One Health collaboration with and among EU Agencies - Bridging research and policy.

In the coming decade, Europe will dedicate billions of euros to the necessary research and innovation (R&I) to support a transition to safe and sustainable food systems. EU Agencies, individually and even more so collectively, can make a difference in supporting the European research agenda. EU Agencies are knowledge centres, bringing together know-how to inform policy makers.

Advancing biological hazards risk assessment.

This paper focusses on biological hazards at the global level and considers the challenges to risk assessment (RA) from a One Health perspective. Two topics - vector-borne diseases (VBD) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) - are used to illustrate the challenges ahead and to explore the opportunities that new methodologies such as next-generation sequencing can offer. Globalisation brings complexity and introduces drivers for infectious diseases.

Syndromic surveillance: two decades experience of sustainable systems - its people not just data!

Syndromic surveillance is a form of surveillance that generates information for public health action by collecting, analysing and interpreting routine health-related data on symptoms and clinical signs reported by patients and clinicians rather than being based on microbiologically or clinically confirmed cases. In England, a suite of national real-time syndromic surveillance systems (SSS) have been developed over the last 20 years, utilising data from a variety of health care settings (a telehealth triage system, general practice and emergency departments). The real-time systems in England have been used for early detection (e.

Eligibility for shorter treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the European Union.

http://ow.ly/kukg306AcFl

An Observational Study Using English Syndromic Surveillance Data Collected During the 2012 London Olympics - What did Syndromic Surveillance Show and What Can We Learn for Future Mass-gathering Events?

Unlabelled: Introduction In preparation for the London 2012 Olympic Games, existing syndromic surveillance systems operating in England were expanded to include daily general practitioner (GP) out-of-hours (OOH) contacts and emergency department (ED) attendances at sentinel sites (the GP OOH and ED syndromic surveillance systems: GPOOHS and EDSSS). Hypothesis/Problem The further development of syndromic surveillance systems in time for the London 2012 Olympic Games provided a unique opportunity to investigate the impact of a large mass-gathering event on public health and health services as monitored in near real-time by syndromic surveillance of GP OOH contacts and ED attendances. This can, in turn, aid the planning of future events.

Novel public health risk assessment process developed to support syndromic surveillance for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Background: Syndromic surveillance aims to provide early warning and real time estimates of the extent of incidents; and reassurance about lack of impact of mass gatherings. We describe a novel public health risk assessment process to ensure those leading the response to the 2012 Olympic Games were alerted to unusual activity that was of potential public health importance, and not inundated with multiple statistical 'alarms'.

Methods: Statistical alarms were assessed to identify those which needed to result in 'alerts' as reliably as possible.

Drivers for emerging issues in animal and plant health.

The history of agriculture includes many animal and plant disease events that have had major consequences for the sector, as well as for humans. At the same time, human activities beyond agriculture have often driven the emergence of diseases. The more that humans expand the footprint of the global population, encroach into natural habitats, alter these habitats to extract resources and intensify food production, as well as move animals, people and commodities along with the pathogens they carry, the greater the potential for pathogens and pests to spread and for infection to emerge or re-emerge.

Assessing the use of hospital staff influenza-like absence (ILA) for enhancing hospital preparedness and national surveillance.

Background: Early warning and robust estimation of influenza burden are critical to inform hospital preparedness and operational, treatment, and vaccination policies. Methods to enhance influenza-like illness (ILI) surveillance are regularly reviewed. We investigated the use of hospital staff 'influenza-like absences' (hospital staff-ILA), i.

Using real-time syndromic surveillance to assess the health impact of the 2013 heatwave in England.

Heatwaves are a seasonal threat to public health. During July 2013 England experienced a heatwave; we used a suite of syndromic surveillance systems to monitor the impact of the heatwave. Significant increases in heatstroke and sunstroke were observed during 7-10 July 2013.

Using an Emergency Department Syndromic Surveillance System to investigate the impact of extreme cold weather events.

