Emerging Infectious Diseases back issues from October 2007:
Global public health security.(GLOBAL POVERTY: POLICY REVIEW)(international health regulations)
Oct 01, 2007; ... "When the world is collectively at risk, defense becomes a shared responsibility of all nations."--Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General, World Health Organization; World Health Day 2007 The framework of the newly revised International Health Regulations is a key driver in the ...
Preparedness for highly pathogenic avian influenza pandemic in Africa.(GLOBAL POVERTY: PERSPECTIVE)
Oct 01, 2007; ... Global concerns about an impending influenza pandemic escalated when highly pathogenic influenza A subtype H5N1 appeared in Nigeria in January 2006. The potential devastation from emergence of a pandemic strain in Africa has led to a sudden shift of public health focus to pandemic ...
Plague reappearance in Algeria after 50 years, 2003.(GLOBAL POVERTY: RESEARCH)
Oct 01, 2007; ... An outbreak of plague occurred in the region of Oran, Algeria, from June to July 2003. Algeria had not reported this disease for >50 years. Eighteen bubonic cases were identified, and Yersinia pestis was isolated from 6 patients. Except for the index case-patient, all patients recovered ....
HIV and tuberculosis in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 1997-2002.(GLOBAL POVERTY: RESEARCH)(Survey)
Oct 01, 2007; ... In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, reporting rates for tuberculosis (TB) are rising in an emerging HIV epidemic. To describe the HIV epidemic among TB patients and quantify its impact on rates of reported TB, we performed a repeated cross-sectional survey from 1997 through 2002 in a randomly ...
Epidemiology of schistosomiasis in the People's Republic of China, 2004.(GLOBAL POVERTY: RESEARCH)(Survey)
Oct 01, 2007; ... Results from the third nationwide cluster sampling survey on the epidemiology of schistosomiasis in the People's Republic of China, conducted by the Ministry of Health in 2004, are presented. A stratified cluster random sampling technique was used, and 239 villages were selected in 7 ...
Dengue fever seroprevalence and risk factors, Texas-Mexico border, 2004.(GLOBAL POVERTY: RESEARCH)(Survey)
Oct 01, 2007; ... Reported autochthonous dengue fever transmission in the United States has been limited to 5 south Texas border counties since 1980. We conducted a cross-sectional serosurvey in Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico (n = 600), in 2004 to assess dengue seroprevalence. Recent ...
Cost-effectiveness of algorithms for confirmation test of human African trypanosomiasis.(GLOBAL POVERTY: RESEARCH)
Oct 01, 2007; ... The control of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) is compromised by low sensitivity of the routinely used parasitologic confirmation tests. More sensitive alternatives, such as mini-anion exchange centrifugation technique (mAECT) or capillary tube ...
Public transportation and pulmonary tuberculosis, Lima, Peru.(GLOBAL POVERTY: DISPATCHES)
Oct 01, 2007; ... The association between public transportation for commuting and pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) was analyzed in workers in Lima, Peru. Traveling in minibuses was a risk factor for pulmonary TB. Preventive measures need to be taken by health services to prevent spread of this disease. ...
Prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum infection in rainy season, Artibonite Valley, Haiti, 2006.(GLOBAL POVERTY: DISPATCHES)
Oct 01, 2007; ... We conducted a population-based survey to estimate the prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum infection among persons older than 1 month in the Artibonite Valley of Haiti during the high malaria transmission season in 2006. Results from PCR for 714 persons showed a prevalence of 3.1% for P ....
Evaluating tuberculosis case detection in Eritrea.(GLOBAL POVERTY: DISPATCHES)
Oct 01, 2007; ... We used results from a national tuberculosis prevalence survey in Eritrea to calculate case detection rate (CDR) and compared it with the published CDR. The CDR obtained from the survey was [approximately equal to] 40%, whereas the CDR published by the World Health Organization was 3x low ...
West Nile virus infection among the homeless, Houston, Texas (1).(GLOBAL POVERTY: DISPATCHES)(Clinical report)
Oct 01, 2007; ... Among 397 homeless participants studied, the overall West Nile virus (WNV) seroprevalence was 6.8%. Risk factors for WNV infection included being homeless >1 year, spending >6 hours outside daily, regularly taking mosquito precautions, and current marijuana use. Public health interventions ...
