Browsing by Subject "Communicable Disease Control"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    Behavioural ecology and infectious disease: implications for conservation of biodiversity.
    (Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2019-09) Herrera, James; Nunn, Charles L
    Behaviour underpins interactions among conspecifics and between species, with consequences for the transmission of disease-causing parasites. Because many parasites lead to declines in population size and increased risk of extinction for threatened species, understanding the link between host behaviour and disease transmission is particularly important for conservation management. Here, we consider the intersection of behaviour, ecology and parasite transmission, broadly encompassing micro- and macroparasites. We focus on behaviours that have direct impacts on transmission, as well as the behaviours that result from infection. Given the important role of parasites in host survival and reproduction, the effects of behaviour on parasitism can scale up to population-level processes, thus affecting species conservation. Understanding how conservation and infectious disease control strategies actually affect transmission potential can therefore often only be understood through a behavioural lens. We highlight how behavioural perspectives of disease ecology apply to conservation by reviewing the different ways that behavioural ecology influences parasite transmission and conservation goals. This article is part of the theme issue 'Linking behaviour to dynamics of populations and communities: application of novel approaches in behavioural ecology to conservation'.
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    Ecology and economics for pandemic prevention.
    (Science (New York, N.Y.), 2020-07) Dobson, Andrew P; Pimm, Stuart L; Hannah, Lee; Kaufman, Les; Ahumada, Jorge A; Ando, Amy W; Bernstein, Aaron; Busch, Jonah; Daszak, Peter; Engelmann, Jens; Kinnaird, Margaret F; Li, Binbin V; Loch-Temzelides, Ted; Lovejoy, Thomas; Nowak, Katarzyna; Roehrdanz, Patrick R; Vale, Mariana M
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    Evaluating Response Time in Zanzibar's Malaria Elimination Case-Based Surveillance-Response System.
    (The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene, 2019-02) Khandekar, Eeshan; Kramer, Randall; Ali, Abdullah S; Al-Mafazy, Abdul-Wahid; Egger, Joseph R; LeGrand, Sara; Mkali, Humphrey R; McKay, Michael; Ngondi, Jeremiah M
    As countries transition toward malaria elimination, malaria programs rely on surveillance-response systems, which are often supported by web- and mobile phone-based reporting tools. Such surveillance-response systems are interventions for elimination, making it important to determine if they are operating optimally. A metric to measure this by is timeliness. This study used a mixed-methods approach to investigate the response time of Zanzibar's malaria elimination surveillance-response system, Malaria Case Notification (MCN). MCN conducts both passive and reactive case detection, supported by a mobile phone-based reporting tool called Coconut Surveillance. Using data obtained from RTI International and the Zanzibar Malaria Elimination Program (ZAMEP), analysis of summary statistics was conducted to investigate the association of response time with geography, and time series techniques were used to investigate trends in response time and its association with the number of reported cases. Results indicated that response time varied by the district in Zanzibar (0.6-6.05 days) and that it was not associated with calendar time or the number of reported cases. Survey responses and focus groups with a cadre of health workers, district malaria surveillance officers, shed light on operational challenges faced during case investigation, such as incomplete health records and transportation issues, which stem from deficiencies in aspects of ZAMEP's program management. These findings illustrate that timely response for malaria elimination depends on effective program management, despite the automation of web-based or mobile phone-based tools. For surveillance-response systems to work optimally, malaria programs should ensure that optimal management practices are in place.
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    Lives versus Livelihoods? Perceived economic risk has a stronger association with support for COVID-19 preventive measures than perceived health risk.
    (Scientific reports, 2021-05) Nisa, Claudia F; Bélanger, Jocelyn J; Faller, Daiane G; Buttrick, Nicholas R; Mierau, Jochen O; Austin, Maura MK; Schumpe, Birga M; Sasin, Edyta M; Agostini, Maximilian; Gützkow, Ben; Kreienkamp, Jannis; Abakoumkin, Georgios; Abdul Khaiyom, Jamilah Hanum; Ahmedi, Vjollca; Akkas, Handan; Almenara, Carlos A; Atta, Mohsin; Bagci, Sabahat Cigdem; Basel, Sima; Kida, Edona Berisha; Bernardo, Allan BI; Chobthamkit, Phatthanakit; Choi, Hoon-Seok; Cristea, Mioara; Csaba, Sára; Damnjanović, Kaja; Danyliuk, Ivan; Dash, Arobindu; Di Santo, Daniela; Douglas, Karen M; Enea, Violeta; Fitzsimons, Gavan; Gheorghiu, Alexandra; Gómez, Ángel; Grzymala-Moszczynska, Joanna; Hamaidia, Ali; Han, Qing; Helmy, Mai; Hudiyana, Joevarian; Jeronimus, Bertus F; Jiang, Ding-Yu; Jovanović, Veljko; Kamenov, Željka; Kende, Anna; Keng, Shian-Ling; Kieu, Tra Thi Thanh; Koc, Yasin; Kovyazina, Kamila; Kozytska, Inna; Krause, Joshua; Kruglanski, Arie W; Kurapov, Anton; Kutlaca, Maja; Lantos, Nóra Anna; Lemay, Edward P; Lesmana, Cokorda Bagus Jaya; Louis, Winnifred R; Lueders, Adrian; Malik, Najma Iqbal; Martinez, Anton; McCabe, Kira O; Mehulić, Jasmina; Milla, Mirra Noor; Mohammed, Idris; Molinario, Erica; Moyano, Manuel; Muhammad, Hayat; Mula, Silvana; Muluk, Hamdi; Myroniuk, Solomiia; Najafi, Reza; Nyúl, Boglárka; O'Keefe, Paul A; Osuna, Jose Javier Olivas; Osin, Evgeny N; Park, Joonha; Pica, Gennaro; Pierro, Antonio; Rees, Jonas; Reitsema, Anne Margit; Resta, Elena; Rullo, Marika; Ryan, Michelle K; Samekin, Adil; Santtila, Pekka; Selim, Heyla A; Stanton, Michael Vicente; Sultana, Samiah; Sutton, Robbie M; Tseliou, Eleftheria; Utsugi, Akira; van Breen, Jolien Anne; Van Lissa, Caspar J; Van Veen, Kees; vanDellen, Michelle R; Vázquez, Alexandra; Wollast, Robin; Yeung, Victoria Wai-Lan; Zand, Somayeh; Žeželj, Iris Lav; Zheng, Bang; Zick, Andreas; Zúñiga, Claudia; Leander, N Pontus
    This paper examines whether compliance with COVID-19 mitigation measures is motivated by wanting to save lives or save the economy (or both), and which implications this carries to fight the pandemic. National representative samples were collected from 24 countries (N = 25,435). The main predictors were (1) perceived risk to contract coronavirus, (2) perceived risk to suffer economic losses due to coronavirus, and (3) their interaction effect. Individual and country-level variables were added as covariates in multilevel regression models. We examined compliance with various preventive health behaviors and support for strict containment policies. Results show that perceived economic risk consistently predicted mitigation behavior and policy support-and its effects were positive. Perceived health risk had mixed effects. Only two significant interactions between health and economic risk were identified-both positive.
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    Telehealth transformation: COVID-19 and the rise of virtual care.
    (Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA, 2020-06) Wosik, Jedrek; Fudim, Marat; Cameron, Blake; Gellad, Ziad F; Cho, Alex; Phinney, Donna; Curtis, Simon; Roman, Matthew; Poon, Eric G; Ferranti, Jeffrey; Katz, Jason N; Tcheng, James
    The novel coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic has altered our economy, society, and healthcare system. While this crisis has presented the U.S. healthcare delivery system with unprecedented challenges, the pandemic has catalyzed rapid adoption of telehealth, or the entire spectrum of activities used to deliver care at a distance. Using examples reported by U.S. healthcare organizations, including ours, we describe the role that telehealth has played in transforming healthcare delivery during the 3 phases of the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic: (1) stay-at-home outpatient care, (2) initial COVID-19 hospital surge, and (3) postpandemic recovery. Within each of these 3 phases, we examine how people, process, and technology work together to support a successful telehealth transformation. Whether healthcare enterprises are ready or not, the new reality is that virtual care has arrived.
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    The social threats of COVID-19 for people with chronic pain.
    (Pain, 2020-10) Karos, Kai; McParland, Joanna L; Bunzli, Samantha; Devan, Hemakumar; Hirsh, Adam; Kapos, Flavia P; Keogh, Edmund; Moore, David; Tracy, Lincoln M; Ashton-James, Claire E
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    The State of Infectious Diseases Clinical Trials: A Systematic Review of ClinicalTrials.gov
    (PLoS ONE, 2013-10-16) Goswami, ND; Pfeiffer, CD; Horton, JR; Chiswell, K; Tasneem, A; Tsalik, EL
    Background

