Current state of infection and prevalence of giardiasis in Malaysia: a review of 20 years of research

Background Giardiasis is a neglected parasitic zoonotic disease caused by Giardia duodenalis that is often overlooked despite the damage inflicted upon humans and domestic/wild animals. Lack of surveillance studies, low sensitivity of diagnostic tools, and resistance to giardiasis treatment add to the challenge in managing giardiasis, leaving a gap that continues to render giardiasis a silent threat to public health worldwide. This situation is not much different in Malaysia, where giardiasis remains a public health problem, especially in the indigenous communities. Realizing the existence of gaps in the literature and information on giardiasis in Malaysia, this review aims to revisit and update the situation of giardiasis in Malaysia based on articles published in 20 years from 2000 to 2020, providing estimates on the incidence of giardiasis in humans, animals, and the environment, which may inform efforts to prevent and control the impact of giardiasis in the country. Methodology We searched PubMed, Science Direct, and Scopus using MeSH terms and text keywords “Giardia duodenalis OR Giardia intestinalis OR Giardia lamblia OR intestinal protozoa AND Malaysia”. Information was collected from all giardiasis reports published between 2000 and 2020. Results Giardiasis in Malaysia is more prevalent among the poorest segments of the population, namely the indigenous communities and people living in densely populated areas such as slums and prisons, due to low standard of personal hygiene, unsafe water resources, and improper sanitation. While the prevalence data is hugely dependent on microscopic fecal examination in epidemiological studies of giardiasis, current studies mostly focused on species identification and genotype distribution by multilocus genotyping. Thus far, the outbreak of giardiasis has not been reported in the country, but the disease was found to be significantly associated with stunting, wasting, and malnutrition among children of the indigenous communities. Surveillance studies also discovered the simultaneous presence of Giardia in the animal-environments, including wild animals, ruminants, and treated and untreated water. The data collected here will be a useful addition to the literature body on giardiasis in Malaysia, which can be exploited in efforts to prevent and control the impact of giardiasis in the country. Conclusions The last 10 years have shown that the overall mean rate of giardiasis in Malaysia is quite encouraging at 13.7%. While this figure appears to be declining, there has been a slight increase in the prevalence of underweight, stunting, and wasting among rural children in 2019. The fact that giardiasis is linked to long-term childhood developmental problems, indicates that addressing and providing better disease control against giardiasis should be a priority in supporting the national agenda to achieve Malaysia Global Nutrition Targets by 2025.

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Worldwide prevalence, genotype distribution and management of hepatitis C

Acta Gastro Enterologica Belgica ◽

10.51821/84.4.015 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 84 (4) ◽

pp. 633-652

Author(s):

P Guntipalli ◽

R Pakala ◽

S Kumari Gara ◽

F Ahmed ◽

A Bhatnagar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Hepatitis C ◽

Geographic Origin ◽

Global Strategy ◽

Hcv Infection ◽

Transmission Risk ◽

World Health ◽

Risk Category ◽

Genotype Distribution ◽

The Impact

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is one of the leading causes of chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma, resulting in major global public health concerns. The HCV infection is unevenly distributed worldwide, with variations in prevalence across and within countries. The studies on molecular epidemiology conducted in several countries provide an essential supplement for a comprehensive knowledge of HCV epidemiology, genotypes, and subtypes, along with providing information on the impact of current and earlier migratory flows. HCV is phylogenetically classified into 8 major genotypes and 57 subtypes. HCV genotype and subtype distribution differ according to geographic origin and transmission risk category. Unless people with HCV infection are detected and treated appropriately, the number of deaths due to the disease will continue to increase. In 2015, 1.75 million new viral infections were mostly due to unsafe healthcare procedures and drug use injections. In the same year, access to direct-acting antivirals was challenging and varied in developing and developed countries, affecting HCV cure rates based on their availability. The World Health Assembly, in 2016, approved a global strategy to achieve the elimination of the HCV public health threat by 2030 (by reducing new infections by 90% and deaths by 65%). Globally, countries are implementing policies and measures to eliminate HCV risk based on their distribution of genotypes and prevalence.

