Cryptosporidiosis and hotel swimming pools - a multifaceted challenge

2002 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 47-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.Y. Cartwright ◽  
J.S. Colbourne
Keyword(s):  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Swimming Pools ◽  
Sand Filters ◽  
The Public ◽  
Pool Water ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
The Media ◽  
Swimming Pool Water ◽  
Initial Source

An outbreak of cryptosporidium infection affected at least 172 British tourists who had stayed at a family hotel in a Mediterranean resort. Recognition of the outbreak came from non-official sources. In the absence of any meaningful investigations by the public health authorities of both the countries, a tour operator undertook an investigation. The epidemiological studies were restricted but it was concluded that the outbreak was associated with contaminated swimming pool water at the hotel. The initial source of contamination was most probably a hotel guest who was excreting cryptosporidium oocysts. Examination of the water treatment system revealed some deficiencies in the sand filters but the effect on the course of the outbreak could not be determined. Although the media in the filters was thoroughly cleaned and the filters refreshed, oocysts could still be detected in pool water and further cases occurred. The challenges of an outbreak involving more than one country and the measures necessary to reduce the risks of cryptosporidium infections associated with hotel swimming pools are discussed.

Review of swimming-associated cryptosporidiosis and Cryptosporidium oocysts removals from swimming pools

2013 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ping Lu ◽  
Tao Yuan ◽  
Qiyan Feng ◽  
Aiqin Xu ◽  
Jiayuan Li
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Water Treatment ◽  
Removal Rate ◽  
Drinking Water Treatment ◽  
Swimming Pool ◽  
Swimming Pools ◽  
Sand Filters ◽  
Pool Water ◽  
Cryptosporidium Oocysts ◽  
Swimming Pool Water

In this paper, outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis in swimming pools in the last 20 years are summarized. Cryptosporidium oocysts are very resistant to many disinfectants, including chlorine, one of the most widely-used disinfectants in swimming pools. Ozone or UV is shown to inactivate Cryptosporidium, while not effective to newly introduced Cryptosporidium and bacteria because of no residual ozone or UV in the treated swimming pool water. Additionally, swimming pool sand filters or cartridge filters are not able to effectively remove Cryptosporidium (removal rate <50%). Above 99% Cryptosporidium removals are achieved in drinking water treatment, but swimming pool water treatment is different from drinking water treatment: no coagulation is performed prior to filtration in most US swimming pools, filtration rate is four to five times higher for swimming pool water treatment compared with drinking water treatment, and the input compounds and microorganisms from bathers continuously recirculate in the swimming pool. Moreover, up-to-date Cryptosporidium or Cryptosporidium surrogate removals from swimming pools are discussed, and alternative swimming pool treatment techniques are reviewed.

scholarly journals Spatial air pollution modelling for a West-African town

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sirak Zenebe Gebreab ◽  
Danielle Vienneau ◽  
Christian Feigenwinter ◽  
Hampâté Bâ ◽  
Guéladio Cissé ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Air Pollution ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
West African ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Air Pollution Modelling ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
Leave One Out

<p>Land use regression (LUR) modelling is a common approach used in European and Northern American epidemiological studies to assess urban and traffic related air pollution exposures. Studies applying LUR in Africa are lacking. A need exists to understand if this approach holds for an African setting, where urban features, pollutant exposures and data availability differ considerably from other continents. We developed a parsimonious regression model based on 48-hour nitrogen dioxide (NO<sub>2</sub>) concentrations measured at 40 sites in Kaédi, a medium sized West-African town, and variables generated in a geographic information system (GIS). Road variables and settlement land use characteristics were found to be important predictors of 48-hour NO<sub>2</sub> concentration in the model. About 68% of concentration variability in the town was explained by the model. The model was internally validated by leave-one-out cross-validation and it was found to perform moderately well. Furthermore, its parameters were robust to sampling variation. We applied the model at 100 m pixels to create a map describing the broad spatial pattern of NO<sub>2</sub> across Kaédi. In this research, we demonstrated the potential for LUR as a valid, cost-effective approach for air pollution modelling and mapping in an African town. If the methodology were to be adopted by environmental and public health authorities in these regions, it could provide a quick assessment of the local air pollution burden and potentially support air pollution policies and guidelines.</p>

The Public Health Police

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor Hoppe
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Hiv Positive ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Health Departments ◽  
Adherence To Treatment ◽  
The Public ◽  
Treatment Regimens ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
Local Health Authorities

As the HIV epidemic wore on in the 2000s, public health authorities became enamored with the idea of “ending AIDS.” That is, if they could just get HIV-positive people to take their pills and stop infecting other people. Health departments began to track HIV-positive clients more closely, aiming to control their behavior and ensure their adherence to treatment regimens. This chapter explores how local health authorities ensure that HIV-positive clients behave in a manner officials deem responsible—and how they catch and punish those who do not. While the state maintains that the work of local health officials is done solely in the interests of promoting public health, their efforts to control HIV-positive clients reveal that they are also engaged in policing and law enforcement.

