Considerations for social networks and health data sharing: An overview.

The use of network analysis as a tool has increased exponentially as more clinical researchers see the benefits of network data for modeling of infectious disease transmission or translational activities in a variety of areas, including patient-caregiving teams, provider networks, patient-support networks, and adoption of health behaviors or treatments, to name a few. Yet, relational data such as network data carry a higher risk of deductive disclosure. Cases of reidentification have occurred and this is expected to become more common as computational ability increases.

A New Paradigm for Pandemic Preparedness.

Purpose Of Review: Preparing for pandemics requires a degree of interdisciplinary work that is challenging under the current paradigm. This review summarizes the challenges faced by the field of pandemic science and proposes how to address them.

Recent Findings: The structure of current siloed systems of research organizations hinders effective interdisciplinary pandemic research.

Homophily and social mixing in a small community: Implications for infectious disease transmission.

Community mixing patterns by sociodemographic traits can inform the risk of epidemic spread among groups, and the balance of in- and out-group mixing affects epidemic potential. Understanding mixing patterns can provide insight about potential transmission pathways throughout a community. We used a snowball sampling design to enroll people recently diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 in an ethnically and racially diverse county and asked them to describe their close contacts and recruit some contacts to enroll in the study.

Scalable Strategies to Increase Efficiency and Augment Public Health Activities During Epidemic Peaks.

Objective: Scalable strategies to reduce the time burden and increase contact tracing efficiency are crucial during early waves and peaks of infectious transmission.

Design: We enrolled a cohort of SARS-CoV-2-positive seed cases into a peer recruitment study testing social network methodology and a novel electronic platform to increase contact tracing efficiency.

Setting: Index cases were recruited from an academic medical center and requested to recruit their local social contacts for enrollment and SARS-CoV-2 testing.

A method for intelligent allocation of diagnostic testing by leveraging data from commercial wearable devices: a case study on COVID-19.

Mass surveillance testing can help control outbreaks of infectious diseases such as COVID-19. However, diagnostic test shortages are prevalent globally and continue to occur in the US with the onset of new COVID-19 variants and emerging diseases like monkeypox, demonstrating an unprecedented need for improving our current methods for mass surveillance testing. By targeting surveillance testing toward individuals who are most likely to be infected and, thus, increasing the testing positivity rate (i.

Visualizing COVID Restrictions: Activity Patterns Before, During, and After COVID-19 Lockdowns in Uttar Pradesh, India.

Globally, restrictions implemented to limit the spread of COVID-19 have highlighted deeply rooted social divisions, raising concerns about differential impacts on members of different groups. Inequalities among households of different castes are ubiquitous in certain regions of India. Drawing on a novel data set of 8,564 households in Uttar Pradesh, the authors use radar plots to examine differences between castes in rates of activity for several typical behaviors before, during, and upon lifting strict lockdown restrictions.

Lost and found: applying network analysis to public health contact tracing for HIV.

Infectious disease surveillance is often case-based, focused on people diagnosed and their contacts in a predefined time window, and treated as independent across infections. Network analysis of partners and contacts joining multiple investigations and infections can reveal social or temporal trends, providing opportunities for epidemic control within broader networks. We constructed a sociosexual network of all HIV and early syphilis cases and contacts investigated among residents of 11 contiguous counties in North Carolina over a two-year period (2012-2013).

Community Effectiveness of Masks and Vaccines.

Recent controversies about wearing masks and getting vaccinated to slow the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 highlight the potential for individual rights and decision making to create widespread community-level outcomes. There is little work demonstrating the collective spillover effects of pandemic mitigation efforts. The authors contribute by visualizing the proportion of unvaccinated people who would become infected at different combinations of mask wearing and vaccination in a hypothetical community.

Factors Associated With Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infections Linked in Genetic Clusters But Disconnected in Partner Tracing.

Background: Successful partner notification can improve community-level outcomes by increasing the proportion of persons living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) who are linked to HIV care and virally suppressed, but it is resource intensive. Understanding where HIV transmission pathways may be undetected by routine partner notification may help improve case finding strategies.

Methods: We combined partner notification interview and HIV sequence data for persons diagnosed with HIV in Wake County, NC in 2012 to 2013 to evaluate partner contact networks among persons with HIV pol gene sequences 2% or less pairwise genetic distance.

Randomized Controlled Pilot Study of Antiretrovirals and a Behavioral Intervention for Persons With Acute HIV Infection: Opportunity for Interrupting Transmission.

Background: Persons with acute HIV infection (AHI) have heightened transmission risk. We evaluated potential transmission reduction using behavioral and biomedical interventions in a randomized controlled pilot study in Malawi.

Methods: Persons were randomized 1:2:2 to standard counseling (SC), 5-session behavioral intervention (BI), or behavioral intervention plus 12 weeks of antiretrovirals (ARVs; BIA).

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-1 Transmission Among Persons With Acute HIV-1 Infection in Malawi: Demographic, Behavioral, and Phylogenetic Relationships.

Background: Understanding sexual networks involving acute human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 infections (AHI) may lead to prevention opportunities to mitigate high rates of onward transmission. We evaluated HIV-1 phylogenetic and behavioral characteristics among persons with AHI and their referred partners.

Methods: Between 2012 and 2014, 46 persons with AHI in Malawi participated in a combined behavioral and biomedical intervention.

Prediction of HIV Transmission Cluster Growth With Statewide Surveillance Data.

Background: Prediction of HIV transmission cluster growth may help guide public health action. We developed a predictive model for cluster growth in North Carolina (NC) using routine HIV surveillance data.

Methods: We identified putative transmission clusters with ≥2 members through pairwise genetic distances ≤1.

Leveraging Phylogenetics to Understand HIV Transmission and Partner Notification Networks.

Background: Partner notification is an important component of public health test and treat interventions. To enhance this essential function, we assessed the potential for molecular methods to supplement routine partner notification and corroborate HIV networks.

Methods: All persons diagnosed with HIV infection in Wake County, NC, during 2012-2013 and their disclosed sexual partners were included in a sexual network.

Sustained Sexual Behavior Change After Acute HIV Diagnosis in Malawi.

Background: Identification of acute HIV infection (AHI) allows for important opportunities for HIV prevention through behavior change and biomedical intervention. Here, we evaluate changes in sexual risk behaviors among persons with AHI enrolled in a combined behavioral and biomedical intervention designed to reduce onward transmission of HIV.

Methods: Participants were randomized to standard HIV counseling, a multisession behavioral intervention, or a multisession behavioral intervention plus antiretrovirals.

Integration of Contact Tracing and Phylogenetics in an Investigation of Acute HIV Infection.

Background: The integration of traditional contact tracing with HIV sequence analyses offers opportunities to mitigate some of the barriers to effective network construction. We used combined analyses during an outbreak investigation of spatiotemporally clustered acute HIV infections to evaluate if the observed clustering was the product of a single outbreak.

Methods: We investigated acute and recent HIV index cases reported in North Carolina from 2013 to 2014 and their reported contacts.

United Airway Disease Among Crop Farmers.

Although there are observed relationships between agriculture and respiratory health problems, little attention has been given to relationship between lower and upper airway problems among farmers in the United States. The objective was to investigate the possible relationship between occupational risk factors and "united airway disease" among farmers in eastern North Carolina. Farmers and farm workers were selected from eastern North Carolina by using a cluster sampling method.