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A Scoping Review of Enterovirus D-68

Online Journal of Public Health Informatics ◽

10.5210/ojphi.v10i1.8656 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Ashley Weeks ◽

Lisa Waddell ◽

Andrea Nwosu ◽

Christina Bancej ◽

Shalini Desai ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Scoping Review ◽

Prevention And Control ◽

Grey Literature ◽

Infection Prevention And Control ◽

Future Research ◽

Surveillance Systems ◽

Knowledge Gaps ◽

And Control ◽

The Impact

Objective: To create a scoping review on enterovirus D-68 (EV-D68) that will serve as a useful tool to guide future research with the aim of filling critical information gaps and supporting the development of public health preparedness activities.Introduction: EV-D68 is a non-polio enterovirus, primarily resulting in respiratory illness, with clinical symptoms ranging from mild to severe. Infection has also been associated with severe neurological conditions like acute flaccid myelitis (AFM). EV-D68 was first discovered in 1962, with infrequent case reports until 2014 at which point a widespread multi-national outbreak mostly affecting the pediatric population occurred across North America, Europe, Southeast Asia and Africa. This outbreak was associated with an increase in AFM, with cases being reported in Canada, the United States, Norway, and France. With this new and emerging threat, public health and other organizations were called upon to implement response measures such as establishment of case definitions, surveillance mechanisms, and recommendations for clinical and public health management. The response to the 2014 outbreak in Canada highlighted several important EV-D68 evidence gaps including a lack of risk factor and clinical information available for non-severe cases, and uncertainty around seasonal, cyclical and secular trends. Given the increased reporting of EV-D68 cases associated with severe outcomes, it's critical that public health establishes what is known about EV-D68 in order to support decision-making, education and other preparedness activities and to highlight priority areas for future research to fill critical knowledge gaps. Scoping reviews provide a reproducible and updateable synthesis research methodology to identify and characterise all the literature on a broad topic as a means to highlight where evidence exists and where there are knowledge gaps. In order to systematically characterise the EV-D68 knowledge base, a scoping review was conducted to map the current body of evidence.Methods: A literature search of published and grey literature on EV-D68 was conducted on May 1, 2017. A standardized search algorithm was implemented in four bibliographic databases: Medline, Embase, Global Health and Scopus. Relevant grey literature was sought from a prioriidentified sources: the World Health Organization, United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Public Health Agency of Canada, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and thesis registries. Two-level relevance screening (title/abstract followed by full-text) was performed in duplicate by two independent reviewers using pretested screening forms. Conflicts between the reviewers were reconciled following group discussion with the study team. English and French articles were included if they reported on EV-D68 as an outcome. There were no limitations by date, publication type, geography or study design. Conference abstracts were excluded if they did not provide sufficient outcome information to characterize. The articles were then characterized by two independent reviewers using a pretested study characterization form. The descriptive characteristics of each article were extracted and categorized into one of the following broad topic categories: 1) Epidemiology and Public Health, 2) Clinical and Infection Prevention and Control (IPC), 3) Guidance Products, 4) Public Health Surveillance, 5) Laboratory, and 6) Impact. The Epidemiology and Public Health category contained citations describing prevalence, epidemiological distribution, outbreak data and public health mitigation strategies. Clinical and IPC citations included details regarding symptoms of EV-D68 infection, patient outcomes, clinical investigation processes, treatment options and infection prevention and control strategies. The Guidance category included citations that assess risk, provide knowledge translation or provide practice guidelines. Public Health Surveillance citations provided details on surveillance systems. Citations in the laboratory category included studies that assessed the genetic characteristics of circulating EV-D68 (phylogeny, taxonomy) and viral characteristics (proteins, viral properties). Lastly, the Impact category contained citations describing the social, economic and resource burden of EV-D68 infection. Each broad topic category was subsequently characterised further into subtopics.Results: The search yielded a total of 384 citations, of which 300 met the inclusion criteria. Twenty-six of forty-three potentially relevant grey literature sources were also included. Preliminary literature characterization suggests that the majority of the published literature fell under the topic categories of Epidemiology, Clinical, and Laboratory. There were limited published articles on public health guidance, IPC, surveillance systems and the impact of EV-D68. The grey literature primarily consisted of webpages directed towards the public (what EV-D68 is, how to prevent it, what to do if ill, etc.). This scoping review work is presently underway and a summary of the full results will be presented at the 2018 Annual Conference.Conclusions: The body of literature on EV-D68 has increased since the 2014 outbreak, but overall remains small and contains knowledge gaps in some areas. To our knowledge, this scoping review is the first to classify the entirety of literature relating to EV-D68. It will serve as a useful tool to guide future research with the aim of filling critical information gaps, and supporting development of public health preparedness activities.