    There is a paucity of clinical trials informing specific questions faced by infectious diseases (ID) specialists. The ClinicalTrials.gov registry offers an opportunity to evaluate the ID clinical trials portfolio.

    Methods

    We examined 40,970 interventional trials registered with ClinicalTrials.gov from 2007–2010, focusing on study conditions and interventions to identify ID-related trials. Relevance to ID was manually confirmed for each programmatically identified trial, yielding 3570 ID trials and 37,400 non-ID trials for analysis.

    Results

    The number of ID trials was similar to the number of trials identified as belonging to cardiovascular medicine (n = 3437) or mental health (n = 3695) specialties. Slightly over half of ID trials were treatment-oriented trials (53%, vs. 77% for non-ID trials) followed by prevention (38%, vs. 8% in non-ID trials). ID trials tended to be larger than those of other specialties, with a median enrollment of 125 subjects (interquartile range [IQR], 45–400) vs. 60 (IQR, 30–160) for non-ID trials. Most ID studies are randomized (73%) but nonblinded (56%). Industry was the funding source in 51% of ID trials vs. 10% that were primarily NIH-funded. HIV-AIDS trials constitute the largest subset of ID trials (n = 815 [23%]), followed by influenza vaccine (n = 375 [11%]), and hepatitis C (n = 339 [9%]) trials. Relative to U.S. and global mortality rates, HIV-AIDS and hepatitis C virus trials are over-represented, whereas lower respiratory tract infection trials are under-represented in this large sample of ID clinical trials.

    Conclusions

    This work is the first to characterize ID clinical trials registered in ClinicalTrials.gov, providing a framework to discuss prioritization, methodology, and policy.

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    Universal masking is an effective strategy to flatten the severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) healthcare worker epidemiologic curve.
    (Infection control and hospital epidemiology, 2020-12) Seidelman, Jessica L; Lewis, Sarah S; Advani, Sonali D; Akinboyo, Ibukunoluwa C; Epling, Carol; Case, Matthew; Said, Kristen; Yancey, William; Stiegel, Matthew; Schwartz, Antony; Stout, Jason; Sexton, Daniel J; Smith, Becky A