scholarly journals European Risk Assessment Guidance for Infectious Diseases transmitted on Aircraft – the RAGIDA project

2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (16) ◽  
Author(s):  
K Leitmeyer
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
Lassa Fever ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Guidance Documents ◽  
Disease Specific

In order to assist national public health authorities in the European Union to assess the risks associated with the transmission of infectious agents on board aircrafts, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control initiated in 2007 the RAGIDA project (Risk Assessment Guidance for Infectious Diseases transmitted on Aircraft). RAGIDA consists of two parts: the production of a systematic review and a series of disease-specific guidance documents. The systematic review covered over 3,700 peer-reviewed articles and grey literature for the following diseases: tuberculosis, influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), invasive meningococcal disease, measles, rubella, diphtheria, Ebola and Marburg haemorrhagic fevers, Lassa fever, smallpox and anthrax. In addition, general guidelines on risk assessment and management from international aviation boards and national and international public health agencies were systematically searched. Experts were interviewed on case-based events by standardised questionnaires. Disease-specific guidance documents on tuberculosis, SARS, meningococcal infections, measles, rubella, Ebola and Marburg haemorrhagic fevers, Lassa fever, smallpox and anthrax were the result of consultations of disease-specific expert panels. Factors that influence the risk assessment of infectious disease transmission on board aircrafts and decision making for contact tracing are outlined.

scholarly journals What influences people’s responses to public health messages for managing risks and preventing infectious diseases? A rapid systematic review of the evidence and recommendations

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. e048750
Author(s):  
Daniela Ghio ◽  
Sadie Lawes-Wickwar ◽  
Mei Yee Tang ◽  
Tracy Epton ◽  
Neil Howlett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
Personal Control ◽  
Health Messages ◽  
Disease Spread ◽  
Route Of Transmission ◽  
Public Health Messages ◽  
Health Messaging

BackgroundIndividual behaviour changes, such as hand hygiene and physical distancing, are required on a population scale to reduce transmission of infectious diseases such as COVID-19. However, little is known about effective methods of communicating risk reducing information, and how populations might respond.ObjectiveTo synthesise evidence relating to what (1) characterises effective public health messages for managing risk and preventing infectious disease and (2) influences people’s responses to messages.DesignA rapid systematic review was conducted. Protocol is published on Prospero CRD42020188704.Data sourcesElectronic databases were searched: Ovid Medline, Ovid PsycINFO and Healthevidence.org, and grey literature (PsyarXiv, OSF Preprints) up to May 2020.Study selectionAll study designs that (1) evaluated public health messaging interventions targeted at adults and (2) concerned a communicable disease spread via primary route of transmission of respiratory and/or touch were included. Outcomes included preventative behaviours, perceptions/awareness and intentions. Non-English language papers were excluded.SynthesisDue to high heterogeneity studies were synthesised narratively focusing on determinants of intentions in the absence of measured adherence/preventative behaviours. Themes were developed independently by two researchers and discussed within team to reach consensus. Recommendations were translated from narrative synthesis to provide evidence-based methods in providing effective messaging.ResultsSixty-eight eligible papers were identified. Characteristics of effective messaging include delivery by credible sources, community engagement, increasing awareness/knowledge, mapping to stage of epidemic/pandemic. To influence intent effectively, public health messages need to be acceptable, increase understanding/perceptions of health threat and perceived susceptibility.DiscussionThere are four key recommendations: (1) engage communities in development of messaging, (2) address uncertainty immediately and with transparency, (3) focus on unifying messages from sources and (4) frame messages aimed at increasing understanding, social responsibility and personal control. Embedding principles of behavioural science into public health messaging is an important step towards more effective health-risk communication during epidemics/pandemics.

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 The Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in Europe: A Systematic Review

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Marcella Vaselli ◽  
Daniel Hungerford ◽  
Ben Shenton ◽  
Arwa Khashkhusha ◽  
Nigel A. Cunliffe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Significant Heterogeneity ◽  
Community Studies ◽  
Past Infection ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Impact

AbstractBackgroundA year following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, new infections and deaths continue to increase in Europe. Serological studies, through providing evidence of past infection, can aid understanding of the population dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 infection.ObjectivesThis systematic review of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence studies in Europe was undertaken to inform public health strategies including vaccination, that aim to accelerate population immunity.MethodsWe searched the databases Web of Science, MEDLINE, EMBASE, SCOPUS, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and grey literature sources for studies reporting seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in Europe published between 01/12/2019 - 30/09/20. We provide a narrative synthesis of included studies. Studies were categorized into subgroups including healthcare workers (HCWs), community, outbreaks, pregnancy and children/school. Due to heterogeneity in other subgroups, we only performed a random effects meta-analysis of the seroprevalence amongst HCWs stratified by their country.Results109 studies were included spanning 17 European countries, that estimated the seroprevalence of SAR-CoV2 from samples obtained between November 2019 – August 2020. A total of 53/109 studies included HCWs with a reported seroprevalence among HCWs ranging from 0.7% to 45.3%, which did not differ significantly by country. In community studies significant heterogeneity was reported in the seroprevalence among different age groups and the majority of studies reported there was no significant difference by gender.ConclusionThis review demonstrates a wide heterogeneity in reported seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies between populations. Continued evaluation of seroprevalence is required to understand the impact of public health measures and inform interventions including vaccination programmes.

