Classifying Infectious Disease Outbreaks to Improve Timeliness and Efficiency of Response

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Posid ◽  
Richard A. Goodman ◽  
Ali S. Khan
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Response Strategy ◽  
Postal Service ◽  
Public Health Community ◽  
The Public ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Health Community

AbstractFollowing the intentional dissemination of B.anthracis through the U.S. Postal Service in 2001, use of the term “naturally occurring” to classify some infectious disease outbreaks has become more evident. However, this term is neither a scientific nor an epidemiologic classification that is helpful in describing either the source or the mode of transmission in outbreaks. In this paper, the authors provide examples of how and when the public health community has recognized potentially flawed or misleading taxonomy in the past and taken steps to improve the taxonomy's accuracy and usefulness. We also offer examples of alternative terms for classifying outbreaks since inaccurate descriptions of outbreaks could potentially lead to a flawed or incomplete set of underlying assumptions about the outbreak's causal factors. This, in turn, could lead to implementing a flawed or incomplete intervention or response strategy which could extend the duration of the outbreak, resulting in avoidable morbidity and mortality. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2014;0:1–6)

Federal Legal Preparedness Tools for Facilitating Medical Countermeasure Use during Public Health Emergencies

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. 22-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooke Courtney ◽  
Susan Sherman ◽  
Matthew Penn
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Federal State ◽  
The Public ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Public Health Emergencies ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Temporary Assistance ◽  
Medical Countermeasures

Law can greatly facilitate responses to public health emergencies, including naturally-occurring infectious disease outbreaks and intentional or accidental exposures to chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) agents. At the federal level, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as the lead for federal public health and medical responses to public health emergencies and incidents, has a range of authorities to support federal, state, tribal, local, and territorial responses. For example, under the Public Health Service (PHS) Act, the Secretary may provide temporary assistance to States to meet health emergency needs or deploy medicine and supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile. The Secretary also may determine that a disease or disorder presents a public health emergency, which may be the first step in triggering other critical legal authorities for response.Since the 2001 anthrax attacks, one focus of public health preparedness has been on developing, distributing, and rapidly dispensing medical countermeasures (MCMs) for CBRN emergencies and pandemics.

scholarly journals The More the Better? A Comparison of the Information Sources Used by the Public during Two Infectious Disease Outbreaks

PLoS ONE ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. e0140028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia G. Jardine ◽  
Franziska U. Boerner ◽  
Amanda D. Boyd ◽  
S. Michelle Driedger
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
The Public ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks

scholarly journals What makes health systems resilient against infectious disease outbreaks and natural hazards? Results from a scoping review

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer B. Nuzzo ◽  
Diane Meyer ◽  
Michael Snyder ◽  
Sanjana J. Ravi ◽  
Ana Lapascu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Health System ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
World Health ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
System Resilience

Abstract Background The 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak was a wake-up call regarding the critical importance of resilient health systems. Fragile health systems can become overwhelmed during public health crises, further exacerbating the human, economic, and political toll. Important work has been done to describe the general attributes of a health system resilient to these crises, and the next step will be to identify the specific capacities that health systems need to develop and maintain to achieve resiliency. Methods We conducted a scoping review of the literature to identify recurring themes and capacities needed for health system resiliency to infectious disease outbreaks and natural hazards and any existing implementation frameworks that highlight these capacities. We also sought to identify the overlap of the identified themes and capacities with those highlighted in the World Health Organization’s Joint External Evaluation. Sources of evidence included PubMed, Web of Science, OAIster, and the websites of relevant major public health organizations. Results We identified 16 themes of health system resilience, including: the need to develop plans for altered standards of care during emergencies, the need to develop plans for post-event recovery, and a commitment to quality improvement. Most of the literature described the general attributes of a resilient health system; no implementation frameworks were identified that could translate these elements into specific capacities that health system actors can employ to improve resilience to outbreaks and natural hazards in a variety of settings. Conclusions An implementation-oriented health system resilience framework could help translate the important components of a health system identified in this review into specific capacities that actors in the health system could work to develop to improve resilience to public health crises. However, there remains a need to further refine the concept of resilience so that health systems can simultaneously achieve sustainable transformations in healthcare practice and health service delivery as well as improve their preparedness for emergencies.

scholarly journals Mental health services for infectious disease outbreaks including COVID-19: a rapid systematic review

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (15) ◽  
pp. 2498-2513
Author(s):  
Jing-Li Yue ◽  
Wei Yan ◽  
Yan-Kun Sun ◽  
Kai Yuan ◽  
Si-Zhen Su ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Stepped Care ◽  
Research Database ◽  
The Public ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Culturally Adapted ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe upsurge in the number of people affected by the COVID-19 is likely to lead to increased rates of emotional trauma and mental illnesses. This article systematically reviewed the available data on the benefits of interventions to reduce adverse mental health sequelae of infectious disease outbreaks, and to offer guidance for mental health service responses to infectious disease pandemic. PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, PsycINFO, WHO Global Research Database on infectious disease, and the preprint server medRxiv were searched. Of 4278 reports identified, 32 were included in this review. Most articles of psychological interventions were implemented to address the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, followed by Ebola, SARS, and MERS for multiple vulnerable populations. Increasing mental health literacy of the public is vital to prevent the mental health crisis under the COVID-19 pandemic. Group-based cognitive behavioral therapy, psychological first aid, community-based psychosocial arts program, and other culturally adapted interventions were reported as being effective against the mental health impacts of COVID-19, Ebola, and SARS. Culturally-adapted, cost-effective, and accessible strategies integrated into the public health emergency response and established medical systems at the local and national levels are likely to be an effective option to enhance mental health response capacity for the current and for future infectious disease outbreaks. Tele-mental healthcare services were key central components of stepped care for both infectious disease outbreak management and routine support; however, the usefulness and limitations of remote health delivery should also be recognized.

scholarly journals Ethics of instantaneous contact tracing using mobile phone apps in the control of the COVID-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (7) ◽  
pp. 427-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J Parker ◽  
Christophe Fraser ◽  
Lucie Abeler-Dörner ◽  
David Bonsall
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Mobile Phone Data ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Ethical Implications

In this paper we discuss ethical implications of the use of mobile phone apps in the control of the COVID-19 pandemic. Contact tracing is a well-established feature of public health practice during infectious disease outbreaks and epidemics. However, the high proportion of pre-symptomatic transmission in COVID-19 means that standard contact tracing methods are too slow to stop the progression of infection through the population. To address this problem, many countries around the world have deployed or are developing mobile phone apps capable of supporting instantaneous contact tracing. Informed by the on-going mapping of ‘proximity events’ these apps are intended both to inform public health policy and to provide alerts to individuals who have been in contact with a person with the infection. The proposed use of mobile phone data for ‘intelligent physical distancing’ in such contexts raises a number of important ethical questions. In our paper, we outline some ethical considerations that need to be addressed in any deployment of this kind of approach as part of a multidimensional public health response. We also, briefly, explore the implications for its use in future infectious disease outbreaks.

The Role of the Public Health Community in Detecting and Responding to Domestic Terrorism Involving Infectious Agents

2014 ◽  
pp. 219-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W. LeDuc ◽  
Stephen M. Ostroff ◽  
Joseph E. McDade ◽  
Scott Lillibridge ◽  
James M. Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Domestic Terrorism ◽  
Infectious Agents ◽  
Public Health Community ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Community
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