 31 European countries. We show that most countries required tough state interventions with a stringency index equal to 79.6 out of 100 to reduce their reproduction number below one and control the progression of the pandemic. In addition, we show a direct correlation between the time taken to introduce restrictive measures and the time required to contain the spread of the pandemic with a median time of 8 days. This analysis is validated by comparing the excess deaths and the time taken to implement restrictive measures. Our analysis reinforces the importance of having a fast response with a coherent and comprehensive set of confinement measures to control the pandemic. Only restrictions or combinations of those have shown to effectively control the pandemic.

scholarly journals Plague Mortality and Control Policies in Colonial South India, 1900–47

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 323-343
Author(s):  
Vempalli Raj Mahammadh
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health System ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
South India ◽  
Public Health System ◽  
Medical Systems ◽  
Control Policies ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Colonial Government ◽  
And Control

Focused on colonial South India, this article presents and assesses detailed archival records of public health measures in response to plague outbreaks between 1900 and 1947. Starting in 1897 in the Madras Presidency, the colonial government strictly implemented anti-plague measures and introduced various health schemes and medical policies for plague prevention. However, despite partly vigorous government efforts, plague outbreaks could not be fully controlled. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the plague remains among South Asia’s most feared epidemics, with an outbreak in Surat in 1994 causing major havoc. Neither indigenous knowledge nor Western medical systems provided fully effective remedies regarding causation, cure and prevention of plague epidemics. Since the article gained new relevance in light of current struggles faced by India’s public health system in handling the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, some lessons from history emerge in the concluding discussion.

scholarly journals PUBLIC HEALTH MEASURES AS AN EFFORT TO PREVENT AND CONTROL COVID-19 IN THE COMMUNITY: A LITERATURE REVIEW

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 121
Author(s):  
Syamikar Baridwan ◽  
Agus Setiawan ◽  
Henny Permatasari
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
And Control

scholarly journals Integrating Advanced Molecular Technologies into Public Health

2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 703-714 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Gwinn ◽  
Duncan R. MacCannell ◽  
Rima F. Khabbaz
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Molecular Detection ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
Routine Practice ◽  
Laboratory System ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
And Control ◽  
The U.S

ABSTRACT Advances in laboratory and information technologies are transforming public health microbiology. High-throughput genome sequencing and bioinformatics are enhancing our ability to investigate and control outbreaks, detect emerging infectious diseases, develop vaccines, and combat antimicrobial resistance, all with increased accuracy, timeliness, and efficiency. The Advanced Molecular Detection (AMD) initiative has allowed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to provide leadership and coordination in integrating new technologies into routine practice throughout the U.S. public health laboratory system. Collaboration and partnerships are the key to navigating this transition and to leveraging the next generation of methods and tools most effectively for public health.

scholarly journals Epidemiology, transmission dynamics and control of SARS: the 2002–2003 epidemic

2004 ◽  
Vol 359 (1447) ◽  
pp. 1091-1105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy M. Anderson ◽  
Christophe Fraser ◽  
Azra C. Ghani ◽  
Christl A. Donnelly ◽  
Steven Riley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Transmission Dynamics ◽  
Aetiological Agent ◽  
Epidemic Outbreak ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Intervention Measures ◽  
Dynamics And Control ◽  
And Control

This paper reviews current understanding of the epidemiology, transmission dynamics and control of the aetiological agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). We present analyses of data on key parameters and distributions and discuss the processes of data capture, analysis and public health policy formulation during the SARS epidemic are discussed. The low transmissibility of the virus, combined with the onset of peak infectiousness following the onset of clinical symptoms of disease, transpired to make simple public health measures, such as isolating patients and quarantining their contacts, very effective in the control of the SARS epidemic. We conclude that we were lucky this time round, but may not be so with the next epidemic outbreak of a novel aetiological agent. We present analyses that help to further understanding of what intervention measures are likely to work best with infectious agents of defined biological and epidemiological properties. These lessons learnt from the SARS experience are presented in an epidemiological and public health context.

scholarly journals Decline in influenza cases in Mexico after the implementation of public health measures for COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Arellanos-Soto ◽  
Gerardo Padilla-Rivas ◽  
Javier Ramos-Jimenez ◽  
Kame Galan-Huerta ◽  
Sonia Lozano-Sepulveda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Hospitals ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Influenza Activity ◽  
Nationwide Surveillance ◽  
And Control ◽  
Viral Respiratory

AbstractMexico took swift action and has strictly followed mitigation measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease, COVID-19. In this study we compared influenza activity indicators in our country after the implementation of public health measures for COVID-19. We compared indicators of influenza activity in 2020 before and after public health measures were taken to reduce COVID-19 with the corresponding indicators from three preceding years and the immediate one, and the potential decrease in seasonal influenza cases/deaths. Nationwide surveillance data revealed a drastic decline in influenza diagnosis in outpatient clinics and public hospitals, influenza positivity rates of clinical specimens, and confirmed severe cases during the following 10 weeks of 2020 as lockdown activities and control measures were established compared with the same period of 2019. Our results suggest that the measures taken for COVID-19 were effective in reducing the spread of other viral respiratory diseases as influenza in our country.

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