scholarly journals Developing a Minimum Dataset for a Mobile-based Contact Tracing System for the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol In Press (In Press) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mostafa Shanbehzadeh ◽  
Hadi Kazemi-Arpanahi
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
National Level ◽  
Delphi Survey ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Scientific Databases ◽  
Health Response ◽  
Data Elements ◽  
Minimum Dataset

Context: Contact tracing is a cornerstone community-based measure for augmenting public health response preparedness to epidemic diseases such as the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, there is no an agreed data collection tool for the unified reporting of COVID-19 contact tracing efforts at the national level. Objectives: The purpose of this research was to determine the COVID-19 Contact Tracing Minimal Dataset (COV-CT-MDS) as a prerequisite to develop a mobile-based contact racing system for the COVID-19 outbreak. Methods: This study was carried out in 2020 by a combination of literature review coupled with a two-round Delphi survey. First, the probable data elements were identified using an extensive literature review in scientific databases, including PubMed, Scopus, ProQuest, Science Direct, and Web of Science (WOS). Then, the core data elements were validated using a two-round Delphi survey. Results: Out of 388 articles, 24 were eligible to be included in the study. By the full-text study of the included articles and after the Delphi survey, the designed COV-CT-MDS was categorized into two clinical and administrative data sections, nine data classes, and 81 data fields. Conclusions: COV-CT-MDS is an efficient and valid tool that could provide a basis for collecting comprehensive and standardized data on COVID-19 contact tracing. It could also provide scientific teamwork for health care authorities, which may lead to the enhanced quality of documentation, research, and surveillance outcomes.

scholarly journals Dynamic quarantine: a comparative analysis of the Chilean public health response to COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gonzalo Grebe ◽  
Javier A. Vélez ◽  
Anton Tiutiunnyk ◽  
Diego Aragón-Caqueo ◽  
Javier Fernández-Salinas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Transmission Rate ◽  
National Level ◽  
Metropolitan Region ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Health Response ◽  
Primary Vector

Abstract In this study, an analysis of the Chilean public health response to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 is presented. The analysis is based on the daily transmission rate (DTR). The Chilean response has been based on dynamic quarantines, which are established, lifted or prolonged based on the percentage of infected individuals in the fundamental administrative sections, called communes. This analysis is performed at a national level, at the level of the Metropolitan Region (MR) and at the commune level in the MR according to whether the commune did or did not enter quarantine between late March and mid-May of 2020. The analysis shows a certain degree of efficacy in controlling the pandemic using the dynamic quarantine strategy. However, it also shows that apparent control has only been partially achieved to date. With this policy, the control of the DTR partially falls to 4%, where it settles, and the MR is the primary vector of infection at the country level. For this reason, we can conclude that the MR has not managed to control the disease, with variable results within its own territory.

scholarly journals United States response to the COVID-19 pandemic, January–November 2020

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Mathew Alexander ◽  
Lynn Unruh ◽  
Andriy Koval ◽  
William Belanger
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Health Response ◽  
Physical Infrastructure ◽  
Key Policy ◽  
United States Healthcare

Abstract As of November 2020, the United States leads the world in confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases and deaths. Over the past 10 months, the United States has experienced three peaks in new cases, with the most recent spike in November setting new records. Inaction and the lack of a scientifically informed, unified response have contributed to the sustained spread of COVID-19 in the United States. This paper describes major events and findings from the domestic response to COVID-19 from January to November 2020, including on preventing transmission, COVID-19 testing and contact tracing, ensuring sufficient physical infrastructure and healthcare workforce, paying for services, and governance. We further reflect on the public health response to-date and analyse the link between key policy decisions (e.g. closing, reopening) and COVID-19 cases in three states that are representative of the broader regions that have experienced spikes in cases. Finally, as we approach the winter months and undergo a change in national leadership, we highlight some considerations for the ongoing COVID-19 response and the broader United States healthcare system. These findings describe why the United States has failed to contain COVID-19 effectively to-date and can serve as a reference in the continued response to COVID-19 and future pandemics.

scholarly journals The Australian industrial system in the era of COVID-19

2021 ◽  
pp. 002218562110128
Author(s):  
Michele O’Neil
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Relations ◽  
National Level ◽  
Recovery Phase ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
The Public ◽  
Paid Leave ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
Health Response ◽  
Decentralised Systems ◽  
Australian Economy