This report describes the development of novel syndromic cold weather public health surveillance indicators for use in monitoring the impact of extreme cold weather on attendances at EDs, using data from the 2010-11 and 2011-12 winters. A number of new surveillance indicators were created specifically for the identification and monitoring of cold weather related ED attendances, using the diagnosis codes provided for each attendance in the Emergency Department Syndromic Surveillance System (EDSSS), the first national syndromic surveillance system of its kind in the UK. Using daily weather data for the local area, a time series analysis to test the sensitivity of each indicator to cold weather was undertaken.

London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games: public health surveillance and epidemiology.

Mass gatherings are regarded as potential risks for transmission of infectious diseases, and might compromise the health system of countries in which they are hosted. The evidence for increased transmission of infectious diseases at international sporting mass gatherings that attract many visitors from all over the world is not clear, and the evidence base for public health surveillance, epidemiology, and response at events such as the Olympics is small. However, infectious diseases are a recognised risk, and public health planning is, and should remain, a crucial part of the overall planning of sporting events.

The impact of thunderstorm asthma on emergency department attendances across London during July 2013.

Background: This study illustrates the potential of using emergency department attendance data, routinely accessed as part of a national syndromic surveillance system, to monitor the impact of thunderstorm asthma.

Methods: The Emergency Department Syndromic Surveillance System (EDSSS) routinely monitors anonymised attendance data on a daily basis across a sentinel network of 35 emergency departments. Attendance data for asthma, wheeze and difficulty breathing are analysed on a daily basis.

Retention of knowledge and perceived relevance of basic sciences in an integrated case-based learning (CBL) curriculum.

Background: Knowledge and understanding of basic biomedical sciences remain essential to medical practice, particularly when faced with the continual advancement of diagnostic and therapeutic modalities. Evidence suggests, however, that retention tends to atrophy across the span of an average medical course and into the early postgraduate years, as preoccupation with clinical medicine predominates. We postulated that perceived relevance demonstrated through applicability to clinical situations may assist in retention of basic science knowledge.

Using public health scenarios to predict the utility of a national syndromic surveillance programme during the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games.

During 2012 real-time syndromic surveillance formed a key part of the daily public health surveillance for the London Olympic and Paralympic Games. It was vital that these systems were evaluated prior to the Games; in particular what types and scales of incidents could and could not be detected. Different public health scenarios were created covering a range of potential incidents that the Health Protection Agency would require syndromic surveillance to rapidly detect and monitor.

Evaluation of a national microbiological surveillance system to inform automated outbreak detection.

Objectives: Evaluate data available from a national voluntary reporting system and describe the data processing necessary to enable the development and application of outbreak detection methods in healthcare settings.

Methods: Evaluation was performed on an extract of data reported between March 2007 and May 2012. Reporting delays were calculated and analysed at the trust, regional and national levels.

Development of a decision framework for establishing a health register following a major incident.

Introduction: Health registers have been established in the United Kingdom (UK) and elsewhere following mass exposure to novel agents or known agents, but there is no consensus on the criteria for establishing such registers.

Objective: This study aimed to develop a decision framework to assess the need for establishing a health register for major chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) incidents.

Methods: The study comprised three stages.

The United Kingdom public health response to an imported laboratory confirmed case of a novel coronavirus in September 2012.

On 22 September 2012, a novel coronavirus, very closely related to that from a fatal case in Saudi Arabia three months previously, was detected in a previously well adult transferred to intensive care in London from Qatar with severe respiratory illness. Strict respiratory isolation was instituted. Ten days after last exposure, none of 64 close contacts had developed severe disease, with 13 of 64 reporting mild respiratory symptoms.

Novel coronavirus associated with severe respiratory disease: case definition and public health measures.

Two cases of rapidly progressive acute respiratory infection in adults associated with a novel coronavirus have generated an international public health response. The two infections were acquired three months apart, probably in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. An interim case definition has been elaborated and was published on the World Health Organization website on 25 September 2012.