The Economics of Infectious Diseases

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Hauck
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Health System Strengthening ◽  
Economic Research ◽  
Economic Evaluations ◽  
Research Needs ◽  
Public Health Interventions ◽  
The Impact

Economics can make immensely valuable contributions to our understanding of infectious disease transmission and the design of effective policy responses. The one unique characteristic of infectious diseases makes it also particularly complicated to analyze: the fact that it is transmitted from person to person. It explains why individuals’ behavior and externalities are a central topic for the economics of infectious diseases. Many public health interventions are built on the assumption that individuals are altruistic and consider the benefits and costs of their actions to others. This would imply that even infected individuals demand prevention, which stands in conflict with the economic theory of rational behavior. Empirical evidence is conflicting for infected individuals. For healthy individuals, evidence suggests that the demand for prevention is affected by real or perceived risk of infection. However, studies are plagued by underreporting of preventive behavior and non-random selection into testing. Some empirical studies have shown that the impact of prevention interventions could be far greater than one case prevented, resulting in significant externalities. Therefore, economic evaluations need to build on dynamic transmission models in order to correctly estimate these externalities. Future research needs are significant. Economic research needs to improve our understanding of the role of human behavior in disease transmission; support the better integration of economic and epidemiological modeling, evaluation of large-scale public health interventions with quasi-experimental methods, design of optimal subsidies for tackling the global threat of antimicrobial resistance, refocusing the research agenda toward underresearched diseases; and most importantly to assure that progress translates into saved lives on the ground by advising on effective health system strengthening.

scholarly journals Taiwan’s Successful COVID-19 Mitigation and Containment Strategy: Achieving Quasi Population Immunity

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li-Chien Chien ◽  
Christian K. Beÿ ◽  
Kristi L. Koenig
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Health Management ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Population Immunity ◽  
Containment Strategy ◽  
Local Transmission ◽  
Pharmaceutical Interventions

ABSTRACT The authors describe Taiwan’s successful strategy in achieving control of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) without economic shutdown, despite the prediction that millions of infections would be imported from travelers returning from Chinese New Year celebrations in Mainland China in early 2020. As of September 2, 2020, Taiwan reports 489 cases, 7 deaths, and no locally acquired COVID-19 cases for the last 135 days (greater than 4 months) in its population of over 23.8 million people. Taiwan created quasi population immunity through the application of established public health principles. These non-pharmaceutical interventions, including public masking and social distancing, coupled with early and aggressive identification, isolation, and contact tracing to inhibit local transmission, represent a model for optimal public health management of COVID-19 and future emerging infectious diseases.

scholarly journals Methodological quality of public health guideline recommendations on vitamin D and calcium : a systematic review protocol

BMJ Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. e031840 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhaoli Dai ◽  
Cynthia M Kroeger ◽  
Sally McDonald ◽  
Matthew J Page ◽  
Joanne E McKenzie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Vitamin D ◽  
Bone Health ◽  
Methodological Quality ◽  
Guideline Development ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
Dietary Guidelines ◽  
Published Data

IntroductionCurrent recommendations for vitamin D and calcium in dietary guidelines and bone health guidelines vary significantly among countries and professional organisations. It is unknown whether the methods used to develop these recommendations followed a rigourous process and how the differences in methods used may affect the recommended intakes of vitamin D and calcium. The objectives of this study are (1) collate and compare recommendations for vitamin D and calcium across guidelines, (2) appraise methodological quality of the guideline recommendations and (3) identify methodological factors that may affect the recommended intakes for vitamin D and calcium. This study will make a significant contribution to enhancing the methodological rigour in public health guidelines for vitamin D and calcium recommendations.Methods and analysesWe will conduct a systematic review to evaluate vitamin D and calcium recommendations for osteoporosis prevention in generally healthy middle-aged and older adults. Methodological assessment will be performed for each guideline against those outlined in the 2014 WHO handbook for guideline development. A systematic search strategy will be applied to locate food-based dietary guidelines and bone health guidelines indexed in various electronic databases, guideline repositories and grey literature from 1 January 2009 to 28 February 2019. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarise the data on intake recommendation and on proportion of guidelines consistent with the WHO criteria. Logistic regression, if feasible, will be used to assess the relationships between the methodological factors and the recommendation intakes.Ethics and disseminationEthics approval is not required as we will only extract published data or information from the published guidelines. Results of this review will be disseminated through conference presentations and peer-reviewed publications.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42019126452

scholarly journals “Too Grey To Be True?” Sexual Violence in Older Adults: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis of Evidence

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (11) ◽  
pp. 4117
Author(s):  
Anne Nobels ◽  
Christophe Vandeviver ◽  
Marie Beaulieu ◽  
Adina Cismaru Inescu ◽  
Laurent Nisen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Sexual Health ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Second Phase