Schistosoma hematobium and S. mansoni among children, Southern Sudan.(GLOBAL POVERTY: DISPATCHES)
Oct 01, 2007; ... We conducted a survey of schistosomiasis among schoolchildren in 2 villages in Southern Sudan, In Lui (West Equatoria region), prevalence of Schistosoma mansoni infection was 51.5%; no cases of S. hematobium infection were detected. In Nyal (Upper Nile region), prevalence of S. hematobium ...
Influenza A and B infection in children in urban slum, Bangladesh.(GLOBAL POVERTY: LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Oct 01, 2007; ... To the Editor: Infuenza A and B viruses are associated with seasonal epidemics (1). Influenza is increasingly recognized as a cause of severe respiratory disease among healthy children in industrialized countries (2-4). However, little information is available from developing countries ...
Identification of Rickettsiae, Uganda and Djibouti.(GLOBAL POVERTY: LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Oct 01, 2007; ... To the Editor: Tickborne rickettsioses are caused by obligate intracellular gram-negative bacteria that belong to the spotted fever group of the genus Rickettsia. These zoonoses share characteristic clinical features, including fever, headache, rash, and sometimes eschar formation at the ...
Skin and soft tissue infections and vascular disease among drug users, England.(GLOBAL POVERTY: LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Oct 01, 2007; ... To the Editor: The injecting of illicit drugs is associated with skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) and vascular disease (1-3). These conditions include the development of cutaneous abscess and cellulitis at injection sites, from subcutaneous or intramuscular injecting, known as skin ...
Confronting potential influenza A (H5N1) pandemic with better vaccines.(PERSPECTIVE)
Oct 01, 2007; ... Influenza A (H5N1) viruses are strong candidates for causing the next influenza pandemic if they acquire the ability for efficient human-to-human transmission. A major public health goal is to make efficacious vaccines against these viruses by using novel approaches, including cell-culture ...
Antigenic diversity of human sapoviruses.(RESEARCH)
Oct 01, 2007; ... Sapovirus (SaV) is a causative agent of gastroenteritis. On the basis of capsid protein (VP1) nucleotide sequences, SaV can be divided into 5 genogroups (GI-GV), of which the GI, GII, GIV, and GV strains infect humans. SaV is uncultivable, but expression of recombinant VP1 in insect cells ...
Evolutionary relationships between bat coronaviruses and their hosts.(RESEARCH)
Oct 01, 2007; ... Recent studies have suggested that bats are the natural reservoir of a range of coronaviruses (CoVs), and that rhinolophid bats harbor viruses closely related to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) CoV, which caused an outbreak of respiratory illness in humans during 20022003. We ...
Rapid increase of genetically diverse methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Copenhagen, Denmark.(RESEARCH)
Oct 01, 2007; ... In Copenhagen, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) accounted for <15 isolates per year during 1980-2002. However, since 2003 an epidemic increase has been observed, with 33 MRSA cases in 2003 and 110 in 2004. We analyzed these 143 cases epidemiologically and characterized ...
Personal protective equipment and antiviral drug use during hospitalization for suspected Avian or pandemic Influenza (1).(RESEARCH)
Oct 01, 2007; ... For pandemic influenza planning, realistic estimates of personal protective equipment (PPE) and antiviral medication required for hospital healthcare workers (HCWs) are vital. In this simulation study, a patient with suspected avian or pandemic influenza (API) sought treatment at 9 ...
SurvNet electronic surveillance system for infectious disease outbreaks, Germany.(RESEARCH)
Oct 01, 2007; ... In 2001, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI)implemented a new electronic surveillance system (SurvNet) for infectious disease outbreaks in Germany. SurvNet has captured 30,578 outbreak reports in 2001-2005. The size of the outbreaks ranged from 2 to 527 cases. For outbreaks reported in ...
Borrelia burgdorferi infection and cutaneous Lyme disease, Mexico.(DISPATCHES)
Oct 01, 2007; ... Four patients who had received tick bites while visiting forests in Mexico had skin lesions that met the case definition of erythema migrans, or borrelial lymphocytoma. Clinical diagnosis was supported with histologic, serologic, and molecular tests. This study suggests that Borrelia ...