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Research Approaches for Improved Pro-Poor Control of Zoonoses

Food and Nutrition Bulletin ◽

10.1177/15648265070282s214 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 28 (2_suppl2) ◽

pp. S345-S356 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Esther Schelling ◽

Delia Grace ◽

A. Lee Willingham ◽

Tom Randolph

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Developing Countries ◽

Control Strategies ◽

Evidence Base ◽

Control Measures ◽

Diagnostic Tools ◽

Informal Markets ◽

Zoonotic Infections ◽

Livestock Sector ◽

The Impact

Background Developing countries face difficulties in sustainably utilizing tools to effectively implement control measures for zoonoses. This is mainly due to dispersed and heterogeneous smallholder livestock systems, predominance of informal markets, poor infrastructure and lack of resources to deliver information, interventions, and regulations. In addition, developing countries lack an evidence base for planning and targeting control efforts. Zoonotic infections are receiving more and more international attention as diseases of neglected and impoverished communities, at the intersection between livestock production, human health, and poverty. Objective To review research innovations and trends that can help identify and test targeted control strategies for zoonoses tailored to poor communities, focusing particularly on Africa. Methods Review of recommendations of relevant working groups and scientific literature. Results New and innovative research approaches promise to better capture the impact of zoonoses from a societal perspective and the perspective of poor livestock owners through more comprehensive frameworks that consider benefits of the control of zoonoses to the public health, livestock, and private sectors. It is challenging to better assure food safety in informal markets. Risk-based approaches with participatory elements provide a framework in which stakeholders can decide an appropriate level of protection to balance the needs for safe food, cheap food, and pro-poor economic growth. Appropriate information for all stakeholders and capacity-building of national and regional authorities is an important element of this process. New diagnostic tools that are accurate and easily used in developing-country health centers and markets can assist in reporting of cases, detection of patients, and testing of control strategies. Conclusions A research agenda on zoonoses of the livestock sector should be interdisciplinary and participatory and include intersectoral collaborations, notably between the livestock and public health sectors.

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Impact of COVID-19 on Volume of Infection Prevention and Control Calls at a Tertiary-Care Center in Iowa, 2018–2020

Antimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare Epidemiology ◽

10.1017/ash.2021.103 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1 (S1) ◽

pp. s53-s54

Author(s):

Mohammed Alsuhaibani ◽

Takaaki Kobayashi ◽

Stephanie Holley ◽

Angie Dains ◽

Oluchi Abosi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Prevention And Control ◽

Infection Prevention ◽

Outpatient Clinics ◽

Infection Prevention And Control ◽

Phone Line ◽

And Control ◽

The Impact ◽

Inpatient Units ◽

Frequent Call

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected healthcare systems worldwide, but the impact on infection prevention and control (IPC) programs has not been fully evaluated. We assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on IPC consultation requests. Methods: The University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics comprises an 811-bed hospital that admits >36,000 patients yearly and >200 outpatient clinics. Questions about IPC can be addressed to the Program of Hospital Epidemiology via e-mail, in person, or through our phone line. We routinely record date and time, call source, reason for the call, and estimated time to resolve questions for all phone line requests. We defined calls during 2018–2019 as the pre–COVID-19 period and calls from January to December 2020 as the COVID-19 period. Results: In total, 6,564 calls were recorded from 2018 to 2020. In the pre–COVID-19 period (2018–2019), we received a median of 71 calls per month (range, 50–119). The most frequent call sources were inpatient units (n = 902; 50%), department of public health (n = 357; 20%), laboratory (n = 171; 9%), and outpatient clinics (n = 120; 7%) (Figure 1). The most common call topics were isolation and precautions (n = 606; 42%), outside institutions requests (n = 324; 22%), environmental and construction (n = 148; 10%), and infection exposures (n = 149; 10%). The most frequent infection-related calls were about tuberculosis (17%), gram-negative organisms (14%), and influenza (9%). During the COVID-19 period, the median monthly call volume increased 500% to 368 per month (range, 149–829). Most (83%) were COVID-19 related. The median monthly number of COVID-19 calls was 302 (range, 45–674). The median monthly number of non–COVID-19 calls decreased to 56 (range, 36–155). The most frequent call sources were inpatient units (57%), outpatient clinics (16%), and the department of public health (5%). Most calls concerned isolation and precautions (50%) and COVID-19 testing (20%). The mean time required to respond to each question was 10 minutes (range, 2–720). The biggest surges in calls during the COVID-19 period were at the beginning of the pandemic (March 2020) and during the hospital peak COVID-19 census (November 2020). Conclusions: In addition to supporting a proactive COVID-19 response, our IPC program experienced a 500% increase in consultation requests. Planning for future bioemergencies should include creative strategies to provide additional resources to increase response capacity within IPC programs.Funding: NoDisclosures: None

