scholarly journals Long‐term Pseudogymnoascus destructans surveillance data reveal factors contributing to pathogen presence

Ecosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
John F. Grider ◽  
Robin E. Russell ◽  
Anne E. Ballmann ◽  
Trevor J. Hefley
Keyword(s):  
Surveillance Data ◽  
Pseudogymnoascus Destructans

scholarly journals Pseudogymnoascus destructans growth in wood, soil and guano substrates

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Urbina ◽  
Tara Chestnut ◽  
Jennifer M. Allen ◽  
Taal Levi
Keyword(s):  
Dna Extraction ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
Transmission Risk ◽  
Pseudogymnoascus Destructans ◽  
White Nose Syndrome ◽  
Management Interventions ◽  
Pathogen Persistence ◽  
Tenfold Increase ◽  
And Control

AbstractUnderstanding how a pathogen can grow on different substrates and how this growth impacts its dispersal are critical to understanding the risks and control of emerging infectious diseases. Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd) causes white-nose syndrome (WNS) in many bat species and can persist in, and transmit from, the environment. We experimentally evaluated Pd growth on common substrates to better understand mechanisms of pathogen persistence, transmission and viability. We inoculated autoclaved guano, fresh guano, soil, and wood with live Pd fungus and evaluated (1) whether Pd grows or persists on each (2) if spores of the fungus remain viable 4 months after inoculation on each substrate, and (3) whether detection and quantitation of Pd on swabs is sensitive to the choice to two commonly used DNA extraction kits. After inoculating each substrate with 460,000 Pd spores, we collected ~ 0.20 g of guano and soil, and swabs from wood every 16 days for 64 days to quantify pathogen load through time using real-time qPCR. We detected Pd on all substrates over the course of the experiment. We observed a tenfold increase in pathogen loads on autoclaved guano and persistence but not growth in fresh guano. Pathogen loads increased marginally on wood but declined ~ 60-fold in soil. After four months, apparently viable spores were harvested from all substrates but germination did not occur from fresh guano. We additionally found that detection and quantitation of Pd from swabs of wood surfaces is sensitive to the DNA extraction method. The commonly used PrepMan Ultra Reagent protocol yielded substantially less DNA than did the QIAGEN DNeasy Blood and Tissue Kit. Notably the PrepMan Ultra Reagent failed to detect Pd in many wood swabs that were detected by QIAGEN and were subsequently found to contain substantial live conidia. Our results indicate that Pd can persist or even grow on common environmental substrates with results dependent on whether microbial competitors have been eliminated. Although we observed clear rapid declines in Pd on soil, viable spores were harvested four months after inoculation. These results suggest that environmental substrates and guano can in general serve as infectious environmental reservoirs due to long-term persistence, and even growth, of live Pd. This should inform management interventions to sanitize or modify structures to reduce transmission risk as well early detection rapid response (EDRR) planning.

DIPHTHERIA IN THE UNITED STATES, 1959-1960

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1962 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-205
Author(s):  
Theodore C. Doege ◽  
Clark W. Heath ◽  
Ida L. Sherman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Communicable Disease ◽  
Case Fatality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Surveillance Data ◽  
Term Trend ◽  
The Past ◽  
Primary Series ◽  
Long Term Trend

Diphtheria attack rates and cases, and to a much lesser extent case-fatality rates, have fallen steadily within the United States during the past 25 years. However, during 1959 and 1960 there was a halt in this long-term trend. Epidemiologic data on 868 clinical cases of diphtheria occurring in 1959 and 873 cases in 1960 were submitted to the Communicable Disease Center by 45 states. The cases and several major outbreaks tended to concentrate in the southern and southwestern states. Attack rates and deaths were highest for children under 10 years, and attack rates were more than five times greater for nonwhite children. Analysis of 1960 immunization data shows that 72% of the patients had received no immunizations. Fifty-five per cent of carriers, but only 18% of persons with bacteriologically confirmed cases, had received a primary series. Only 1 person of 58 fatal cases occurring in 1960 had received a primary series. Certain problems for future investigation, disclosed by the surveillance data, are discussed.