Using death certificate reports to find severe leptospirosis cases, Brazil.(DISPATCHES)(Clinical report)
Oct 01, 2007; ... Severe leptospirosis with pulmonary hemorrhage is emerging globally. Measures to control leptospirosis through sanitation depend on accurate case finding and reporting. Rapid death certificate reporting, plus necropsy of persons who died of leptospirosis, facilitates public health ...
Duration of antibody responses after severe acute respiratory syndrome.(DISPATCHES)
Oct 01, 2007; ... Among 176 patients who had had severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), SARS-specific antibodies were maintained for an average of 2 years, and significant reduction of immunoglobulin G-positive percentage and titers occurred in the third year. Thus, SARS patients might be susceptible to ...
Isolation of Bartonella sp. from sheep blood.(DISPATCHES)
Oct 01, 2007; ... A Bartonella sp. was isolated from sheep blood. Bacterial identification was conducted by using electron microscopy and DNA sequencing of the 16S rRNA, citrate synthase, riboflavin synthase, and RNAase P genes. To our knowledge, this is the first report of ovine Bartonella infection. ...
Chlorine inactivation of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (H5N1).(DISPATCHES)
Oct 01, 2007; ... To determine resistance of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) virus to chlorination, we exposed allantoic fluid containing 2 virus strains to chlorinated buffer at pH 7 and 8, at 5[degrees]C. Free chlorine concentrations typically used in drinking water treatment are sufficient to ...
Predominance of rotavirus P[4]G2 in a vaccinated population, Brazil.(DISPATCHES)
Oct 01, 2007; ... We identified 21 rotaviruses in 129 patients with diarrhea in a Brazilian city with high rotavirus vaccine coverage, All rotaviruses were genotype P[4]G2 with 1 mixed infection with P[NT]G9. Although virus predominance could have occurred randomly, the vaccine may be less protective ...
Novel variant of tickborne encephalitis virus, Russia.(DISPATCHES)
Oct 01, 2007; ... We isolated a novel strain of tickborne encephalitis virus (TBEV), Glubinnoe/2004, from a patient with a fatal case in Russia. We sequenced the strain, whose landmark features included 57 amino acid substitutions and 5 modified cleavage sites. Phylogenetically, Glubinnoe/2004 is a novel ...
Exposure to wild primates among HIV-infected persons.(DISPATCHES)
Oct 01, 2007; ... HIV-1 is an immunosuppressive pathogen. Our behavioral data for 191 HIV-1-infected rural Cameroonians show frequent exposure to nonhuman primates through activities such as hunting and butchering. Immunosuppression among persons exposed to body fluids of wild nonhuman primates could favor ...
Multidrug-resistant Salmonella Typhimurium, Pacific Northwest, United States.(DISPATCHES)(Clinical report)
Oct 01, 2007; ... We compared human and bovine isolates of Salmonella enterica using antimicrobial-drug resistance profiles and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. From 2000 through 2006, we observed an increase in a novel multidrug-resistant clone of S. Typhimurium with no recognized phage type. This clone ...
Emergence of human rotavirus group A genotype G9 strains, Wuhan, China.(DISPATCHES)
Oct 01, 2007; ... Of 322 stool specimens collected from children with diarrhea from October 2005 through September 2006 in Wuhan, China, group A rotavirus was identified in 101 (31.4%). The most prevalent group A rotavirus genotype was G3P[8] (62.6%), followed by G1P[8](17.6%), G1+G3P[8](8.8%), ...
International epidemic intelligence at the Institut de Veille Sanitaire, France.(DISPATCHES)
Oct 01, 2007; ... The French Institute for Public Health Surveillance monitors health events of potential international importance occurring worldwide to provide timely warning to French health authorities. We reviewed the nature and place of occurrence of the last 200 events. From an individual country's ...
Foot-and-mouth disease virus serotype A in Egypt.(DISPATCHES)(Clinical report)
Oct 01, 2007; ... We describe the characterization of a foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) serotype A virus responsible for recent outbreaks of disease in Egypt. Phylogenetic analysis of VP1 nucleotide sequences demonstrated a close relationship to recent FMD virus isolates from East Africa, rather than to ...