scholarly journals Rational trust in resilient health systems

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 553-557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja Kristine Kittelsen ◽  
Vincent Charles Keating
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health System ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Health Emergencies ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
System Resilience ◽  
Relevant Component

AbstractThe 2014–15 Ebola epidemic in West Africa highlighted the significance of trust between the public and public health authorities in the mitigation of health crises. Since the end of the epidemic, there has been a focus amongst scholars and practitioners on building resilient health systems, which many see as an important precondition for successfully combatting future outbreaks. While trust has been acknowledged as a relevant component of health system resilience, we argue for a more sustained theoretical engagement with underlying models of trust in the literature. This article takes a first step in showing the importance of theoretical engagement by focusing on the appeal to rational models of trust in particular in the health system resilience literature, and how currently unconsidered assumptions in this model cast doubt on the effectiveness of strategies to generate trust, and therein resilience, during acute public health emergencies.

scholarly journals Proton Pump Inhibitors and Risk of Dementia: A Hypothesis Generated but Not Adequately Tested

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 153331752110624
Author(s):  
Mishah Azhar ◽  
Lawrence Fiedler ◽  
Patricio S. Espinosa ◽  
Charles H. Hennekens
Keyword(s):  
Proton Pump Inhibitors ◽  
Proton Pump ◽  
Real World ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Real World Data ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities

We reviewed the evidence on proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and dementia. PPIs are among the most widely utilized drugs in the world. Dementia affects roughly 5% of the population of the United States (US) and world aged 60 years and older. With respect to PPIs and dementia, basic research has suggested plausible mechanisms but descriptive and analytic epidemiological studies are not inconsistent. In addition, a single large-scale randomized trial showed no association. When the evidence is incomplete, it is appropriate for clinicians and researchers to remain uncertain. Regulatory or public health authorities sometimes need to make real-world decisions based on real-world data. When the evidence is complete, then the most rational judgments for individual patients the health of the general public are possible At present, the evidence on PPIs and dementia suggests more reassurance than alarm. Further large-scale randomized evidence is necessary to do so.

scholarly journals Geographic Information Systems (GIS), an Informative Start for Challenging Process of Etiologic Investigation of Diseases and Public Health Policy Making

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Alireza Mosavi Jarrahi ◽  
M Zare ◽  
A Sadeghi
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Population Characteristics ◽  
Environment Interaction ◽  
Gis Technology ◽  
The Public ◽  
Technological Disasters ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
Health And Disease

Background: The public health has been always concerned of the immediate environment of human as causal factors for different diseases and health outcomes. Epidemiology, as one of the fundamental basis of public health, is concerned of how diseases are distributed in terms of geographical, chronological, and human population characteristics and employees the descriptive nature of such spread to draw conclusion on the etiology of health or disease utcome for further policy making on prevention of disease or promotion of health.Methods: In this paper, we present the importance of GIS technology in epidemiology from both descriptive and etiologic standpoints and elaborate how this technology can stand in the forefront of disease and health outcome measures in the coming decades. The paper will address the history of geo-related health and disease issues. The mapping tool as a traditionally strong resource in the public health will be explored. The advances in Information Technology and one of its best utilized offshoot, GIS, in Health and disease will be discussed. How the huge repository of generated or ever generating geo-related data and information is utilized to address etiology of diseases or to help public health authorities in making informed policy making decisions are explored.Results: The utilization of GIS technology in diseases with intermittent host such as malaria, yellow fever, or other parasitic diseases has already been well established. The GIS technology and its utilization in chronic and degenerative diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and aging are under development and new frontiers are discovering. The limitation of GIS technology in addressing host environment interaction in micro-environment (at the molecular biology and tissue pathogenicity level) and gene–environment interaction (at the individual level) will further be discussed.Conclusion: We then distress on the efficient use of GIS both in the etiologic investigation of diseases and health events as well as the utilization of the GIS technology as a administrative tool in the help of public health authorities and policy makers in strategic management of health of a community or emergency management of man-made or technological disasters (e.g., wars) or naturally occurring disasters (e.g., earthquake and floods).

scholarly journals Outbreak of norovirus infection in a nursing home in northern Slovenia, July 2007

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (41) ◽  
Author(s):  
I Grmek Kosnik ◽  
B Peternelj ◽  
M Pohar ◽  
A Kraigher
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Nursing Home ◽  
Gastrointestinal Infection ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities

On 27 July 2007, an outbreak of gastrointestinal infection in a nursing home was reported to the public health authorities in Kranj (25 km northwest of Ljubljana).

