epidemic control
Recently Published Documents


TOTAL DOCUMENTS

298
(FIVE YEARS 184)

H-INDEX

22
(FIVE YEARS 8)

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Berrig ◽  
Viggo Andreasen ◽  
Bjarke Frost Nielsen

Testing strategies have varied widely between nation states during the COVID-19 pandemic, in intensity as well as methodology. Some countries have mainly performed diagnostic testing while others have opted for mass-screening for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 as well. COVID passport solutions have been introduced, in which access to several aspects of public life requires either testing, proof of vaccination or a combination thereof. This creates a coupling between personal activity levels and testing behaviour which, as we show, leverages the heterogeneous behaviours in the population and turns this heterogeneity from a disadvantage to an advantage for epidemic control.


Author(s):  
Jitka Polechová ◽  
Kory D. Johnson ◽  
Pavel Payne ◽  
Alex Crozier ◽  
Mathias Beiglböck ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 547-578
Author(s):  
Kyu Won LEE

It was in 1907 when Korea was annexed by Japan in the field of health care systems as the Gwangje Hospital, Uihakgyo the National Medical School and the Korean Red Cross Hospital were merged into the colonial Daehan Hospital, and massive cholera epidemic controls by the Japanese Army were enforced. However, despite their importance, the cholera epidemic of 1907 in Korea and preventive measures taken at that time have not yet been studied extensively as a single research subject. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a more concrete and broader understanding of the Korea-Japan annexation of health care systems under the rule of the Japanese Resident-General of Korea by revealing new facts and correcting existing errors. In 1907, cholera was transmitted to Korea from China and Japan and spread across the Korean Peninsula, resulting in a major public health crisis, perhaps one of the most serious cholera outbreaks in the twentieth century Korea. Although Busan and Pyeongyang were the cities most infected with cholera, the targets for the most intensive interventions were Gyeongseong (Seoul) and Incheon, where the Japanese Crown Prince were supposed to make a visit. The Japanese police commissioner took several anti-cholera preventive measures in Gyeongseong, including searching out patients, disinfecting and blocking infected areas, and isolating the confirmed or suspected. Nevertheless, cholera was about to be rampant especially among Japanese residents. In this situation, Itō Hirobumi, the first Resident-General of Korea, organized the temporary cholera control headquarters to push ahead the visit of the Japanese Crown Prince for his political purposes to colonize Korea. To dispel Emperor Meiji’s concerns, Itō had to appoint Satō Susumu, the famous Japanese Army Surgeon General, as an advisor, since he had much credit at Court. In addition, as the Japanese-led Korean police lacked epidemic control ability and experience, the headquarters became an improvised organization commanded by the Japanese Army in Korea and wielded great influence on the formation of the colonial disease control systems. Its activities were forced, violent, and negligent, and many Korean people were quite uncooperative in some anti-cholera measures. As a result, the Japanese Army in Korea took the initiative away from the Korean police in epidemic controls, serving the heavy-handed military policy of early colonial period. In short, the cholera epidemic and its control in 1907 were important events that shaped the direction of Japan’s colonial rule.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Macherey ◽  
M. M. Meertens ◽  
C. Adler ◽  
S. Braumann ◽  
S. Heyne ◽  
...  

AbstractThe effect of respiratory infectious diseases on STEMI incidence, but also STEMI care is not well understood. The Influenza 2017/2018 epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic were chosen as observational periods to investigate the effect of respiratory virus diseases on these outcomes in a metropolitan area with an established STEMI network. We analyzed data on incidence and care during the COVID-19 pandemic, Influenza 2017/2018 epidemic and corresponding seasonal control periods. Three comparisons were performed: (1) COVID-19 pandemic group versus pandemic control group, (2) COVID-19 pandemic group versus Influenza 2017/2018 epidemic group and (3) Influenza 2017/2018 epidemic group versus epidemic control group. We used Student’s t-test, Fisher’s exact test and Chi square test for statistical analysis. 1455 patients were eligible. The daily STEMI incidence was 1.49 during the COVID-19 pandemic, 1.40 for the pandemic season control period, 1.22 during the Influenza 2017/2018 epidemic and 1.28 during the epidemic season control group. Median symptom-to-contact time was 180 min during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the pandemic season control group it was 90 min (p = 0.183), and in the Influenza 2017/2018 cohort it was 90 min, too (p = 0.216). Interval in the epidemic control group was 79 min (p = 0.733). The COVID-19 group had a door-to-balloon time of 49 min, corresponding intervals were 39 min for the pandemic season group (p = 0.038), 37 min for the Influenza 2017/2018 group (p = 0.421), and 38 min for the epidemic season control group (p = 0.429). In-hospital mortality was 6.1% for the COVID-19 group, 5.9% for the Influenza 2017/2018 group (p = 1.0), 11% and 11.2% for the season control groups. The respiratory virus diseases neither resulted in an overall treatment delay, nor did they cause an increase in STEMI mortality or incidence. The registry analysis demonstrated a prolonged door-to-balloon time during the COVID-19 pandemic.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin F Maier ◽  
Marc Wiedermann ◽  
Angelique Burdinski ◽  
Pascal Klamser ◽  
Mirjam A Jenny ◽  
...  