Sexual violence (SV) is an important public health issue with a major impact on victims and their peers, offspring and community. However, SV in older adults is under-researched. This paper aims to establish the prevalence and nature of SV in older adults in Europe, link this with existing policies and health care workers’ response to sexual health needs in older age, and critically revise the currently used frameworks in public health research. To fill this gap in the literature, we applied a Critical Interpretative Synthesis (CIS) approach. The CIS approach uses techniques from grounded theory and processes from systematic review. It allows to critically interpret key findings from both academic as well as grey literature, engendering theory refining. In the first phase of purposive sampling, we conducted a systematic review of academic sources and included 14 references. The cut-off age used to define old age varied between 60 and 70 years old among the included studies. Subsequently we added another 14 references in the second phase of theoretical sampling. We ultimately included 16 peer-reviewed articles and 12 documents from the grey literature. The CIS results demonstrate that knowledge of SV in older adults is still limited. The current research suggests that SV in older adults rarely occurs, however, prevalence rates are likely to be underestimated because of methodological shortcomings. The complexity of SV in older adults is not acknowledged in ongoing research due to the conflation of SV with other types of violence. Information on specific risk factors and about assailants committing SV in old age is absent. Policy documents dealing with sexual and reproductive health, rights and ageing make no mention of SV in older adults. In clinical practice, the sexual health needs of older adults often remain unmet. In conclusion, our findings suggest that older adults are forgotten in prevention and response to SV. Greater awareness about this topic could contribute to a revision of current policies and health care practices, leading to more tailored care for older victims of SV.

scholarly journals What influences people’s responses to public health messages for managing risks and preventing infectious diseases? A rapid systematic review of the evidence and recommendations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Ghio ◽  
Sadie Lawes-Wickwar ◽  
Mei Yee Tang ◽  
Tracy Epton ◽  
Neil Howlett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Behaviour Change ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Personal Control ◽  
Health Messages ◽  
Public Health Messages ◽  
Managing Risk ◽  
Health Messaging

Background Population level behaviour change, requiring individual behaviour change such as hand hygiene and physical distancing, are central to reducing transmission of infectious diseases, including COVID-19, but little is known about how best to communicate this type of risk reducing information, and how populations might respond. We conducted a rapid systematic review to identify and synthesise evidence relating to: a) What characterises effective public-health messages for managing risk and preventing infectious disease, and b) What influences people’s responses to public-health messages.Methods Rapid systematic review methodology was used. We included all study designs and grey literature. Non-English language papers were excluded. Ovid Medline, Ovid PsycINFO and Healthevidence.org were searched alongside PsyarXiv and OSF Preprints up to May 2020. A narrative synthesis was conducted.Findings We identified 70 eligible papers: 3 systematic reviews, 54 individual papers and 14 pre-prints. To influence behaviour effectively at the population level, public-health messages need to be acceptable, credible and trustworthy, to increase the public’s understanding and perceptions of the threat. Interpretation Key recommendations are to: engage communities in the development of public-health messaging, use credible and legitimate sources, address uncertainty immediately and with transparency, focus on unifying messages from all sources, and develop messages aimed at increasing understanding, induce social responsibility and empower personal control. Embedding these principles of behavioural science into public-health messaging is an important step towards more effective health-risk communication for managing risk, promoting protective behaviours and preventing disease during epidemics/pandemics.

scholarly journals Pilot evaluation of risk assessment and enhanced protocols regarding contacts at an international professional golf event

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. e001127
Author(s):  
Patrick G Robinson ◽  
Andrew Murray ◽  
Volker Sheer ◽  
Graeme Close ◽  
Denis F Kinane
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Low Risk ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Sporting Events ◽  
Medical Surveillance ◽  
Rt Pcr ◽  
Antigen Testing

ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to assess whether a risk assessment and managed risk approach to contact tracing was practical and feasible at the Gran Canaria Lopesan Open 2021 and could inform further pilot work regarding disease transmission during elite sporting events.MethodsThis prospective cohort study included all international attendees. All participants required a minimum of one negative reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) test prior to travelling to each tournament. High-risk contacts were isolated for 10 days. Moderate-risk contacts received education regarding enhanced medical surveillance, had daily rapid antigen testing for 5 days, with RT-PCR day 5, mandated mask use and access to outside space for work purposes only. Low-risk contacts received rapid antigen testing every 48 hours and PCR testing on day 5.ResultsA total of 550 persons were accredited and were required to undergo RT-PCR testing before the event. Two of these tests were positive (0.36%). Of these, case 1 had 1 high, 23 moderate and 48 low-risk contacts. Case 2 did not have any significant travel history within 2 days of positive test and had one high-risk contact. There were no further positive tests on site in the wider cohort of attendees, from a total of 872 RT-PCR and 198 rapid antigen tests.ConclusionsThis pilot study showed it is practical, feasible and well accepted to provide enhanced (daily) virus testing and risk-mitigating measures at a professional golf event. Further study is required to assess the efficacy of these interventions; however, no transmission was found in this pilot study.

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