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The Impact of Self-Government, Comprehensive Land Claims, and Opt-In Arrangements on Income Inequality in Indigenous Communities in Canada

Canadian Public Policy ◽

10.3138/cpp.2020-004 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. e2020004

Author(s):

Krishna Pendakur ◽

Ravi Pendakur

Keyword(s):

Income Inequality ◽

Indigenous Communities ◽

Community Level ◽

Land Claims ◽

Percentage Points ◽

Indigenous Groups ◽

Intergroup Inequality ◽

Household Incomes ◽

And Control ◽

The Impact

In Canada, self-government agreements, comprehensive land claims agreements, and opt-in arrangements allow Indigenous groups to govern their internal affairs and assume greater responsibility and control over the decision-making that affects their communities. We use difference-in-difference models to measure the impact of such agreements on average income and income inequality in Indigenous communities at the community level. In comparison with earlier work, we additionally use data from the 2016 Census. Our results suggest that comprehensive land claims agreements increase community-level average (log) household incomes by more than C$10 thousand (0.25 log points). Attainment of other agreement types does not increase community-level average incomes. Communities that attain a self-government agreement or an opt-in arrangement related to land management see a decrease in the Gini coefficient for income inequality by 2.0 to 3.5 percentage points. Standalone comprehensive land claims agreements are associated with a smaller decrease of 1.2 percentage points. We also study intergroup inequality and find that an opt-in arrangement increases within-community income disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous households.

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The Impact of Human Mobility on Regional and Global Efforts to Control HIV Transmission

Viruses ◽

10.3390/v12010067 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 67 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Emily A. Eshraghian ◽

Sepideh N. Ferdos ◽

Sanjay R. Mehta

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Hiv Prevention ◽

Incidence Rate ◽

Prevention And Control ◽

Hiv Transmission ◽

Human Mobility ◽

Control Methods ◽

And Migration ◽

And Control ◽

The Impact

HIV prevention and control methods are implemented on different scales to reduce the spread of the virus amongst populations. However, despite such efforts, HIV continues to persist in populations with a global incidence rate of 1.8 million in 2017 alone. The introduction of new infections into susceptible regional populations promotes the spread of HIV, indicating a crucial need to study the impact of migration and mobility on regional and global efforts to prevent HIV transmission. Here we reviewed studies that assess the impact of human mobility on HIV transmission and spread. We found an important role for both travel and migration in driving the spread of HIV across regional and national borders. Combined, our results indicate that even in the presence of control and preventive efforts, if migration and travel are occurring, public health efforts will need to remain persistent to ensure that new infections do not grow into outbreaks.

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Wildlife hunting practices of the Santal and Oraon communities in Rajshahi, Bangladesh

Journal of Threatened Taxa ◽

10.11609/jott.7260.13.11.19484-19491 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (11) ◽

pp. 19484-19491

Author(s):

Azizul Islam Barkat ◽

Fahmida Tasnim Liza ◽

Sumaiya Akter ◽

Ashikur Rahman Shome ◽

Md. Fazle Rabbe

Keyword(s):

Questionnaire Survey ◽

Wildlife Conservation ◽

Conservation Management ◽

Indigenous Communities ◽

Wild Animals ◽

Indigenous Groups ◽

Ancient Times ◽

The Impact

Humans have been depending on wild animals from ancient times for food, medicine, economy, tools, and others. Santal and Oraon are two of the indigenous communities present in the Rajshahi district of Bangladesh. They practice wildlife hunting as part of their traditions. We investigated the wildlife hunting practice of these indigenous communities using a closed-ended questionnaire survey. We interviewed 100 households of both communities from four villages. The study indicated that 76% of respondents hunted (88% Santal and 67% Oraon); and they usually hunt mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians, of which the bird is the most preferred (73%) and snake the least (1%). The response of hunting among the two communities significantly differed for tortoise, bird, rabbit, mongoose, jackal, and the Jungle Cat. Eighteen sets of animal taxa were significantly correlated indicating that households exercised preferences in terms of prey. The result also showed that only 14% of Santal and 7% of Oraon were familiar with the Bangladesh Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act, 2012. Although the impact of wildlife hunting of these indigenous groups is still ambiguous, the present study provides a preliminary database of hunting practices of these communities for future conservation management.