Vaccines are the most powerful pharmaceutical tool to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. While the majority (about 65%) of the German population were fully vaccinated, incidence started growing exponentially in October 2021 with about 41% of recorded new cases aged twelve or above being symptomatic breakthrough infections, presumably also contributing to the dynamics. At the time, it (i) remains elusive how significant this contribution is and (ii) whether targeted non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) may stop the amplification of the ongoing crisis. Here, we estimate that about 67%-76% of all new infections are caused by unvaccinated individuals, implying that only 24%-33% are caused by the vaccinated. Furthermore, we estimate 38%-51% of new infections to be caused by unvaccinated individuals infecting other unvaccinated individuals. In total, unvaccinated individuals are expected to be involved in 8-9 of 10 new infections. We further show that decreasing the transmissibility of the unvaccinated by, e.g. targeted NPIs, causes a steeper decrease in the effective reproduction number R than decreasing the transmissibility of vaccinated individuals, potentially leading to temporary epidemic control. Furthermore, reducing contacts between vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals serves to decrease R in a similar manner as increasing vaccine uptake. Taken together, our results contribute to the public discourse regarding policy changes in pandemic response and highlight the importance of combined measures, such as vaccination campaigns and contact reduction, to achieve epidemic control and preventing an overload of public health


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. e0259708
Author(s):  
Gallican N. Rwibasira ◽  
Samuel S. Malamba ◽  
Gentille Musengimana ◽  
Richard C. M. Nkunda ◽  
Jared Omolo ◽  
...  

Background Despite Rwanda’s progress toward HIV epidemic control, 16.2% of HIV-positive individuals are unaware of their HIV positive status. Tailoring the public health strategy could help reach these individuals with new HIV infection and achieve epidemic control. Recency testing is primarily for surveillance, monitoring, and evaluation but it’s not for diagnostic purposes. However, it’s important to know what proportion of the newly diagnosed are recent infections so that HIV prevention can be tailored to the profile of people who are recently infected. We therefore used available national data to characterize individuals with recent HIV infection in Rwanda to inform the epidemic response. Methods We included all national-level data for recency testing reported from October 2018 to June 2020. Eligible participants were adults (aged ≥15 years) who had a new HIV diagnosis, who self-reported being antiretroviral therapy (ART) naïve, and who had consented to recency testing. Numbers and proportions of recent HIV infections were estimated, and precision around these estimates was calculated with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Logistic regression was used to assess factors associated with being recently (within 12 months) infected with HIV. Results Of 7,785 eligible individuals with a new HIV-positive diagnosis, 475 (6.1%) met the criteria for RITA recent infection. The proportion of RITA recent infections among individuals with newly identified HIV was high among those aged 15–24 years (9.6%) and in men aged ≥65 years (10.3%) compared to other age groups; and were higher among women (6.7%) than men (5.1%). Of all recent cases, 68.8% were women, and 72.2% were aged 15–34 years. The Northern province had the fewest individuals with newly diagnosed HIV but had the highest proportion of recent infections (10.0%) compared to other provinces. Recent infections decreased by 19.6% per unit change in time (measured in months). Patients aged ≥25 years were less likely to have recent infection than those aged 15–24 years with those aged 35–49 years being the least likely to have recent infection compared to those aged 15–24 years (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.415 [95% CI: 0.316–0.544]). Conclusion Public health surveillance targeting the areas and the identified groups with high risk of recent infection could help improve outcomes.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document