scholarly journals Acceptance and Attitudes Toward COVID-19 Vaccines: A Cross-Sectional Study from Jordan

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamam El-Elimat ◽  
Mahmoud M. AbuAlSamen ◽  
Basima A. Almomani ◽  
Nour A. Al-Sawalha ◽  
Feras Q. Alali
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The Public ◽  
Awareness Campaigns ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Acceptability ◽  
Public Health Authorities

AbstractBackgroundVaccines are effective interventions that can reduce the high burden of diseases globally. However, public vaccine hesitancy is a pressing problem for public health authorities. With the availability of COVID-19 vaccines, little information is available on the public acceptability and attitudes towards the COVID-19 vaccines in Jordan. This study aimed to investigate the acceptability of COVID-19 vaccines and its predictors in addition to the attitudes towards these vaccines among public in Jordan.MethodsAn online, cross-sectional, and self-administered questionnaire was instrumentalized to survey adult participants from Jordan on the acceptability of COVID-19 vaccines. Logistic regression analysis was used to find the predictors of COVID-19 vaccines’ acceptability.ResultsA total of 3,100 participants completed the survey. The public acceptability of COVID-19 vaccines was fairly low (37.4%) in Jordan. Males (OR=2.488, 95CI%=1.834–3.375, p<.001) and those who took the seasonal influenza vaccine (OR=2.036, 95CI%=1.306–3.174, p=.002) were more likely to accept Covid-19 vaccines. Similarly, participants who believed that vaccines are generally safe (OR=9.258, 95CI%=6.020–14.237, p<.001) and those who were willing to pay for vaccines (OR=19.223, 95CI%=13.665–27.042, p<.001), once available, were more likely to accept the COVID-19 vaccines. However, those above 35 years old (OR=0.376, 95CI%=0.233-0.607, p<.001) and employed participants (OR=0.542, 95CI%=0.405-0.725, p<.001) were less likely to accept the COVID-19 vaccines. Moreover, participants who believed that there was a conspiracy behind COVID-19 (OR=0.502, 95CI%=0.356- 0.709, p<.001) and those who do not trust any source of information on COVID-19 vaccines (OR=0.271, 95CI%=0.183 – 0.400, p<.001), were less likely to have acceptance towards them. The most trusted sources of information on COVID-19 vaccines were healthcare providers.ConclusionSystematic interventions are required by public health authorities to reduce the levels of vaccines’ hesitancy and improve their acceptance. We believe these results and specifically the low rate of acceptability is alarming to Jordanian health authorities and should stir further studies on the root causes and the need of awareness campaigns. These interventions should take the form of reviving the trust in national health authorities and structured awareness campaigns that offer transparent information about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines and the technology that was utilized in their production.

scholarly journals Online Information on Electronic Cigarettes: Comparative Study of Relevant Websites From Baidu and Google Search Engines

10.2196/14725 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. e14725
Author(s):  
Ting Chen ◽  
Sarah Gentry ◽  
Dechao Qiu ◽  
Yan Deng ◽  
Caitlin Notley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Search Engines ◽  
Electronic Cigarettes ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Web Based ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Cigarette Advertising ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
Google Search

Background Online information on electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) may influence people’s perception and use of e-cigarettes. Websites with information on e-cigarettes in the Chinese language have not been systematically assessed. Objective The aim of this study was to assess and compare the types and credibility of Web-based information on e-cigarettes identified from Google (in English) and Baidu (in Chinese) search engines. Methods We used the keywords vaping or e-cigarettes to conduct a search on Google and the equivalent Chinese characters for Baidu. The first 50 unique and relevant websites from each of the two search engines were included in this analysis. The main characteristics of the websites, credibility of the websites, and claims made on the included websites were systematically assessed and compared. Results Compared with websites on Google, more websites on Baidu were owned by manufacturers or retailers (15/50, 30% vs 33/50, 66%; P<.001). None of the Baidu websites, compared to 24% (12/50) of Google websites, were provided by public or health professional institutions. The Baidu websites were more likely to contain e-cigarette advertising (P<.001) and less likely to provide information on health education (P<.001). The overall credibility of the included Baidu websites was lower than that of the Google websites (P<.001). An age restriction warning was shown on all advertising websites from Google (15/15) but only on 10 of the 33 (30%) advertising websites from Baidu (P<.001). Conflicting or unclear health and social claims were common on the included websites. Conclusions Although conflicting or unclear claims on e-cigarettes were common on websites from both Baidu and Google search engines, there was a lack of online information from public health authorities in China. Unbiased information and evidence-based recommendations on e-cigarettes should be provided by public health authorities to help the public make informed decisions regarding the use of e-cigarettes.

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