Infectious diseases epidemiology

Reported by National Center for Infectious Diseases Epidemiology Program Office ... 

This chapter provides a brief overview of systems currently in piace for the detection of biological events, either naturaiiy occurring disease outbreaks or deliberate bioterror events. Basic concepts related to infectious disease epidemiology and surveillance are presented. Different types of surveillance systems, including syndromic surveillance, are described. The roles of the... 

Giesecke, J. (2001). Modern infectious disease epidemiology. (2nd ed.). London Arnold. 

GIDEON (Global Infectious Disease Epidemiology Network) Gideon USA... 

Mark C. Enright, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Inqrerial College, London, 2007. 

The UK framework consists of local infectious disease epidemiology services staffed with consultants in communicable disease control (CCDC) and informed by local health services. Collation of locally collected data enables the recognition of any new disease trends. Regional laboratories maintained by the HPA provide diagnostic services and further epidemiological expertise on the clinical and organisational management of outbreaks. The HPA also maintains reference laboratories with expertise on specific microbes. 

Hedberg C W, MacDonald K L and Osterholm M T (1994), Changing epidemiology of food-borne disease a Minnesota perspective , Clinical Infectious Diseases, 18, 671-682. 

Reliable information on the epidemiology, disease severity, and effect on public health is essential to sustain the need for a vaccine. The authorities must develop the policy to prevent infectious diseases and in the same time countermeasures against effects of biological weapons attack. 

While profound immunosuppression can lead to an increased incidence of infectious or neoplastic diseases, interpreting data from experimental immunotoxicology studies or epidemiological studies for quantitative risk assessment purposes can be problematic. This is because inadvertent exposures to immunotoxic agents may often be expressed as a mild-to-moderate change, reflected, for example, by a 15 to 25% decrement in an immune parameter compared to control values. To help address the clinical consequences of mild-to-moderate immunosuppression, we examined available experimental, clinical and epidemiological studies that examined the association between suppression of immune function and infectious disease, independent of the etiology of suppression. 

The major gap in clarifying the shape of the dose-response curve (i.e., between immune response and disease) is a lack of large scale epidemiological studies in populations with mild-to moderate immunodeficiency that have been monitored simultaneously for immune system parameters and clinical disease. Attempts in conducting such studies will be complicated by many non-immune factors which can affect infectious disease incidences. 

Epidemiological experience has shown that the introduction of an infectious disease-causing agent into a large group of suscepti-... 

Kaplan, J.E., Hanson, D., Dworkin, M.S., Frederick, T., Bertolli, J., Lindegren, M.L., Holmberg, S. and Jones, J.L. (2000) Epidemiology of human immunodeficiency virus-associated opportunistic infections in the United States in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 30, S5—S14. 

Bower, M., Palmieri, C. and Dhillon, T. (2006) AIDS related malignancies changing epidemiology and the impact of highly active antiretroviral therapy. Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases,... 

Phihpson, T. 2000. Economic Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases, in Handbook of Health Economics, ed.hy A.]. Cvlyet and]. P.Newhouse, IB 1761-1769. Amsterdam Elsevier Science. 

Fridkin S.K., J. Hageman, L.K. McDougal, et al. (2003). Epidemiological and microbiological characterization of infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus with reduced susceptibility to vancomycin. United States, 1997-2001. Clinical Infectious Diseases 36 429 39. 

Farm animals being managed under intensive systems are very susceptible to disease outbreaks since they are usually of the same age, often very immature, and are in constant contact with their feces. Epidemiological studies have shown that the introduction of a highly infectious disease into a large population of animals kept in the same pen will ultimately result in a large proportion of these animals becoming infected (9). The reasonable therapeutic approach to this prob-... 

A classic model used to describe the process by which infectious disease occurs is the epidemiologic triangle (Mausner Kramer, 1985). The three points of the triangle are the infectious agent, a susceptible host, and the environment in which the agent and host interact. One end point of this interaction may be infection (CDC, 1992). 

National Center for Infectious Diseases. (2003b). Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) for Infectious Diseases Cooperative Agreement Retrieved November 30, 2004, from http // www.cdc.gov/ncidod/osr/site/epiJab/index.htm... 

Cieslak, T. J., Eitzen, E. M., Jr. (1999). Clinical and epidemiologic principles of anthrax. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 5, 552-555. 

Epidemiological Clues to a Biological Event. With awareness of the baseline data for their practice setting, nurses should be alert for unusual patterns of disease or health-related indicators. Representative examples of unusual patterns of diseases that might suggest a deliberate bioterrorist act are presented in Table 22.1 (U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases [USAMRIID], 2005 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [USDHHS], 2001). 

From an epidemiological standpoint, the general process of investigating a potential bioterror event and the objectives are the same as for any other infectious disease outbreak (Franz et al., 2001). Investigation of an outbreak involves a number of activities. These activities are adapted from a list developed by the CDC (1992) ... 

The Disease Facts section of the website of the UK Public Health Laboratory Service (http //www.phls.co.uk/facts/index.htm) is a valuable resource of contemporary background information on the prevalence and epidemiology of infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance in the UK. 

Ibanez, L., Perez, E., Vidal, X., Laporte, J.-R. Prospective surveillance of acute serious liver disease unrelated to infectious, obstructive, or metabolic disease epidemiological and chnical features, and exposure to drugs. J. Hepatol. 2002 37 572—580... 

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