Malaria diagnosis and hospitalization trends, Brazil.(DISPATCHES)
Oct 01, 2007; ... We focused on rates of malaria in the state of Amazonas and city of Manaus, Brazil. Plasmodium vivax accounted for an increased number and rate of hospital admissions, while P. falciparum cases decreased. Our observations on malaria epidemiology suggest that the increased hospitalization ...
Multifocal avian influenza (H5N1) outbreak.(DISPATCHES)
Oct 01, 2007; ... During March 2006, an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1)occurred in multiple poultry farms in Israel. The epidemiologic investigation and review of outbreak mitigation efforts uncovered gaps in planning for and containing the outbreak, thus affording valuable lessons ...
Rapid field immunoassay for detecting antibody to Sin Nombre virus in deer mice.(DISPATCHES)
Oct 01, 2007; ... We developed a 1-hour field enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for detecting antibody to Sin Nombre virus in deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus). The assay specificity and sensitivity were comparable to those of a standard EIA. This test will permit identification of rodents with antibody to this ...
Super-sentinel chickens and detection of low-pathogenicity influenza virus.(DISPATCHES)
Oct 01, 2007; ... Chicken interferon-[alpha] administered perorally in drinking water acts on the ompharyngeal mucosal system as an adjuvant that causes chickens to rapidly seroconvert after natural infection by low-pathogenicity Influenza virus. These chickens, termed super sentinels, can serve as ...
Human metapneumovirus infection among children, Bangladesh.(DISPATCHES)
Oct 01, 2007; ... We confirmed circulation of human metapneumovirus (HMPV) among children with febrile and respiratory illness in an urban slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh, during active surveillance in 2001, HMPV was the most common single virus identified among febrile children and appears to contribute to the ...
Ciprofloxacin-resistant Neisseria meningitidis, Delhi, India.(DISPATCHES)(Clinical report)
Oct 01, 2007; ... Decreased susceptibility of Neisseria meningitidis isolates to ciprofloxacin emerged from an outbreak in Delhi, India. Results of antimicrobial susceptibility testing of the meningococcal isolates to ciprofloxacin and further sequencing of DNA gyrase A quinolone-resistance-determining ...
Compliance with exclusion requirements to prevent mumps transmission.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Oct 01, 2007; ... To the Editor: Control of communicable diseases often relies in part on school and workplace exclusion. Exclusion policies are also likely to play a role in pandemic influenza control and currently are used as policy for control of several vaccine-preventable diseases, including mumps (1) ....
Alveolar echinococcosis, Lithuania.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Oct 01, 2007; ... To the Editor: Alveolar echinococcosis (AE), a serious zoonosis caused by the tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis, has been reported in neighboring countries of Lithuania in recent years (1-4), but no published epidemiologic information is available. The red fox (Yulpes vulpes), the main ...
Human bocavirus and gastroenteritis.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Oct 01, 2007; ... To the Editor: We read with great interest the recent study by Vicente and colleagues, who suspect the human bocavirus (HBoV), a newly detected parvovirus initially described as a respiratory pathogen, to be a possible causative agent of gastroenteritis in children (1). These researchers ...
Burning the Rat.(ANOTHER DIMENSION)(Poem)
Oct 01, 2007; ... <Pre>I find him lying by the door,legs outstretched as if he died in mid-leap.I pick him up by the tail.He feels loose, beyond the first stiffness of death.His molecules have realized the futility of hanging on;they know the party's over, it's time to head home ....
Rats, global poverty, and paying the piper.(ABOUT THE COVER)(Cover story)
Oct 01, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "I frankly consider him a great virtuoso," said Italian painter Guercino of Rembrandt van Rijn. Guercino (1591-1666) was referring to the legendary master not as painter or portraitist but as etcher because it was etchings that built Rembrandt's reputation ...
Upcoming infectious disease activities.(NEWS & NOTES)
Oct 01, 2007 ... October 4-7, 2007 45th Annual Meeting of IDSA San Diego, CA, USA Contact: 703-299-0200 http://www.idsociety.org October 11-13, 2007 American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) 2007 Annual Conference Marriott Atlanta Marquis Atlanta, GA, USA http://www.amwa.org/default.asp?Mode ...