scholarly journals Localized Surveillance: A Fresh Perspective for Regional Syndromic Surveillance

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mansi Agarwal ◽  
Nimi Idaikkadar ◽  
José Lojo ◽  
Kristen Soto ◽  
Robert Mathes
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Data Sharing ◽  
Syndromic Surveillance ◽  
Local Scale ◽  
Surveillance Data ◽  
Fresh Perspective

This roundtable will discuss successful syndromic surveillance data sharing efforts that have been used on a local scale for faster, more efficient, and long-term collaboration between neighboring public health jurisdictions.

scholarly journals Assessing scarlet fever re-emergence from notifiable disease surveillance in Hong Kong

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric H Lau ◽  
C Lee ◽  
B J Cowling
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Control Strategy ◽  
Scarlet Fever ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Surveillance Data ◽  
Notifiable Disease ◽  
Term Trend ◽  
Long Term Trend

Objective: This study examined the epidemiology of scarlet fever in Hong Kong based on notifiable disease surveillance data, in a period where a 10-fold upsurge in scarlet fever incidence occurred. High risk groups and important factors associated with scarlet fever transmission were identified.Introduction: Scarlet fever is a notifiable disease in Hong Kong for over 40 years. There was relatively low activity of scarlet fever until an outbreak in mid-2011 which resulted in two deaths and more than 1,500 cases. Scarlet fever incidence remained elevated since then with >10-fold increase comparing to that before the upsurge (1, 2). Reemergence of scarlet fever was also reported in China in 2011 and the United Kingdom in 2014 (3). We analyzed the patterns in scarlet fever incidence in Hong Kong using the notifiable disease surveillance data from 2005–2015.Methods: We analyzed 7,266 scarlet fever cases aged 14y or younger from 2005-2015, who were notified to the Department of Health. Hierarchical multivariable negative binomial models were fitted to the data to study the effects of age, sex, school holidays, and other meteorological parameters, accounting for autocorrelation, seasonal and long-term trend. Separate models were fitted to the data before and after the upsurge in 2011, excluding data in 2011 to allow for a 1-year window period.Results: We observed seasonal pattern throughout the study period (Figure). Among children aged ≤5y, the average scarlet fever incidence was 3.3 per 10,000 children in 2005-2010, which increased substantially to 18.1 per 10,000 children in 2012-2015.The final model included age, sex, school holidays in the preceding week, temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, long-term and bimodal seasonal trend. Based on the model, we identified no significant long-term trend before the upsurge in 2011, but there was a mild decreasing trend of about 8% (95% CI=6-11%) per year after the upsurge. A major peak was identified in December to January, with a milder peak in May to June.We found that the most affected groups were kindergarten students (3-5y), followed by primary school students (6-11y). Comparing to girls aged 0-2y, boys had significantly higher risk than girls except for the 0-2y age group, and boys aged 3-5y had the highest risk (adjusted incidence rate ratio (IRR)=1.47, 95% CI=1.32-1.65). School holidays were significantly associated with lower incidence of scarlet fever, with an adjusted IRR of 0.58 (95% CI=0.51–0.65) after the upsurge in 2011. Temperature was found to be negatively associated with scarlet fever incidence (adjusted IRR=0.963, 95% CI=0.940-0.987) after the upsurge.Conclusions: Our study showed that elevated activity of scarlet fever was sustained for more than 5 years after the upsurge in 2011. We found that younger children who started schools, especially for boys aged 3-5 years, had a higher risk of scarlet fever, and there was significant effect of school holidays in reducing scarlet fever incidence. Combining these findings, school-based control strategy is likely to be effective. Sustained and consistent surveillance of scarlet fever allows continued monitoring of potential change in high risk group to drive updated and effective control strategy.

scholarly journals Estimating COVID-19 Hospitalizations in the United States with surveillance data using a Bayesian Hierarchical model