COVID-19 caused sudden and serious damage to the Australian economy. The effects have been spread unevenly, and highlighted the shortcomings of over-reliance on insecure forms of work. The lack of any form of paid leave for casual and other insecure workers undermined the public health response, and was emblematic of the broader consequences of insecurity. Despite its limitations, Australia’s industrial relations system responded to the challenges of the pandemic in a way that less regulated and ‘decentralised’ systems would not have been able to. This article argues that the union movement was critical to Australia’s successful response, and that the award system proved to be an adaptable mechanism to deliver change at a national level while ensuring that the representative voice of workers was heard, and basic industrial protections were not jettisoned. Industry bargaining would have also been a beneficial tool to deal with economy-wide issues of this kind. The article urges that the lessons of the pandemic be learned as we move to a recovery phase and that we ensure there are more secure jobs, better bargaining rights and improvements to basic protections to ensure that workers’ rights are not eroded.

scholarly journals A Second-Order Disaster? Digital Technologies During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 205630512094816
Author(s):  
Mirca Madianou
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Remote Work ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
Health Response ◽  
The One

One of the most striking features of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom has been the disproportionate way in which it has affected Black, Asian, ethnic minority, and working class people. In this article, I argue that digital technologies and data practices in the response to COVID-19 amplify social inequalities, which are already accentuated by the pandemic, thus leading to a “second-order disaster”—a human-made disaster which further traps disadvantaged people into precarity. Inequalities are reproduced both in the everyday uses of technology for distance learning and remote work as well as in the public health response. Applications such as contact tracing apps raise concerns about “function creep”—the reuse of data for different purposes than the one for which they were originally collected—while they normalize surveillance which has been traditionally used on marginalized communities. The outsourcing of the digital public health response consolidates the arrival of the privatized digital welfare state, which increases risks of potential discrimination.

scholarly journals Literature Review of Mental Health and Psychosocial Aspects of Ebola Virus Disease

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Grigoryan ◽  
Rebecca Bitsko ◽  
Ha Young Lee ◽  
Barbara Lopes-Cardozo ◽  
Ruth Perou
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Ebola Virus ◽  
Virus Disease ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Psychosocial Aspects ◽  
Ebola Virus Disease ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Response

The mental health and psychosocial implications of the 2014 Ebola outbreak are multifaceted, impacting survivors, families, healthcare providers, and the public health response. We conducted a literature review and summarized published information pertinent to mental health and psychosocial aspects of Ebola virus disease (EVD). A total of 140 documents were identified, including peer-reviewed research, newspaper articles, pamphlets, and guidelines/training manuals. One of the main obstacles in reducing the outbreak has been the widespread ignorance, and potential panic over EVD, leading to fear, isolation, and stigmatization. Using results of this review we developed stigma mitigation messages for Ebola survivors and responders.

scholarly journals Anticipating the hospital burden of future COVID-19 epidemic waves

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corentin Boennec ◽  
Samuel Alizon ◽  
Mircea T. Sofonea
Keyword(s):  
National Level ◽  
Bed Occupancy ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Current Vaccine ◽  
Health Response ◽  
Hospital Bed ◽  
Quantitative Results ◽  
Political Decisions ◽  
Wave Size ◽  
Epidemic Wave

Forecasting SARS-CoV-2 epidemic trends with confidence more than a few weeks ahead is almost impossible as these entirely depend on political decisions. We address this problem by investigating the consequences for the health system of an epidemic wave of a given size. This approach yields semi-quantitative results that depend on the proportion of the population already infected and vaccinated. We introduce the COVimpact software, which allows users to visualise estimated numbers of ICU admissions, deaths, and infections stratified by age class at the French departmental, regional, or national level caused by the wave. We illustrate the usefulness of our approach by showing that for France, even with a 95% vaccination coverage, the current vaccine efficiency against the delta variant would make a large epidemic wave infecting 25% of the population difficult to sustain for the current hospital bed occupancy capacity. Overall, using the final epidemic wave size and ignoring detailed epidemiological dynamics yields valuable and practical insights to optimise public health response to epidemics.

Corynebacterium hindlerae sp. nov., derived from a human granuloma, which forms black colonies and black halos on modified Tinsdale medium but is not closely related to Corynebacterium diphtheriae and related taxa

2021 ◽  
Vol 71 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn A. Bernard ◽  
Tamara Burdz ◽  
Ana Luisa Pacheco ◽  
Deborah Wiebe ◽  
Anne-Marie Bernier
Keyword(s):  
Diphtheria Toxin ◽  
Type Species ◽  
Corynebacterium Diphtheriae ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Potassium Tellurite ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Link Type ◽  
Corynebacterium Ulcerans ◽  
Health Response

