IMED(2009): International Meeting on Emerging Diseases and Surveillance 2009.

[Giuseppe]

International Meeting on Emerging Diseases and Surveillance 2009

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SESSION 2 (Plenary Lecture)

Avian Influenza

Friday, February 13, 2009
Room: Park Congress/Ground Level
16:30?17:15

Avian Influenza?A Unique Opportunity for Public Health

I. Capua. OIE/FAO Reference Laboratory for Newcastle Disease and Avian Influenza, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, Legnaro, Padova, Italy

The ongoing animal and human health crisis caused by influenza viruses of the H5N1 subtype has polarised attention of international organisations and donors on the need for improved veterinary infrastructure in developing countries and on the need for improved communication between the human and animal health sectors.

Significant investments in capacity building have resulted in the development of diagnostic laboratories and in the improvement of scientific know-how in the field of diagnostic virology.

It is known that the animal reservoir (including arthropods) is the source of the majority of emerging pathogens which threaten global public health and also that most emerging pathogens originate (or cross the species barrier) in developing countries.

It would therefore seem reasonable for the international community to capitalise on the investments that have been made as a result of the avian influenza emergency and expand the areas of diagnostic competence, possibly on a regional basis, to set up early warning systems and improved response capacities to manage diseases of public health relevance.

Possibly the biggest challenge we have is to find novel ways to maximise the use of the information which is generated as a result of the improved networking and diagnostic capacities.

In the era of globalization, emerging and re-emerging diseases of public health relevance are a concern to developing and developed countries and are a real threat due to the interdependence of the global economy.

Communication and analysis systems available should be tailored to meet the global health priorities, and used to develop and constantly improve novel systems for the exploitation of information to generate knowledge.
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Full list of abstracts and list of authors at:
http://imed.isid.org/Downloads/IMED2009_AbstrAuth.pdf
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[Commonground]

Re: IMED(2009): International Meeting on Emerging Diseases and Surveillance 2009.

Thank you Ironorehopper for posting this. It is a lot of information. I just went to the site recommended in this segment. I went to the section for health professionals. I believe we are a bit ahead of them with our surveillance of data.

Monitoring International Outbreaks with an
Outbreak Surveillance Database
N. Bryant1, J. Lawrence2, C. Wong1, A. Jordan1, H. Simons1, J. Jones2,
D.R. Hill1. 1National Travel Health Network and Centre, London, United
Kingdom, 2Health Protection Agency, London, United Kingdom
Background: The National Travel Health Network and Centre (NaTHNaC)
maintains a database of international disease outbreaks that have the
potential to affect UK travellers. The Outbreak Surveillance Database
(OSD) was created in 2004, and made available on NaTHNaCʼs website
(www.nathnac.org) in 2007. The OSD provides NaTHNaC staff, stakeholders
and the public with a comprehensive report of international outbreaks.
Multiple reports of the same outbreak are linked allowing the
progression of individual outbreaks to be analysed.
Method: Each working day, resources including country authorities, the
World Health Organization, ProMED-mail and media reports are reviewed.
Outbreaks meeting set criteria are entered into the OSD. For this analysis,
data were extracted into Access and analysed using Excel, STATA
and ArcGIS.
Results: From April 2004 to October 2008, 6,699 records were entered
into the OSD, organised into 3,592 outbreaks. Outbreaks were reported
in 197 countries. The most frequently reported outbreak diseases were
H5N1 in birds (13%), cholera (12%), dengue (11%), H5N1 in humans
(8%), and chikungunya (3%). 16% of outbreaks used information from
both official and informal sources, while 57% used only informal sources
(e.g. media reports on ProMed) and 27% only official sources. During
2007, 94 outbreaks of cholera were reported in 33 countries. 60% of
cholera outbreaks and 79% of cholera cases recorded in 2007 occurred
in Africa. The largest outbreak recorded was in Angola (23,477 cases).
Conclusion: The OSD allows NaTHNaC to identify important disease
outbreaks, investigate changing patterns of disease, and identify emerging
global threats. The content and format is globally unique. Using information
from the OSD, NaTHNaC can alert health professionals and
travellers via website postings and recommend appropriate risk management.
As NaTHNaCʼs website is open access, the OSD can also be used
by individuals and health bodies throughout the world to better understand
the pattern of infectious diseases.

At the site: Clinical Updates:

http://www.nathnac.org/pro/clinical_updates/avianinfluenza_060209.htm