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(P1-83) Infectious Diseases Following Natural Disasters: Prevention and Control Measures

Prehospital and Disaster Medicine ◽

10.1017/s1049023x11004158 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 26 (S1) ◽

pp. s125-s126

Author(s):

I.K. Kouadio ◽

T. Kamigai ◽

O. Hitoshi

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Infectious Diseases ◽

Natural Disasters ◽

Prevention And Control ◽

Health Planning ◽

Control Measures ◽

Susceptible Population ◽

Prevention And Control Measures ◽

And Control ◽

The Impact

Communicable diseases represent a public health problem in developing countries, especially in those affected by disasters, and necessitate an appropriate and coordinated response from national and international partners. The importance of rapid epidemiological assessment for public health planning and resources allocation is critical. This review assesses infectious disease outbreaks during and after disasters caused by natural hazards and describes comprehensive prevention and control measures. The natural hazard event that causes a disaster does not transmit infectious diseases in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, nor do dead bodies. During the impact phase, most of the deaths are associated to blunt trauma, crush-related injuries, burns, and drowning rather than from infectious diseases. Most pathogens cannot not continue to survive in a corpse. The remaining survivors are the ones from which infectious diseases can be transmitted under appropriate conditions created by the natural disasters. Among several diseases, diarrheal diseases, leptospirosis, viral hepatitis, typhoid fever, acute respiratory infections, measles, meningitides, tuberculosis, malaria, dengue fever, and West Nile Virus commonly were described days, weeks, or months after the disaster event in areas where they are endemic. Therefore, diseases can also be imported by healthy carriers among a susceptible population. The objective of the public health intervention is to prevent and control epidemics among the disaster-affected populations. The rapid implementation of control measures should be a public health priority especially in the absence of pre-disaster surveillance data, through the re-establishment and improvement of the delivery of primary health care and restoration of affected health services. Adequate shelter and sanitation, water and food safety, appropriate surveillance, immunization and management approaches, as well health education will be strongly required for the reduction of morbidity and mortality.

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The Impact of Maternal Cocaine Use on Neonates in Socioeconomic Disadvantaged Population

Journal of Drug Education ◽

10.2190/wmuv-7rmf-gkxt-6d4h ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 27 (4) ◽

pp. 389-396 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Wei Yue Sun ◽

William Chen

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Social Support ◽

Health Concern ◽

Support Programs ◽

Drug Education ◽

Public Health Concern ◽

Cocaine Use ◽

Disadvantaged Population ◽

And Control ◽

The Impact

Maternal cocaine use has emerged as a major public health concern because the number of users has markedly increased in 1990s and the impact on neonates is severe. The problem of maternal cocaine use is especially important in socioeconomic disadvantaged population since they are more likely to be victims of this drug use. Social support programs including drug education are utmost important and should be offered to all socioeconomic disadvantage pregnant women to prevent and control maternal cocaine use.

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International Collaboration in the Field of Environmental Protection: Trend Analysis and COVID-19 Implications

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su122410384 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (24) ◽

pp. 10384

Author(s):

Yelizaveta Chernysh ◽

Hynek Roubík

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Environmental Protection ◽

International Cooperation ◽

Basic Research ◽

Integrated Approach ◽

Social Constraints ◽

Research Areas ◽

A Chain ◽

And Control ◽

The Impact

This paper focuses on the analysis of current cooperation trends in environmental protection research. A unified system of interrelations between research methods in the field of implementation of the bibliometric approach to the review of international cooperation in the field of environmental protection taking into account the consequences of the COVID-2019 pandemic was formed. To form a unified visualization of the analyzed bibliometric data, a special software product VOSViewer was used. Five clusters were defined: green—international cooperation for assessing risks to public health, in particular in the field of biosafety and the spread of social infections, with a focus on COVID-19, in 2019 and 2020; yellow—describes the related interaction between other clusters in the field of national and international mechanisms of cooperation in the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change; blue—brings together research areas in the field of economics of environmental management and control. The situation concerning the impact of the COVID-2019 pandemic is ambiguous, and it is crucial to recognize that this is a long-term period of impact, not only directly on public health but also due to economic and social constraints, as quarantine activities cause a chain of socio-economic crises. The problems of the environmental and economic spread of COVID-19 on various human activities and the environment require the development of this topic and the formation of a new cluster of interactions due to the wave dynamics of disease in the future. Broad cooperation and collaboration is proposed to address the challenges and accelerate sustainable development in Europe. A diagram of the main cooperation programs has been created, illustrating the overlap of the entire field, from basic research to the market. Further analytical studies will examine the effectiveness of cross-analysis using various scientometric databases to form an integrated approach to the new realities of quarantine activities.

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