Bridging the health security divide: department of defense support for the global health security agenda.

In 2011, President Obama addressed the United Nations General Assembly and urged the global community to come together to prevent, detect, and fight every kind of biological danger, whether a pandemic, terrorist threat, or treatable disease. Over the past decade, the United States and key international partners have addressed these dangers through a variety of programs and strategies aimed at developing and enhancing countries' capacity to rapidly detect, assess, report, and respond to acute biological threats. Despite our collective efforts, however, an increasingly interconnected world presents heightened opportunities for human, animal, and zoonotic diseases to emerge and spread globally.

Chlamydia trachomatis infection and associated risk factors in a low-income marginalized urban population in coastal Peru.

Objectives: To estimate Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) infection prevalence and associated risk factors among a low-income marginalized urban population in Peru.

Methods: Between April 2003 and April 2005, men and women at high-risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) were recruited from low-income urban areas in three coastal cities in Peru (Chiclayo, Lima, and Trujillo). Consenting participants were studied using a sero-epidemiologic survey.

Syndromic management and STI control in urban Peru.

Background: Syndromic management is an inexpensive and effective method for the treatment of symptomatic sexually transmitted infections (STIs), but its effectiveness as a method of STI control in at-risk populations is questionable. We sought to determine the potential utility of syndromic management as a public health strategy to control STI transmission in high-risk populations in urban Peru.

Methodology: We surveyed 3,285 at-risk men and women from three Peruvian cities from 2003-05.

New populations at high risk of HIV/STIs in low-income, urban coastal Peru.

The HIV epidemic in Peru is concentrated primarily among men who have sex with men. HIV interventions have focused exclusively on a narrowly defined group of MSM and FSW to the exclusion of other populations potentially at increased risk. Interventions targeting MSM and FSW are insufficient and there is evidence that focusing prevention efforts solely on these populations may ignore others that do not fall directly into these categories.

Prevalence of same-sex sexual behavior and associated characteristics among low-income urban males in Peru.

Background: Peru has a concentrated HIV epidemic in which men who have sex with men are particularly vulnerable. We describe the lifetime prevalence of same-sex sexual contact and associated risk behaviors of men in Peru's general population, regardless of their sexual identity.

Methods And Results: A probability sample of males from low-income households in three Peruvian cities completed an epidemiologic survey addressing their sexual risk behavior, including sex with other men.

Outbreak of gastroenteritis at a Peruvian naval base.

In April of 2003, an outbreak of gastroenteritis was reported in a training command (Centro de Instrucción Técnica y Entrenamiento Naval (CITEN)) at a Peruvian naval base located near Lima, Peru. The Naval Medical Research Center Detachment, in collaboration with the National Peruvian Naval Hospital, conducted an investigation to determine the causative agent and potential source of the outbreak. Between April 3 and 5, 172 (16%) of 1,092 military trainees reported to the CITEN clinic with diarrhea.

Syphilis treatment and HIV infection in a population-based study of persons at high risk for sexually transmitted disease/HIV infection in Lima, Peru.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to characterize syphilis epidemiology and the relationship of HIV status and initial rapid plasma reagin (RPR) titer to syphilis treatment in Lima, Peru.

Study Design: We screened 1,261 individuals at high risk for sexually transmitted diseases for syphilis and HIV infection. Syphilis was treated with penicillin injection or doxycycline; treatment was repeated in unresponsive cases.

The New World primate, Aotus nancymae, as a model for examining the immunogenicity of a prototype enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli subunit vaccine.

The colonization factors (CF) of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) are being targeted for inclusion in a multi-subunit ETEC vaccine. This study was designed to examine the preclinical safety and immunogenicity of CF CS6, encapsulated in a biodegradable poly(DL-lactide-co-glycolide) (meCS6), and administered in the presence or absence of a mutated heat-labile enterotoxin, LT(R192G), in the non-human primate, Aotus nancymae. A.

The epidemiology of herpes simplex virus type 2 infection in low-income urban populations in coastal Peru.

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the epidemiology of herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) in general and socially marginalized populations of low-income, urban, coastal Peru.

Study: Two low-income populations were administered an epidemiologic survey and serologic tests, determining risk behavior, HSV-2, and HIV prevalence.

Results: In the socially marginalized population, HSV-2 prevalence was 72.

Short report: High incidence of shigellosis among Peruvian soldiers deployed in the Amazon River basin.

We investigated the etiology of acute diarrhea among Peruvian military recruits undergoing three months of basic combat training near the Amazonian city of Iquitos. From January through September 2002, 307 of 967 recruits were seen at the Health Post for diarrhea (attack rate [AR] = 31.8%, incidence = 1.