Corynebacterium diphtheriae , Corynebacterium belfantii , Corynebacterium rouxii , Corynebacterium ulcerans , Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis and Corynebacterium silvaticum are the only taxa from among ~121 Corynebacterium species deemed potentially able to harbour diphtheria tox genes. Subsequently tox-gene bearing species may potentially produce diphtheria toxin, which is linked to fatal respiratory distress if a pharyngeal pseudomembrane is formed or toxaemia develops in those unimmunized or under-immunized. Detection of diphtheria toxin-producing species may also invoke a public health response and contact tracing. Recovery of such species from the respiratory tract or other contaminated sources such as non-healing ulcerative wounds are expedited by use of differential and selective media such as modified Tinsdale medium (MTM). This medium is supplemented with potassium tellurite, which supresses most normal flora present in contaminated specimens, as well as l-cystine and thiosulphate. Most diphtheria-tox-gene bearing species grow well on MTM, producing black colonies with a black halo around each colony. This is due to an ability to produce cystinase in the presence of tellurite, cystine and thiosulphate, resulting in black tellurium deposits being observed in the agar. Other Corynebacterium species may/may not be able to grow at all in the presence of tellurite but if able to grow, will have small beige or brownish colonies which do not exhibit black halos. We describe here an unusual non-tox-gene-bearing isolate, NML 93-0612T, recovered from a human wrist granuloma, which produced black colonies with black halos on MTM agar but was otherwise distinguishable from Corynebacterium species which can bear tox genes. Distinctive features included its unusual colony morphology on MTM and sheep blood agar, by proteomic, biochemical and chemotaxonomic properties and by molecular methods. Its genome contained 2 680 694 bytes, a G+C content of 60.65 mol% with features consistent with the genus Corynebacterium and so represents a new species for which we propose the name Corynebacterium hindlerae sp. nov.

scholarly journals Measuring endemicity and burden of leprosy across countries and regions: A systematic review and Delphi survey

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (9) ◽  
pp. e0009769
Author(s):  
Dorcas O. Ogunsumi ◽  
Vivek Lal ◽  
Karl Philipp Puchner ◽  
Wim van Brakel ◽  
Eva-Maria Schwienhorst-Stich ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Program Planning ◽  
National Level ◽  
Delphi Survey ◽  
Case Detection ◽  
Scoring Methods ◽  
Program Planning And Evaluation ◽  
Case Detection Rate ◽  
Multiple Indicators ◽  
Uniform Approach

Background Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, the annual new case detection in 2019 was 202,189 globally. Measuring endemicity levels and burden in leprosy lacks a uniform approach. As a result, the assessment of leprosy endemicity or burden are not comparable over time and across countries and regions. This can make program planning and evaluation difficult. This study aims to identify relevant metrics and methods for measuring and classifying leprosy endemicity and burden at (sub)national level. Methods We used a mixed-method approach combining findings from a systematic literature review and a Delphi survey. The literature search was conducted in seven databases, searching for endemicity, burden and leprosy. We reviewed the available evidence on the usage of indicators, classification levels, and scoring methods to measure and classify endemicity and burden. A two round Delphi survey was conducted to ask experts to rank and weigh indicators, classification levels, and scoring methods. Results The literature review showed variation of indicators, levels, and cut-off values to measure leprosy endemicity and/or burden. The most used indicators for endemicity include new case detection rate (NCDR), new cases among children and new cases with grade 2 disability. For burden these include NCDR, MB cases, and prevalence. The classification levels ‘high’ and ‘low’ were most important. It was considered most relevant to use separate scoring methods for endemicity and burden. The scores would be derived by use of multiple indicators. Conclusion There is great variation in the existing method for measuring endemicity and burden across countries and regions. Our findings contribute to establishing a standardized uniform approach to measure and classify leprosy endemicity and burden at (sub)national level, which would allow effective communication and planning of intervention strategies.

scholarly journals Locating the “Local” in Peacebuilding

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon Kendhammer ◽  
Wyatt Chandler
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
National Level ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
International Donors ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Subnational Conflict

Drawing on an extensive literature review and four case studies from leading examples of post-conflict local peacebuilding in sub-Saharan Africa, this report argues that the “local” in local peacebuilding is best defined as local knowledge of conflict drivers and dynamics and locally defined, contextually specific definitions of peace. This does not necessarily mean working through or empowering “traditional” actors and institutions (a highly contested category, in any case). Nor should it mean a narrow focus on subnational conflict drivers and peace actors to the detriment of assessing how national and international dynamics shape local peace challenges (and vice versa). International donors and peace actors are most successful when they operate with a keen awareness that all potential peacebuilding actors (national and local actors, but also external donors, "experts," and implementers) have their own agendas and that peacebuilding efforts that work at the sub-national level and engage local actors are not automatically endowed with legitimacy and community buy-in just because of their "localness." International actors must also be flexible and open to partnering with a wide range of local actors, including those that don’t meet preconceived international expectations about what an effective local partner looks like (often, old, male, and "traditional").

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document