Publications by authors named "Berta Suarez-Rodriguez"

Article Synopsis
  • Contact tracing is essential for managing infectious measles cases, especially in countries where measles is primarily imported.
  • In response to a suspected measles case on an aircraft, Spanish public health authorities and airlines quickly coordinated efforts for rapid contact tracing.
  • The prompt administration of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) and proper information helped prevent further transmission, contributing to the continued elimination of measles in Spain.
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Introduction: Microbiome-based clinical applications that improve diagnosis related to oral health are of great interest to precision dentistry. Predictive studies on the salivary microbiome are scarce and of low methodological quality (low sample sizes, lack of biological heterogeneity, and absence of a validation process). None of them evaluates the impact of confounding factors as batch effects (BEs).

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Background: Studying transmission within the home is essential to understand the transmission dynamics of numerous infectious diseases. For Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19), transmission within the home constitutes the majority exposure context. The risk of infection in this setting can be quantified by the household/intra-family secondary attack rate (SAR).

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Article Synopsis
  • Over 79,000 confirmed cases of mpox were reported globally from May to November 2022, primarily affecting men who have sex with men.
  • Cases in women are uncommon and may present different health risks.
  • The study identified time trends in cases, highlighting variations in diagnosis delays, transmission routes, and symptoms between men and women.
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Introduction: The state of alarm was declared in Spain due to the COVID-19 epidemic on March 14, 2020, and established population confinement measures. The objective is to describe the process of lifting these mitigation measures.

Methods: The Plan for the Transition to a New Normality, approved on April 28, contained four sequential phases with progressive increase in socio-economic activities and population mobility.

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Introduction: The state of alarm was declared in Spain due to the COVID-19 epidemic on March 14, 2020, and established population confinement measures. The objective is to describe the process of lifting these mitigation measures.

Methods: The Plan for the Transition to a New Normality, approved on April 28, contained four sequential phases with progressive increase in socio-economic activities and population mobility.

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During June 2022, Spain was one of the countries most affected worldwide by a multicountry monkeypox outbreak with chains of transmission without identified links to disease-endemic countries. We provide epidemiologic features of cases reported in Spain and the coordinated measures taken to respond to this outbreak.

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In this article we provide the most important epidemiological aspects in the first phases of the pandemic and some preliminary reflections from the Coordinating Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies, the unit that has coordinated surveillance at the national level. COVID-19 has brought to light the weaknesses in the surveillance system and how difficult it is to manage a health crisis in the absence of a robust public health structure. The commitment of public health professionals during this epidemic has made up for the lack of resources in many occasions, and has evidenced the need to incorporate new professional profiles to surveillance teams.

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The monthly retrospective search for unreported acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) cases conducted as a complementary component of the Spanish AFP surveillance system identified a case of AFP in a child admitted in Spain from Senegal during August 2021. Vaccine-derived poliovirus 2 was identified in the stool in September 2021. We present public health implications and response undertaken within the framework of the National Action Plan for Polio Eradication and the Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

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COVID-19 outbreak surveillance in Spain was established with the main objective of characterizing outbreaks and the settings in which they occurred, in order to identify those population groups at highest risk to support them with the implementation of preventive and control measures. Between June 2020 and June 2021, 55,824 outbreaks were reported, with 414,882 cases in all settings. About 12.

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Article Synopsis
  • Spain declared a state of alarm on March 14, 2020, due to COVID-19, implementing confinement measures and later launching a phased plan to lift them, beginning May 4, 2020.
  • The transition involved a careful strategy for monitoring and controlling the virus, with decision-making shared between the national government and regional authorities, using specific indicators to assess the situation.
  • By June 21, 2020, significant improvements were made, including a decrease in infection rates, increased testing capacity, and better contact tracing, highlighting the importance of data and communication in managing the public health response.
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Cases of West Nile neuroinvasive disease (WNND) in Spain increased in summer 2020. Here we report on this increase and the local, regional and national public health measures taken in response. We analysed data from regional surveillance networks and the National Epidemiological Surveillance Network, both for human and animal West Nile virus (WNV) infection.

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While Digital contact tracing (DCT) has been argued to be a valuable complement to manual tracing in the containment of COVID-19, no empirical evidence of its effectiveness is available to date. Here, we report the results of a 4-week population-based controlled experiment that took place in La Gomera (Canary Islands, Spain) between June and July 2020, where we assessed the epidemiological impact of the Spanish DCT app Radar Covid. After a substantial communication campaign, we estimate that at least 33% of the population adopted the technology and further showed relatively high adherence and compliance as well as a quick turnaround time.

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By mid-2015, an increase in the number of cases of microcephaly among newborns and neurologic disorders was detected in the Northwest of Brazil, which was possibly associated with Zika virus infection. Later on, this phenomenon was also observed in several Latin-American countries. In February 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) on this basis, declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

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Dengue has become a major public health problem worldwide. Ae. albopictus, vector responsible for transmission, was first detected in Catalonia in 2004.

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Emergence and re-emergence of arboviral disease in new areas of southern Europe is becoming a public health problem. Since Aedes albopictus was first detected in 2004 in Catalonia, it has spread along the Spanish Mediterranean coast. Results of an entomological surveillance carried out by the Spanish Ministry of Health to monitor the expansion of Ae.

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In Spain, leishmaniasis is an endemic zoonosis present in most of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. The parasite detected is Leishmania infantum and the main reservoir is the dog. Competent vectors to transmit the parasite are sandflies, of which there are two species distributed throughout the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands.

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Background: Varicella virus can cause two different diseases: chickenpox and herpes zoster. In 2005 varicella vaccine has been introduced in the Spanish national vaccination schedule for 10-14 years old non-immune people, in order to reduce the severity of the disease. In 2007 a new surveillance protocol with aggregate data for chickenpox and herpes zoster was approved in order to detect any change in age distribution, severity and complications of the chickenpox and herpes zoster cases.

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