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexia Couture ◽  
Danielle Iuliano ◽  
Howard H Chang ◽  
Neha N Patel ◽  
Matthew Gilmer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Hierarchical Model ◽  
Cumulative Incidence ◽  
Bayesian Hierarchical Model ◽  
The United States ◽  
Surveillance Data ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Covariate Selection ◽  
Bayesian Hierarchical

Introduction: In the United States, COVID-19 is a nationally notifiable disease, cases and hospitalizations are reported to the CDC by states. Identifying and reporting every case from every facility in the United States may not be feasible in the long term. Creating sustainable methods for estimating burden of COVID-19 from established sentinel surveillance systems is becoming more important. We aimed to provide a method leveraging surveillance data to create a long-term solution to estimate monthly rates of hospitalizations for COVID-19. Methods: We estimated monthly hospitalization rates for COVID-19 from May 2020 through April 2021 for the 50 states using surveillance data from COVID-19-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET) and a Bayesian hierarchical model for extrapolation. We created a model for six age groups (0-17, 18-49, 50-64, 65-74, 75-84, and ≥85 years), separately. We identified covariates from multiple data sources that varied by age, state, and/or month, and performed covariate selection for each age group based on two methods, Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) and Spike and Slab selection methods. We validated our method by checking sensitivity of model estimates to covariate selection and model extrapolation as well as comparing our results to external data. Results: We estimated 3,569,500 (90% Credible Interval:3,238,000 - 3,934,700) hospitalizations for a cumulative incidence of 1,089.8 (988.6 - 1,201.3) hospitalizations per 100,000 population with COVID-19 in the United States from May 2020 through April 2021. Cumulative incidence varied from 352 - 1,821per 100,000 between states. The age group with the highest cumulative incidence was aged greater than or equal to 85 years (5,583.1; 5,061.0 - 6,157.5). The monthly hospitalization rate was highest in December (183.8; 154.5 - 218.0). Our monthly estimates by state showed variations in magnitudes of peak rates, number of peaks and timing of peaks between states. Conclusions: Our novel approach to estimate COVID-19 hospitalizations has potential to provide sustainable estimates for monitoring COVID-19 burden, as well as a flexible framework leveraging surveillance data.

scholarly journals Sex and hibernaculum temperature predict survivorship in white-nose syndrome affected little brown myotis ( Myotis lucifugus )

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 140470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura E. Grieneisen ◽  
Sarah A. Brownlee-Bouboulis ◽  
Joseph S. Johnson ◽  
DeeAnn M. Reeder
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Myotis Lucifugus ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Pseudogymnoascus Destructans ◽  
Term Survival ◽  
White Nose Syndrome ◽  
Myotis Myotis ◽  
The Impact

White-nose syndrome (WNS), an emerging infectious disease caused by the novel fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans , has devastated North American bat populations since its discovery in 2006. The little brown myotis, Myotis lucifugus , has been especially affected. The goal of this 2-year captive study was to determine the impact of hibernacula temperature and sex on WNS survivorship in little brown myotis that displayed visible fungal infection when collected from affected hibernacula. In study 1, we found that WNS-affected male bats had increased survival over females and that bats housed at a colder temperature survived longer than those housed at warmer temperatures. In study 2, we found that WNS-affected bats housed at a colder temperature fared worse than unaffected bats. Our results demonstrate that WNS mortality varies among individuals, and that colder hibernacula are more favourable for survival. They also suggest that female bats may be more negatively affected by WNS than male bats, which has important implications for the long-term survival of the little brown myotis in eastern North America.

Long-Term Surveillance Data and Patterns of Invasion by Aedes albopictus in Florida

2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth C. Britch ◽  
Kenneth J. Linthicum ◽  
Assaf Anyamba ◽  
Compton J. Tucker ◽  
Edwin W. Pak
Keyword(s):  
Aedes Albopictus ◽  
Surveillance Data
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